La James School of Cosmetology

[SCyclone]

Wondering if anyone has had experience with La James - I know the Attorney General of Iowa investigated them recently and found them guilty of some pretty shady practices.

My daughter Hannah attended the campus in Fort Dodge. She is working on repaying $23,000 worth of loans to pay the tuition. They tried to tell her that she needed more credit hours to graduate (a favorite scam), but she had documented her hours and threatened to get a lawyer if they insisted. They backed off immediately.

Now she has received mailings from NelNet (sp?), who are claiming she owes them an additional $14,000 for loans while she was at La James. These are loans that La James told her she didn't qualify for when she enrolled. I am wondering if La James filed for the loans in her name, and kept the money.

Just wondering if any of you has had experience with anything like this, we are trying desperately to get her out from under all of it. She is currently working in a salon in Washington, and makes OK money, but these loan payments will sink her if it turns out to be valid.

 

[Cyclones_R_GR8]

I would imagine they would have to come up with some sort of paper trail in order to prove their claim that she owes that additional money. Has she requested any evidence they claim to have to support that these loans exist?

 

[SCyclone]

I would imagine they would have to come up with some sort of paper trail in order to prove their claim that she owes that additional money. Has she requested any evidence they claim to have to support that these loans exist?

I know she has been talking with the folks at NelNet about it, because this has taken her, and us, completely by surprise. I would think she would have had to signed something in the first place to borrow money.....La James can't just file for loans for students on their own. At least I wouldn't think so.

 

[Gonzo]

First thing I'd do is contact the state attorney general's office and if necessary file a formal complaint.

AG Miller has been actively involved with trying to get the feds to do more to protect consumers from predatory for-profit school loan practices, he joined a bunch of other states in suing the feds for not doing enough. So this seems like a priority issue, hopefully this would be a good first step to get some relief and answers.

 

[Cyclones_R_GR8]

I know she has been talking with the folks at NelNet about it, because this has taken her, and us, completely by surprise. I would think she would have had to signed something in the first place to borrow money.....La James can't just file for loans for students on their own. At least I wouldn't think so.

That's what I'm thinking. They need to produce a signed loan agreement.

 

[ISU85]

You can ask them for documentation of the loan disbursement. If they say you borrowed $14,000, they need to show where they sent the $14,000 in the first place.

 

[wxman1]

I would also check my credit reports to see if anything shows up on there.

 

[CloneGuy8]

Sign up for credit karma to see if the loans appear on there.

 

[AgronAlum]

Wondering if anyone has had experience with La James - I know the Attorney General of Iowa investigated them recently and found them guilty of some pretty shady practices.

My daughter Hannah attended the campus in Fort Dodge. She is working on repaying $23,000 worth of loans to pay the tuition. They tried to tell her that she needed more credit hours to graduate (a favorite scam), but she had documented her hours and threatened to get a lawyer if they insisted. They backed off immediately.

Now she has received mailings from NelNet (sp?), who are claiming she owes them an additional $14,000 for loans while she was at La James. These are loans that La James told her she didn't qualify for when she enrolled. I am wondering if La James filed for the loans in her name, and kept the money.

Just wondering if any of you has had experience with anything like this, we are trying desperately to get her out from under all of it. She is currently working in a salon in Washington, and makes OK money, but these loan payments will sink her if it turns out to be valid.

Your two major points in here were both covered in the lawsuit against them. They got in trouble for student hours and withholding loan money that wasn’t theirs to keep. They were ordered to forgive $2MM in student loans and paid over 500,000 in fines.

I would fight this and do your research before agreeing to pay a single dollar. My wife worked at multiple schools in the area (not La James) and it was too much ******** for her to handle and got out of the industry completely. It’s a big ass scam on the education side.

 

[Mtowncyclone13]

La James CEO is Trump's new business ethics coordinator.