Thread: Problem with Institute, Need help and advise.

Dear members,

I need your help and advise.

I am a student from South America, I took admission in bachelor program at WorldCollege/Celveland Institute of electronics online in last year 8/2009.

It was term of paying $100 per month. Although, I was told that shipping is included in monthly $100 payments, Institute started yeling with Shipping heavy books by sending them via UPS (I requested in several e-mails, please send me normal post and they confirmed that its gonna used normal post), UPS used to charge me aprox $85.00 per shipping where I was recieving 2 shippings per month.

My bill was going about $260 ($100 college, $160) shipping plus, Institute was charging me aroundd $80 - $140 shipping and handeling fees apart from this, I got these charges info in each statement they sent to me.

It was too much to pay for a degree where it was prommised $100 per month, Plus in 3/2010, I lost my job and all circumstances changes.

I informed about my job loss and financial circumstances and made them clear that I can't continue studies. Put my account on hold or cancel, as I paid what I got, no longer able to continue further. They send me email that they will put my studies on hold but not financial account.

since 3/2010, I am not recieving any study meterial but they continue sending me interest and finanncial statments increasing month by month.

Finally, they send me a collection agency letter where I am in debit to pay $6000 for now.



I don't know how it works but in my personal opinion, it seems tottaly ridiculos, when I told them I am no longer interested in studing there I am I paid my monthly even plus more the period I studied, then why they are trying to charge me this all?

Please input your advises and comments following this situation. How this all process can effect me while I am not living in United States?


thanks for all your advised and help.

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I think you could have mistaken the minimum payment option for a full payment option. The minimum payment would be due, and upon payment your minimum obligations were met, but your balance was growing the entire time. Looking at the tuition schedule, it appears that classes cost about $1200 apiece, not $100 apiece. Here is their tuition rates: https://cie-wc.edu/tuition.asp Notice that it talks about "Installment" payments and I think that's what you were doing. So a $6000 balance is not surprising.

I have no idea what would happen if you just refused to pay given that you are not a US citizen. Your couldn't attend there again until it was paid, but would it ruin your chances at another school? I don't know. Maybe someone else here does know. You certainly would not be able to use credit from those classes anywhere else.

I thought you were from Russia and living in the U.S. and U.K.?

Thanks for your reply. I am using English translator, so forgive if i make some mistakes.

They sent me a English contract and I just filled by online and trun them back. This is all I know, at time they told me its $100 you are going to pay and total degree with cost me $2300 and some thing like that. But as soon I started, I was costing me about $300 a month as well as my Job issue, I wasn;t able to proceed.

I am really no worry about credit I earned etc, because I think they should not give me as I did study only for 4 months and didn't complete my degree.

My real concerns is, I recieved a letter from a Collection Agency for Account Resolution, how even I ddidnt study there, they still trying to charge me, is that how it works? sorry for my knowledge.

1- as non-us person, how will this affect me?
2- US collection agencies would able to open a law suit against me even I am Non-Us?
3- College may able to open Law-Suit against me even I studied online only for 4 months?

Grecias for your time.

Hello, thanks for replying.

No, I am from south america, country Paraguay. I never travel or live in usa, I just applied online and never even some one called me from world college .

If you have confirmation that they made agreements with you to send through regular post, and yet they still wanted to continue sending UPS. I think you should end the program. This is totally unreasonable on their part.

The collection letter is a standard form they would send to all students who didn't pay. They will not be able to collect from you in South America, and they would be foolish to try to collect.

In regards to the financial debt. If you didn't use a U.S. social security number, there is no way this will be detrimental to you. They are not going to seek collections outside of the U.S., and this will not affect your ability to go to another U.S. university.

There are many other programs out there.


Good Luck.

Originally Posted by learner1

Thanks for your reply. I am using English translator, so forgive if i make some mistakes.

They sent me a English contract and I just filled by online and trun them back. This is all I know, at time they told me its $100 you are going to pay and total degree with cost me $2300 and some thing like that. But as soon I started, I was costing me about $300 a month as well as my Job issue, I wasn;t able to proceed.

I am really no worry about credit I earned etc, because I think they should not give me as I did study only for 4 months and didn't complete my degree.

My real concerns is, I recieved a letter from a Collection Agency for Account Resolution, how even I ddidnt study there, they still trying to charge me, is that how it works? sorry for my knowledge.

1- as non-us person, how will this affect me?
2- US collection agencies would able to open a law suit against me even I am Non-Us?
3- College may able to open Law-Suit against me even I studied online only for 4 months?

Grecias for your time.

What would likely be required is that they file a lawsuit against you in your country. Filing a lawsuit in the USA would probably do nothing to you. If they could successfully file a lawsuit against you in your country, they may could hurt you. It would all depend on whether the court system in your country would allow a lawsuit from the USA to be filed there. You might check into that.

Buena suerte!

One more thought; being a school that regularly caters to international students, they may have a system in place for collecting debts outside of the USA.

Thanks so much. I appreciate so much replies from all of you.

