Q: Questions about recourse for paying for a Financial Aid Refund I never received.
I recently found out that I have been repaying $13,942 worth of financial aid refunds that I never requested nor received. This was for the 2010/2011 school year. Since I was repaying other student loans, and was on an income based repayment plan, I did not realize that these were included. I spoke with the university. They contacted Sallie Mae (the lender at the time). I was told no uncashed refund checks were returned to them and since Sallie Mae went through a series of mergers they cannot recover any records from the 2010-2011 time frame. Therefore, I am stuck paying for a refund that I did not receive. I'm sure when all is said and done, I will have repaid around $25,000 for money I never received. (I was told this was during a time frame where you had to opt out of receiving excess funds, not opt in, which I certainly would have done.) The university says they are unable to pull up my opting out records due to the time that has passed. Do I have any recourse?
A: You should consider contacting an attorney to draft a demand letter for you. If that fails a lawsuit will force them to produce proof of the debt if they are unable you will not be required to pay the debt.
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