Student Loan Problems

[curios789]

What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? Wisconsin/Illinois

So, here's the situation. I went to a school, or rather an corporation, for a certain program. While I was in this program, I managed to rack up about $50,000 in student loans. With the recent credit crunch, I was not able to get a loan to continue for the next quarter. Hence, I left the school, and started to pay back the loans, with the intent of going back to the program later. However, recently I have found out that said school has CUT said program. Other students have tried to transfer the credits to different schools and have had no success. I now have $50,000 of worthless credits. They only transfer to other schools within the corporation's control. On top of this, upon enrollment, the admissions department told me otherwise. They claimed that, being an accredited school, the credits would transfer to any school. They also made many other false claims about programs and services that the school offered. I am now stuck back living with my parents, working 40 hours a week at Starbucks just to keep up with the ridiculous amount of debt I am in.

My question is...do I have a case against the school? Is there any way that I could get my money back? I'm not asking for more, but if I can get more, that would be great. What do you think? Could I hold a case in court? Is it even worth seeing an attorney? Thank you in advance for any advice.

[GaAtty]

This is not a new situation. It seems that these kinds of schools are present everywhere. If you can prove that the school assured you that the credits were transferable everywhere then that would be good. However, usually the school representatives say that but they won't put it in writing. If your state has an unfair business practices law (and most states do), then this kind of thing probably would come under that. In that case, you can do a civil lawsuit against the school based on fraud and/or misrepresentation and/or violation of the fair business practices act. However, if you can't find anything in writing from the school regarding the transferability of the credits, then you may have a proof problem. You might need to try and contact other students who were there and see what their experience was. Also, if your student loan was a federal student loan, you should contact whomever your loan is through and talk to the fraud department. You can also see if there is a method by which you can ask your student lender how you can appeal or dispute the paying back of the loan in such a situation. It is a lot of money and it is worth consulting an attorney. Find an attorney who does civil litigation and maybe particularly consumer law.