I'm in Colorado, and all this happened in Colorado. I'll try to keep this short, but my situation is complicated:
I've periodically received collection notices over the last several years which I've ignored because my income is zero. I'm unemployed, have been for a while, and have no prospects on the horizon. It's been made aware to me that my lack of a college degree is closing a lot of doors for me employment-wise, so in the last six months I have begun the process of applying to go back to school to finish my undergrad degree. But for my application to even be considered, I need my college transcripts from the two years of classes I took right after high school. Upon my requesting the transcripts, the school informed me that there was a financial hold preventing my transcripts from being sent out. I asked what the debt was, and they referred me to Central Collection Services. I looked up the debt online, after digging through some paperwork and finding my account number, and it is far out of my ability to pay (about $2384). It's also a very old debt, as far as I can tell, if it does indeed go back to my original time at that school, at least 15 years ago. I'm not even sure exactly what the debt is for, though it is close to the amount of a semester's tuition at the time. I vaguely remember attending some classes in the fall of 1999, but it was during a very difficult personal time. I never finished any of those classes, and my memories of the time are fuzzy.
It's my understanding that, with such an old debt, most collection services won't be very active in pursuing the debt, especially since, according to the records, all I have ever paid on it is $6 so my inability to resolve the debt is pretty obvious. I would probably continue to ignore it, and indeed, the most recent request for payment I've received is from last October. The problem is, I can't get hold of my transcripts without this financial hold being removed. I'm unsure what to do next. I don't want to draw attention to myself with Central Collection Services because I don't want to trigger aggressive pursuit that would be fruitless anyway since I have no ability to pay. Do I need to deal with the school itself? They were pretty quick to pass me off to the collection agency and gave very little information, so I wonder if I need to talk to them about my situation.
Any advice would be greatly appreciated.
I've periodically received collection notices over the last several years which I've ignored because my income is zero. I'm unemployed, have been for a while, and have no prospects on the horizon. It's been made aware to me that my lack of a college degree is closing a lot of doors for me employment-wise, so in the last six months I have begun the process of applying to go back to school to finish my undergrad degree. But for my application to even be considered, I need my college transcripts from the two years of classes I took right after high school. Upon my requesting the transcripts, the school informed me that there was a financial hold preventing my transcripts from being sent out. I asked what the debt was, and they referred me to Central Collection Services. I looked up the debt online, after digging through some paperwork and finding my account number, and it is far out of my ability to pay (about $2384). It's also a very old debt, as far as I can tell, if it does indeed go back to my original time at that school, at least 15 years ago. I'm not even sure exactly what the debt is for, though it is close to the amount of a semester's tuition at the time. I vaguely remember attending some classes in the fall of 1999, but it was during a very difficult personal time. I never finished any of those classes, and my memories of the time are fuzzy.
It's my understanding that, with such an old debt, most collection services won't be very active in pursuing the debt, especially since, according to the records, all I have ever paid on it is $6 so my inability to resolve the debt is pretty obvious. I would probably continue to ignore it, and indeed, the most recent request for payment I've received is from last October. The problem is, I can't get hold of my transcripts without this financial hold being removed. I'm unsure what to do next. I don't want to draw attention to myself with Central Collection Services because I don't want to trigger aggressive pursuit that would be fruitless anyway since I have no ability to pay. Do I need to deal with the school itself? They were pretty quick to pass me off to the collection agency and gave very little information, so I wonder if I need to talk to them about my situation.
Any advice would be greatly appreciated.