I made payment arrangements with the collection agency that handles my defaulted student loans about six months ago....working towards rehabilitating my loans. In speaking with the CA today about a mistake they made on the dates of my payments the rep. asked me why I was doing the rehab program. I told him because I wanted the default status and all negative information removed from my credit report. He said there is a better program (quicker) that I qualify for....something new instituted by Pres. Bush....some sort of loan consolidation. He said it would put my loan back into good status....and remove all neg. info. from my credit report. I asked him if he was certain about this because I have always heard that you should rehab student loans rather than consolidating if your goal is a clean credit report. I was under the impression that the consolidation gave you a new loan and would report your new payments history but did not remove the old negative stuff which defeats my purpose, but according to this guy it will also remove the default and neg. info. Does anyone know if this is correct? I really want to be sure before i do it.
Liars! Liars! Consolidating a loan will take it out of default BUT the default notation and other negatives associated with it will not be removed. Never trust a friggin collection agent.
Thanks for your responses....I did call back and spoke with another rep. and was told exactly what you said....the first guy was WRONG! Glad I didn't listen to him....will stick with rehab. Thanks again.
Shelby, Sometimes they push people to consolidate to increase their own "quota" of satisfied loans in their account. Consolidation takes about 3 months to complete and these agency employees would rather see the account satisfied (and the CA paid) sooner than later. So - they lie and tell you that you HAVE to consolidate. Good for you for not listening.
Shelby, I'm glad you found out the truth -- that he was simply trying to sell you a credit product that his company controls. Regardless, don't forget that most student loan defaults incur TWO negative tradelines on each CRA report -- the defaulted notation from the original loan provider as well as the defaulted notation from the guarantor. In effect -- and this is patently unfair, although that's the way it is for so many -- when you default you often get hit twice on your credit report. I'll bet that the special deal referenced by that guy at the guarantor would NOT have taken care of BOTH default notations even if he had somehow erased the second one (the guarantor's). The traditional DOE rehabilitation you're currently doing WILL DEFINITELY take care of both tradelines. Anytime something like this comes up, you can call the Department of Education's Ombudsman at 1-877-557-2575. Doc
Listen to these guys at creditnet. They know what they are saying. i had the same consolidation stunt pulled on me and it turned out ot be a lie. All negatives remained. Just happened to be about a year before they were set come off any way. God bless creditnet.com EBra30291 Involved in the most brutal fight for good credit.
Doc & Marci or others, When your original student loan is charged off and reffered to the gurantee agency for collection does the guarntee agency have to report the original date of delinquency? I'm hoping they do. If so my listings from the gurantee agency should be older than seven years, 7 years from the date of first delinquency from the original loan holder. Thanks, EdG GO PATS!!
Edg, That's a good question. I truthfully can't remember and I 'll have to go back to my old reports (at home) and see how ASA listed mine. I'll try to post my DLA this weekend.
Thanks Marci. BTW it's ASA that I'm having the reporting problems with. They are so difficult to deal with. EdG GO PATS!!
I was told that as well about rehabilitaton and after paying on it for about 8 months, was then told I didn't qualify for it at the time I was signed up for it, but qualified for it now....okay...I was upset, but did it again anyway. They DID send me a letter I could send to the credit bureaus and so far, Experian and TU have both deleted the negative listings and I have one that says neve late/paying as agreed. I made the mistake of sending the original to Experian so now I don't have it to fight with Equifax. I'm trying it without the letter, just by disputing it as never late. If that doesn't work, I thought I would try to get another copy of the letter they sent me. L
Thanks you guys for all your input. But I am looking over my student loan listings on my credit reports and again wondering what I should do. Experian lists 2 student loan accounts under "accounts in good standing" Open/never late and Equifax lists 3 accounts as I1. no other negative info.....Not sure how this happened because they used to be listed negatively and these are defaulted loans although I have been making on time payments for about 6 months. I think just shortly after I started with my payment arrangements they went from negative to positive status....has anyone else had this happen? TU is the only report that still lists a student loan account in "collection status". Since this is the case, should I go ahead and consolidate instead of rehab....it would give me a new positive credit line and since on 2 out of 3 CR nothing is currently listed as negative it won't really matter that they don't remove the old info. It would still leave me with one negative on TU although it would be paid. What do you think? Also do you think I could use the info from the other CRAs to get TU to change its listing to positive status?....(it is the same loan with same account number that Equifax is listing as I1) Thanks for your advice.
I think you need to complete the agreed terms of your rehabilitation for the next six months. After that, you'll be free to consolidate without concern for whether you'll leave a negative mark on your Trans Union report. (That's what I would do. Living with a negative tradeline on my TU file wouldn't be acceptible to me, but I realize others may feel differently.) One additional positive tradeline doesn't nearly make up a single negative. If you simply need another positive tradeline, go apply for a Target card. Doc
Marci, Did you get a chance to look at those old reports? I'm curious on how they report the student loan listings. I can't seen to get a straight answer from the FTC. Thanks, EdG
OOOPS. I forgot. I just left a voicemail at my home to remind myself to pull those files for you. If you want, you can e-mail me at <gene027@uabdpo.dpo.uab.edu> but I will pull those old credit reports tonight and let you know asap. sorry about the oversight,
No problem. Thank you for the help Marci. I tried e-mailing you but it bounced. My e-mail is on feel free to e-mail me. EdG Back in the 600 club....
Okay... sorry for the delay. Looking at my old reports were fun. It is a pleasure to see how far I have come from May 2000, thanks a great deal to Creditnet. My loans defaulted in August 1996 (and transferred to ASA) ,but they weren't reported by ASA until March 1997. But the date the loans first became delinquent with the original loan holder was August 1995. Experian: ASA had the original date of deliquency in 1996 and Experian said that it would fall off in 2003 - exactly 7 years from the date "claim filed with the government", which was in 1996. Equifax: ASA had the date of last activity in August 1996, but Equifax had no statement on when the loans would have fallen off. I *think* it is 7 years from the date of last activity, putting it at 2003. Trans Union: ASA listed accounts as "status as of August 1996", which Trans Union told means the date from which the account starts the 7 year clock, again putting the fall off date in 2003. Obviously - all these loans have long since been deleted through rehabilitation, but it does seem that ASA at least lists the date of the initial default as the date from which the 7 year clock starts. But not the date of the initial deliquency.
