Idiot school lost my private loan promissory notes

[Socrates25]

I went online and looked at my student loans 2 months ago and noticed that there was some funny business going on. I had originally signed a promissory note for a 9.5k perkins loan, but it looks like the school changed the 9.5k from Perkins to a private loan that I never signed a promissory note for. They put the money in my account a long time ago, but I assumed it was the Perkins loan funding since that's the note I signed.

I emailed the loan servicer and the school, and neither one can find any kind of promissory note I signed for the private loan -- all they have is the Perkins loan.

I think I'm getting screwed here because I'm sure the terms for repayment on the private loan are a lot worse than the Perkins.

I talked to both the school and the loan servicer and they claim that the other should have the promissory note and that I have to repay it under the private loan terms since thats the money they disbursed to my account.

I call BS on this -- since when do I have to pay back a loan on terms that I didnt sign a promissory note for? I'm fine with paying back the loan on the Perkins loan terms which I signed the note on -- just not the private loan terms which are ridiculous.

Anybody else run into this? I thought that you had to sign a promissory note in order to be held liable to the payback rules?

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[DrMidlife]

Your school has no ongoing responsibility here, and they played no role other than go-between in the signing of a promissory note. They coordinated the loan and got money for tuition, and now they're out of the picture.

Odds are, you signed for a private loan without realizing what you did. It's between you and the lender. The lender has all the power right now - if you don't pay, they can take down your credit rating and get collection agencies on you. If you think this is bogus, then go take a look to see if your congressperson or senator voted for or against the consumer protection agency creation efforts that were repeatedly shot down, then gutted, and finally approved, over the last few years.

You, the borrower, have the responsibility to keep copies of what you sign, and you bear the burden of taking on your lender. At this point, the lowest risk (and costliest) option is to:
a. pay the payments so that your credit rating isn't trashed
b. get a lawyer involved
c. separately, keep on the lender to show you the promissory note
d. omg keep detailed notes of everything you do and don't throw anything away

Best of luck to you.