I would like the the US citizens, president, and the leaders of the Veterans Affairs know they screwed me and so many other service members with interest accruing debt. The "Post 9/11 GI Bill" is advertised as a benefit for military veterans that pays for all of college along with a cost of living allowance. At one point in time they offered a $3,000 advance payment that is supposed to go toward cost of living allowance/BAH as opposed to waiting for a monthly payment of $1,300. It is supposed to cover the 3 or 4 future months. Well this is actually a loan in disguise that they want you to pay back. About a year later they sent me a letter stating that I owe VA Debt Managment $3,000. I made a partial payment because money was tight and unemployed. They never gave me a due date/time period to pay it off and a VA representative told be no interest was accruing and to pay it off the best I can. Then I told them that I was moving and gave them a change of address to mail their letters. Naturally, being on a tight buget, and being told there is no particular time to pay it off and no interest accruing, I decided to make small payments over time. After I moved I never got any of their letters and it was impossible to speak to a debt management representative, only a busy tone. Today I found out they turned me into a collections agency, and ruined my excellent credit score, and the Department of Treasury added over $1,000 in penalties and fees. As a result, I can't refinance my home at a lower rate. Ultimately, this was not a benefit as they described, but a high interest loan in disguise that screwed over so many service member and added to their financial problems. One of the root causes of their problems, is their inefficiencies in their operations which is unacceptable to the tax payers out their. Their only form of communication is writing letter while there was no way to contact debt management by phone.
Click on, or copy and paste this link to your URL just to read all testimonies of the exact situation others have faced with the VA: http://www.facebook.com/topic.php? Uid=15408433177&topic=14214
Just type in the keyword "$3,000 debt owed to the VA" in a Google search and you can see thousands of more testimonies of this exact same issue from other Vet. All because of the VA's lack of communication.
Now you can see that this is not an isolated incident but widespread screwing over of vets for something they call a benefit. Today I paid off my debt in full on my credit card. Does anyone now how I can fix my credit score (thanks to the VA mass screw up). Having this flag on my credit affect us in so many ways.
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