Do you think I should reply/contact with collection agency within their 30 days given limit?

Originally Posted by learner1

Thanks so much. I appreciate so much replies from all of you.

Do you think I should reply/contact with collection agency within their 30 days given limit?

I would seek legal advice, especially if the collection agencgy is in your country.

Sometime the debt is sold to a collection service and in that event it is they who would be owed the money, not the school.

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Originally Posted by MichaelOliver

What would likely be required is that they file a lawsuit against you in your country. Filing a lawsuit in the USA would probably do nothing to you. If they could successfully file a lawsuit against you in your country, they may could hurt you. It would all depend on whether the court system in your country would allow a lawsuit from the USA to be filed there. You might check into that.

Buena suerte!

Good advice, although I think it would be too expensive for the school to file an international lawsuit for a $6000 bill.

I'm a CIE/World College grad, and here's my take:

I'm pretty sure that they make clear that overseas shipping costs extra. There are also a number of books which are not included in the tuition price. That's typical of most institutions.

Also, you enroll for a single term/semester at a time. 1 year in the case of the Bachelor's program. If you drop out at any point after the trial period, you still owe the remaining tuition for that term, regardless of the monthly payments you were making. Again, that's not very different from other types of financing for education .

As for what you should do, if you can't pay, then you can't pay. If you CAN pay, then I think you should. I don't know much about cross-border debt collection, but I suspect that nothing terrible will happen to you if you just ignore the collection letters.

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Originally Posted by learner1

Thanks so much. I appreciate so much replies from all of you.

Do you think I should reply/contact with collection agency within their 30 days given limit?

Do not contact the collection agency because all what they will do is to find a way for you to pay. They may even tell you to make monthly payment of any amount just so they collect. At this point, it is safe to say that your dream of earning a degree from WC is trashed, if paying what they say you owe is a problem for you. I would just say, forget about the school and ignore the collection agency. Collection agencies can only go after you if you are in the U.S. There will be no consequences should you not pay or contact them.

Next time, when looking for a school, make sure you get a list of all or majority of the books needed for the courses. And then you can plan on buying them yourself and paying once to ship them or even making alternate arrangements to get the books. Also, you should look for schools that require no text books. Your problem could have been avoided if the school made every effort to keep your book shipping cost low. However, since they didn't care about how much those shipping fees mean to you, other than getting your tuition dollars, it has now become a loose-loose (although some may say that the school has won since they collected tuition monies for as long as you paid). Goodluck with your future educational pursuit.

Originally Posted by Cyber

.........................Collection agencies can only go after you if you are in the U.S. There will be no consequences should you not pay or contact them.
.....................

Not true - USA debts can be collected from many countries. A quick search came up with several collection companies that work internationally including this outfit that operates in Paraguay; Global Coverage in International Debt Collection and Recovery Services

Originally Posted by Ian Anderson

Not true - USA debts can be collected from many countries. A quick search came up with several collection companies that work internationally including this outfit that operates in Paraguay; Global Coverage in International Debt Collection and Recovery Services

It is easy to disagree. Have you ever visited Paraguay? Just because a search engine picks up what a company writes on their website doesn't mean that in practice, it will occur that way. American collection agencies, banks, and credit reporting agencies share information and are integrated with countries like Canada only (because Canada is an advanced country). Most of the other countries in the Americas are developing countries, and their systems are ill-equiped to be integrated with the american system. Try to visit a lot of those countries, to lets say, have the police arrest someone because they owe money to a school or company in the U.S., and you'll quickly realize that everything breaks down, and even the police will laugh at you. Corruption, lack of infrastructures like stable electricity, crime and kidnappings, lack of a national databases (folks don't have social security numbers in alot of those countries and the governments do no know, nor can they track individuals), gross incompetence, weak governmental institutions all make it extremely hard as well as super expensive to chase after people past america shores. I'm in no way describing Paraguay. I'm just highlighting why companies in the U.S never go past america shores to chase after debt due to a combination of the aforementioned factors.

Originally Posted by Cyber

It is easy to disagree. Have you ever visited Paraguay? Just because a search engine picks up what a company writes on their website doesn't mean that in practice, it will occur that way. American collection agencies, banks, and credit reporting agencies share information and are integrated with countries like Canada only (because Canada is an advanced country). Most of the other countries in the Americas are developing countries, and their systems are ill-equiped to be integrated with the american system. Try to visit a lot of those countries, to lets say, have the police arrest someone because they owe money to a school or company in the U.S., and you'll quickly realize that everything breaks down, and even the police will laugh at you. Corruption, lack of infrastructures like stable electricity, crime and kidnappings, lack of a national databases (folks don't have social security numbers in alot of those countries and the governments do no know, nor can they track individuals), gross incompetence, weak governmental institutions all make it extremely hard as well as super expensive to chase after people past america shores. I'm in no way describing Paraguay. I'm just highlighting why companies in the U.S never go past america shores to chase after debt due to a combination of the aforementioned factors.

Yes, I agree. The only way to come after you for the debt is to involve you court system and it's doubtful that would happen.