"When employed with my previous employer I took a 401k loan (November 2015). I quit and joined my current employer in January 2018. I set up an auto-debit with my fund manager (Fidelity), for monthly deductions from my bank to pay off the loan. When checking my bank account last month (December 2019), I find that my account was not debited starting in January 2019. I find that Fidelity had sold it to Transamerica in January 2019. I got a letter about the transfer from my old employer but nothing about the loans, so I assumed the loans were taken care of. When I called Transamerica, they say they had defaulted my loan and sent the note to IRS because they had not received payment. They said they sent me a letter notifying me of the initial transfer and the default, but I did not receive any such letter. They emailed me a copy -- I see the postal address was wrong in their mail.
They do have my correct postal address in their records but they sent the letter to an incorrect address. The person handling this issue at Transamerica is not very knowledgeable. Every time, after being on the call for about an hour or two, she says she will check with someone else.
"I see some contradictions in what she says: [1] She says once transferred Transamerica does not allow monthly payment of loans and a one-time payment of remaining amount should have been made. But the default letter says the monthly amount was not paid. [1] She says transfer notice and default notice was sent to my house , but after I requested her to email me the sent default postal mail, I see it has the wrong address [3] First she said nothing can be done because they already had notified IRS, but now she said their research team is researching.
"What are my options? I did not
intend to default and I'm also ready to pay the total amount now to avoid taxes and penalty on the remaining amount. The remaining amount is about $13,000."