<prompt> Human: My wife settled about 25k in student loans for about 9000, and it was paid over 10 months installments. Her loans were bought and sold between several companies before she paid them off, and we recently received a letter about potential wage garnishment. She provided proof that all of the loans were paid in full, including all of the loan numbers, her credit report showing paid in full, and the congratulations letter. The company attempting to collect the debt Account Control Technologies, ACT says this information is not sufficient for the Dept of Education. Any advice? This is urgent as they are trying to collect 40k including interest and fees on 25k of loans that have been paid and we need to provide some kind of acceptable proof by the 2nd of October. Thank you!!!EDIT: thank you all for the responses, I posted this last night not long before going to bed so Im getting caught up. Yes, as far as I know these loans were in default for a long time which is how she was able to settle them for a lower amount. This was early on in our relationship, a few years ago. When we first got together her credit was pretty bad due to these defaults and Ive been helping her repair it. Well be calling a lawyer first thing today. I dont think there is any confusion between these loans and any others. We are currently paying on another set of loans through Nelnet that are in good standing. EDIT 2: since people are wondering: 16k of loan debt was forgiven, for which we received tax information and are paying the taxes on because it is considered income. This information dont recall the form number was also submitted. All of the info I mentioned was submitted to the Dept of Education to request a hearing, now this company ACT sent another letter saying this information is not enough to support our claims that the debts have been paid. EDIT 3: We called ACT this morning and got the run around from them, went back and forth and then called the Department of Education. They were able to give us a website to create a login so that we can at least see the debt that the Department still thinks she owes. We escalated to a supervisor who spent some time and then came back and independently verified that the four separate loans are all showing paid in full! She updated the Department of Education accounts and said she would forward that to ACT that has been trying to collect. This could take 30-60 days. Right now I am getting my organizations legal advice on how to proceed but this is a good first step. It is not the end but at least we had someone up the chain verify that these loans are paid. Thank you all so much for the advice and I hope to eventually post an update thread when some real resolution happens.Assistant: You sure you are not conflating her private and public loans? The government does not settle. Pull her info from studentloans.govHuman: Yeah I have about 23k but all sally mae. I cant negotiate down to 9k, then?Assistant: The government does settle, in that if you default theyll sell your loans to a collection agency and you can settle with that agency. I dont know about settling for only 40, but 70-80 definitely seemed possible when I was in default so it might just depend on your negotiation skills I didnt have 10, never mind 40-80, so I couldnt go that route.Human: She entered an agreement where she would pay just under 900 a month think it was 885 for 10 months. Any missed payments and the agreement would be voided and shed be back to where she was. She completed the 10 months of payments and they forgave the debt. This was early on in our relationship, I was proud of her for handling it as I knew that she was not in a great place with her loans and credit.  <response>: I did this program and they had to contact the collection company to stop harassing me. You might have to have that company send the collection agency a certified letter stating what transpired. 