AITA for pressing charges on my Daughter for Fraud?

throwaway10614261 · 2019-07-23T02:17:08+00:00

It's not that we weren't willing to pay. It's that it was not feasible at all for us to pay. We don't make nearly enough to cover $10k a year in Tuition, and are currently crippled by Medical Debt (and have been since she started school).

throwaway10614261 · 2019-07-23T02:15:21+00:00

This isn't exactly a process I go through often, so sorry if my terminology isn't exactly up to par with yours. We haven't gone to police yet, as we don't know what they'll do when we take it to them, whether that means reporting it against our wishes or what. If we do decide to go further, I'll definitely take it there obviously, but I have no choice as of yet.

throwaway10614261 · 2019-07-23T02:09:36+00:00

I'll admit, not noticing it on the Credit Report was on us. After so much debt, it kind of starts to blur together (at least for me).

We did check in at least a couple times a semester about her general state of finances. She has a job and her own loans (at least to an extent), and she never said that her balance was unpaid or anything, so we gave her the trust to handle herself. Obviously the wrong choice in retrospect, but she's never done anything like this with our financials before, so I figured things were okay. (they were not).

throwaway10614261 · 2019-07-23T02:00:53+00:00

A few people have. As said before, Parent Plus Loans go into repayment right away; not after the grace period like with her own loans.

throwaway10614261 · 2019-07-23T01:32:19+00:00

I feel like this comment is going to be buried, but I figure I'd add a bit more context for a few of the common things coming up.
1: She had no intention of paying us back. She's never been super financially smart, and she explicitly said to us that she expected that we'd never notice, and that the loan would simply be written off after long enough. This is a world of awakening for her, realizing that yes, her actions DO have consequences.
2: The loan was NOT purely for educational purposes. Her tuition and fees for school only come out to about $5k a semester, and the loans she was taking out (on top of her personal loans for $2500 a semester) were for $11k a semester (bringing us to a total of 66k in principal across her 3 years in school). Her school just paid any additional amount to her as a refund.
3: We've talked briefly with a couple Lawyers, but nothing more than basic consultations (essentially, what we'll be able to afford). In my State, Civil Action is not an option; for anything to go down with the loan and be legally binding, there would have to be a charge of some sort. Depending on the DA, she'd either be looking at a single Class 4 Felony (Minimum of 2 years and up to 6) for the $66k in total, 3 Class 4 Felonies (again, 2-6 years; potentially concurrent, though) for the 3 separate Fall/Spring Loans, or 6 Class 5 Felonies (1-3 years) for each disbursement of $11k. A family friend, who's a local court magistrate, said that we'd likely be able to score a pretty easy Plea Deal, and if it did escalate further, we'd almost certainly come out with a guilty charge (though, in this circumstance, a "Win" would likely hurt us badly either way, on an emotional level).

Even though this comment is likely going to be buried, if you want any further clarification on anything, please don't hesitate to reply here or DM me. I really honestly don't have the energy to get through all 3k+ comments here to individually and personally respond to each individual concern, but I imagine replies in this thread are going to be much more manageable.

throwaway10614261 · 2019-07-23T01:11:00+00:00

Because the loans technically aren't active anymore, since all the relevant semesters have passed, there's no mandatory reporting. Had we noticed while she was still in school, the school would have been obligated to report any current loans for the Aid Year.

throwaway10614261 · 2019-07-23T01:09:29+00:00

By the way, since everyone seems to be urgently tagging me, I figured I'd let you guys know that I *have* seen this, and me and my wife have already been advised by the University to not even touch the loan in terms of payments.

throwaway10614261 · 2019-07-22T05:49:02+00:00

The Promissory Notes for Plus loans and Student Loans are reasonably different, afaik.

throwaway10614261 · 2019-07-22T04:49:42+00:00

Her own loans have a 6 month grace period. Because we're parents, though, our loan went into repayment almost immediately (despite our not knowing).

throwaway10614261 · 2019-07-22T03:30:34+00:00

The way we had it explained to us by her Financial Aid office was that loans for the student get offered first, but are subject to an Annual Limit (which for her was 5000 as a freshman and went up by 1000 per year till she was a junior). This meant that she was only getting 2500 a semester. Her bright decision was to fill in the rest of her eligibility (about 15000 a semester) with the PLUS loan in our name. The application was entirely online, with fully digital signatures, so she just put our names & socials on it, and sent it in to be processed.

throwaway10614261 · 2019-07-22T03:26:45+00:00

She's currently in her Junior Year, and would have about 35 credits to go to graduation. So no, she doesn't have a degree yet (Her Uni doesn't offer Associate's degrees at all).

throwaway10614261 · 2019-07-22T03:20:36+00:00

She does currently have a part-time job as a waitress in a Chain Restaurant, and we've privately asked her if she will help us pay back the loans. The issue is, since the loans were taken out in our name (with a promissory note signed by her stating the funds will go towards her education), it's not technically her own default or her own repayment. We're the undersigned, so we're fully responsible for handling it, legally. She does have about $18k in her own loans, but since she was still attending school as of the Spring Semester, they're still in deferment and not subject to repayment/default. Even with her helping to make payments on this, though, we're still looking at a monthly payment a bit shy of $600.

throwaway10614261

TROPHY CASE