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I graduated from a community college in Alabama 10 years ago on scholarship.

I receive a call from an attorney a few months ago regarding unpaid tuition/fees from this particular college.He is extremely rude and demanding.

I call the college out of confusion and they can no longer help me since it has already been sent to collections.The lady simply said that she was hired to go back and find mistakes and that she had found it and the scholarship was not good for that particular semester. I have never received anything from them.I was advised to call the people who gave me the scholarship,which I did.They have yet to call me back.

How can the college bill be after 10 years?

They never would have let me have my transcript after transferring and I would have never been able to graduate or attend the classes had a owed tuition(Because I certainly didn't have a loan).

What can I do about this situation?

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This is zombie debt. The simplest way to deal with it is to explain to the debt collector that their failure to act diligently harmed you and therefore you will not pay the debt. They won't sue you, since the statute of limitations has passed.

Simply explain to them that you are unwilling to attempt to track down whether the scholarship should have paid you or not after ten years. If they want to try to track it down, they're welcome to, but you are not. Ask them not to call you again, as your decision is final. Give them any information you have about the scholarship.

You may want to obtain contact information from them so you can send them written notice. The written notice should state that you will not pay the debt because you believe that a scholarship should have paid it and that you are not willing to investigate or track it down after ten years, that they are welcome to, but that your decision is final and that they are not to contact you further except where expressly permitted by law. (They may, by law, send you one letter.)

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    Also, critically, do not pay the debt or agree that you owe the debt. I saw a good Vice ad talking about how debt is collected and how it varies state by state. its probably worth googling - goo.gl/XE8SzI
    – CrimsonX
    Commented Dec 8, 2016 at 15:37
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    Good point. They may try to trick you into saying something that resets the clock!
    – David Schwartz
    Commented Dec 8, 2016 at 19:02

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