Just got a nasty surprise... my loans from 30+ years ago. Dept of Ed. claims they are in default but they were supposed to have been paid DECADES ago. The "amount owed" is now TRIPLE the original principal because of accrued interest. I don't think I have the means to prove they are wrong. HELP!!

I am literally shaking right now.

53M, graduated college in 1991 at the age of 20. I was an irresponsible SOB back then and my loans did get sent to collection agents, but I made a couple/few thousand dollars in payments.

However, in 1993-4, I began a full-time teaching career in urban public schools in the SF Bay Area, under a program that paid off a certain percentage of student loans each year (I think it was 25%). I taught in urban public schools there for about 12 years before coming to NY state and continuing my teaching career.

I have not been contacted about these loans at any of my various addresses or phone numbers since the early 90s. They have never appeared on a credit report. I have never received a collections notice. I do NOT remember the name of the Plan, nor do I think I have any 30+ year old documentation, as conventional wisdom suggests one does not need paperwork from that far back.

Anyhoo... I was doing my daughter's FAFSA form just today, and I logged in to the website... it brought up MY loans from 1987-1990, AND said I owed $35K, and that I was in DEFAULT. (Of that $35K, only about $11.6K is principal. This is 8% interest for three decades.) This is the first I've even THOUGHT about these loans since my first full-time teaching job in the Bay Area in 1993-4. I have no idea what to do.

The website says my "loans" are being "serviced" by "DEBT MANAGEMENT AND COLLECTIONS SYSTEM." I called them, but they would not help me because I would not give them the account information, because I did not want to mistakenly say something in a fit of emotional pique on a recorded line that MIGHT be interpreted as acknowledging the validity of the account(s). They said they want to "help," but yeah, no...

What do I do? I have EXCELLENT credit (750-800). A daughter in college (and I just took out a home equity loan, FFS). I still teach public school. This is a body blow, and I don't think I can conclusively prove that I'm right... half a dozen moves, more than half a dozen jobs, and three decades later, and any real "evidence" is almost certainly gone.

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Oh, here's the REALLY weird part. Apparently they want into default in 1996 (DU status = "defaulted, unresolved"). You would think I would have gotten a notification? A credit report hit? A letter? A phone call? Nope. But I was three years into my first urban placement in the Oakland, CA area, so 75% of my loans should have been forgiven/paid/waived (whatever the term is).

But then, according the dashboard on the loan website, in late 2022 (!!!) it got switched to DX status ("defaulted, satisfactory arrangements, and six consecutive payments"). How is that even possible? I haven't talked about these loans in 30+ years, and I certainly did not make any payments in 2022 on loans I didn't even know the government thought still existed.

This is all just wrong, and fishy to boot.