students loans, collections

Hello, I’ve read through your (excellent) site and can’t seem to find an answer to my particular question; forgive me if I’ve overlooked it. Here are my questions:
1. STUDENT LOAN DEBACLE: I recently (before I was credit-cleanup-savvy and knew about negotiating a settlement) paid a collector called “Windham Professionals” over $20,000 to pay off my Stafford student loans in full, which had entered default status. These loans were originally with CALS, then assigned to the CT Student Loan Foundation to collect (I have no idea where “Windham professionals” came from.) The items are now duplicated on my report—the CALS item (original creditor) says “STATUS: Claim filed with government/past due 180 days” and “Recent Payment”: NA. sThere is a similar listing for Sallie Mae Servicing. When I called CALS, they explained that it was “NA” since I didn’t actually pay them, I paid the collection agency. Indeed, the CT Student Loan Foundation’s item lists “Paid, Closed/Collection Account.” A few questions here:
A. Is it legal for them to list both the original debt AND the assigned debt, and only list the one assigned debt as paid?B. Have I screwed myself by paying 20 grand for a measly “Paid Collection” status on ONE ITEM my CR? Now that I have no leverage, is it possible to negotiate that annotation to something more favorable? With whom (e.g. which company) and how would I do this?
C. Do I have any legal claim (even though I’ve already paid) that could improve the situation, since the company I eventually paid, Windham Professionals, shows up nowhere on the report? So confusing!
2. VARIOUS OTHER DEBTS: I have about $10k in various other debts. Most of them are from 2005 or before. I have cash on hand to settle for probably 25-30% of these old debts. I’m confused about whether to validate, dispute, or settle— or some combination of all— different sites and people say different things—you seem to come down on the side of settling if you can to be over and done with things. Which do you suggest and why for a person in my situation? Other scattered issues with these debts:
A. Does the “date of last activity” reset if you call/write to INQUIRE about a debt (e.g. communicate with the collection agency by phone or writing), or only when you PAY on it? In other words, am I damaging my chance to have the item simply fall off in 7 years by trying to settle?
B. Some sites/resources say never call a collection agency; you seem to have had success being straightforward and businesslike. Would you recommend I do begin by calling? C. I understand the basics of settlement but am unsure what the actual steps in “real time” are. Is the correct order of things?
1. Call and offer a settlement account in exchange for a deletion or “pays as agreed in good standing” listing.
2. If collection agency agrees, send them a signed contract to sign and send back to me 3. Wait for item to be deleted from all 3 CRs
4. Send check. (OR are 4 and 3 switched?) I hope this makes some sort of sense and thank you for reading this far. You’re providing an invaluable service to many overwhelmed people! Thanks! \
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you know
the thing for me is to pay and be done with anything that i signed up for
so if you paid something and all it does is show paid.
to me that is fine
now i can go on with my life now if you would like to play hard ball go to court go crazy go to yahoo groups
look for credit repair
and ask this questions there and see what they say
they have made me very angry and a lady called smurf is in my best estimation a totally unstable credit law person she will tell you all kinds of things that are hard to understand but probably have legal merit.
so if you want to sue some @ss
go there. but as for me and my house.
i believe in paying my bills and negotiating for help and if i don;t get it i pay anyway
because credit is a mindset.
it makes you think when you sign up for something.
hey this is really important and a major decision. but on the other debts and collections and redating.
yes that can happen but in the long run and keeping good active rated credit going your scores will leap in 1 to 2 years. if you are upset over no help and unsure about collections
ask the crazy lady. SMURF HANDY tell her bo told you to ask for her by name as she is crazy enough to sue over spilled milk.
and she has no checking account and no credit cards.one hard line super right or left wing credit freak of nature she will give you an earfull of what to do about your remaining debts
she probably would have helped you on that student loan.