Cancelled (forgiven) loans

[stellblu]

I have an odd problem, even for a student loan issue :P I have read and read and read, on as many boards as I could find, and have yet to see anyone having the same issue as me, but I hope *maybe* someone has, and it just hasn't been posted anywhere :)

My husband's original loans, from Citibank, dating back to 1997, were in the amounts of (subsidized) $2625 and (unsubsidized) $4000. They defaulted (yes, stupid, I know, but this was back in 1998) and were sent to USA Funds, the guarantor (now Sallie Mae). I consolidated them through US Dept. of Ed, and they've been current in repayment ever since.

Here's where it gets weird,tho (not counting the Sallie Mae duplicate reporting,lol...they do *try* to help and fix this stuff!). The amounts sent to Sallie Mae, and the amounts consolidated were (subsidized) $1313 and (unsubsidized) $2000. So, I got curious, and poked into the histories on nslds.ed.gov, and figured out why these amounts were so off. The *first* disbursals of the loans were in 12/97 for $1313 and $2000. The *second* disbursal ($1312 and $2000) was in 3/98...however, as my husband formally withdrew from school in 1/98, the money was refunded to the lender, and according to the FSA and Dept. of Ed., that portion was refunded and "cancelled". What I'm curious about is *how* Citibank can list the amounts of $2625 and $4000 as charge-offs, when 1/2 of that was repaid directly to them, and never used by my husband? He withdrew before the disbursal date, and the second loan was forgiven by the government!

I don't even know how to attack this issue. Citibank literally refuses to discuss this account at all, since it's been closed since 1999. I can (not happily) accept the charge-off, as even tho they got their money, it wasn't paid by us. But, I'm really upset about the wrong balances being reported, since now the charge-off amount, the Sallie Mae amounts, and the consolidated amounts don't match up. In the end, it looks like we had $6625 charged-off, and repaid a completely different loan for half that amount. Does this make any sense to anyone but me? :(

[sisflomi]

How do you get a loan "forgiven"?

[stellblu]

According to the Dept. of Ed., they cancelled it because the amount was disbursed after my husband withdrew from school. It was like paying for a service never received. The disbursal for the trimester was refunded back to the lender by the school.Far as I know, if you actually attend school, the only ways to get the govt. to cancel the loan are if the school closes, your signature was forged, or if the school certifies your loan even if you can't benefit or have the ability to complete the courses. I think there are a few other ways, pertaining to disabilites, teachers, etc., but this one was specifically cancelled due to *us* being owed a refund. Now, as far as I've been able to dig around in this, it means that the school failed to repay Citibank (even tho my husband had signed paperwork stating that he refused the funds and that they would be refunded to Citibank. We just got copies of his withdrawl paperwork). So, when it was sent to Sallie Mae, they discharged the amount of the second disbursals.

On my statements from US Dept. of Ed., and the student loan database website that brought this whole thing to my attention, it lists it in a seperate column as refunded to Citibank, and cancelled loan amount in 3/98. The account wasn't even sent to Sallie Mae until 4/2000. It's beyond confusing, unless you're sitting with all the files around you, matching up the time lines :(

I think the big problem is that it isn't notated on the Citibank accounts, cause if I had still owed it, it was all part of the same loan, and would have just been consolidated with the rest :( It's just making it impossible to get the numbers to match up, cause I can't consolidate the second half of the loan if I don't owe it! Yet, if I don't owe it, how can it be charged-off? I actually thought maybe it had been left out when I consolidated the others, and I called to see if it couldn't be added, and was told no other debt exsisted!