Thread: Sallie Mae - Suggestions for Removing Late Payments

I've searched this forum for any information or posts about Sallie Mae and can't really find anything useful, or else the posts were from 2003 and 2004. I need help and what currently works (or doesn't work) with regards to negative Sallie Mae trade lines.

I co-signed a Sallie Mae loan for my daughter back in Jan 2008 and it went into repayment about a year or so ago. I didn't know the repayments were starting and my daughter ignored the first 3 to 4 months, so by the time I found out there were already 30, 60, 90, 120 lates on my credit report.

I got the payments caught up and scolded my daughter and told her the importance of paying her bills and how it affects me as well.

She kept up for a while but then lost her job and couldn't make payments, but she did arrange for a forbearance (which for some odd reason Sallie Mae only does 3 month forbearnaces?), but she gave them her checking account number from our Credit Union, but forgot she had just opened a new account at another bank. To get the forbearance she agreed to let Sallie Mae draft her account once the 3 months were up.

So she gets another job and has direct deposit to her new bank account, so after 3 months Sallie Mae starts trying to draft the payment but from an account she is no longer putting money in.

So here were go, she didn't catch the problem and I was unaware, and after the 2nd failed month of trying to draft from her depleted account, they "reversed" the forbearance and reported 30, 60, 90 days lates for the 3 months that were supposed to be in forbearance plus by the time I found out another month has passed so I have a 120 late as well.

By the time I found out I had another hit on my credit report. I talked to them over the phone and explained the situation and begged them to remove the late payment trade lines, or at least the worst one, etc ....but to no avail ...they really seem cold-hearted.

So, I have a 30, 60, 90 from Sallie Mae from about 1 year ago, and now another 30, 60, 90, 120 day late for the months of Dec 2011, Jan 2012, Feb 2012, Mar 2012. I caught up the payments back in March, so April and May show fine on my report - Paid as Agrees, but the damage has been done.

Is there anything that will work, any sort of Good Will letter or some technicality that I can use in this situation. This has tanked my score, checked myFico.com score and it was 657.

How much time will have to pass for these 30, 60, 90, 120 late trade lines to not hurt my score so much?

Thanks in advance your any help or suggestions!

P.S.

Any idea just how much this dropped my FICO score, the recent 30, 60, 90, 120? What might my score really be like if not for the Sallie Mae negs?

According to FICO, a 30-day late payment alone can drop your scores 90-110 points if you have good credit scores in the first place. Basically, the higher your scores are to begin with, the more damage it does. Obviously, 120-day lates are going to hurt even more, but I don't think FICO has ever released specific data about how much. Without the late pays, my guess is your score would be in the high 700s if that's where it used to be.

Also, the late pays will remain on your credit reports for 7 years; however, they will continue to have less and less of an effect on your overall credit scores as times passes and more recent positive payment history is recorded. If there are inaccuracies regarding the late pays, it's worth taking the time to dispute them through the CRAs. Who knows, you might get lucky and some will be removed. A goodwill letter is always an option too, but given the amount of late pays you've had over the past few years, you might not get a very positive response. Still, it's probably worth a shot.

I mentioned in another thread that I needed to start shopping for a new car soon as my current car had 248,000 miles on it. Well I got a Honda Accord Monday, a 36 month lease, and got their best deal, $0 down and $255.00 a month. They pulled Equifax and said my score was 677 so perhaps it was an Auto Enhanced Fico they pulled. Anyhow I guess that was good enough for a Fico even though I had recent 60, 90, 120 lates on a Sallie Mae I co-signed for. Wonder if lates on a Student Loan count less than Credit Card lates? Does anyone know? Do lates on a Student Loan count the same as a Credit Card account? What about Mortgages? Is a 30 day late on a Mortgage worse than a 30 day late on a Credit Card?

As I mentioned in your other post, a 30-day late is a 30-day late in the eyes of a credit-scoring model. Congrats on the new car!

Thanks!

And since the question about various kinds of 30 day lates is off-topic of the Sallie Mae question, I created a new thread for that question alone.

Sorry if I was creating duplicate posts.

No worries...how do you like the new Accord?

Really liking the Accord. It is so much more roomy inside than what I expected from looking at the outside of the car. And it seems to ride much larger, it feels like the old Crown Victoria my parents used to have as far as feeling solid and stable on the road, yet without that huge boat feeling.

Originally Posted by FedUp2003

Really liking the Accord. It is so much more roomy inside than what I expected from looking at the outside of the car. And it seems to ride much larger, it feels like the old Crown Victoria my parents used to have as far as feeling solid and stable on the road, yet without that huge boat feeling.

And they last forever and have awesome resale value too. Nice choice! Oh, but you leased right? Why did you decide to lease instead of buy? Just curious...

Just to have lower payments initially. When the lease is up I plan on buying it, I know it's not the smartest way to buy and that that leftover residual amount I'll have to cover with a used car loan is more than what would have been left had I been making payments, it's just that right now my budget is really tight, but I had to get something as my old car had 248,000 miles, air conditioning went out, etc...

Originally Posted by FedUp2003

Just to have lower payments initially. When the lease is up I plan on buying it, I know it's not the smartest way to buy and that that leftover residual amount I'll have to cover with a used car loan is more than what would have been left had I been making payments, it's just that right now my budget is really tight, but I had to get something as my old car had 248,000 miles, air conditioning went out, etc...

Ok, I won't get preachy because you already know that's not a financially smart way to buy a car. Glad you at least got a good deal on the lease with $0 down and an affordable payment!