disputing student loan deliqnuincy

Hi. First time poster, per the advice of some friends, i was pointed to this board, and hopefully you guys could give me some guidance on my situation.

I currently would have an immaculate credit report were it not for one big 90 Day delinquincy being shown on there, and from using fico score simulators, that delinquincy could be hurting me by as many as 60 points...

Now to the delinquincy

I had a Federal Perkins loan through my university, and during my repayment period I was being deployed to the middle east.

I called up my lending institution (then eduserv) and explained the situation and asked if automatic payments or advanced payment could be set up. I was told payments would be suspended for the duration of my deployment. With this knowledge in hand I went off with no worries.

I came back almost four months later, called eduserv to re-start payments and was promptly informed that I was 90 days delinquint. I went ahead and paid the balance due, and started explaining what I had been told to the lady on the phone. She agreed that she would wipe off the delinquincy and that would be that. Account has been paid in full since 2000.

Lo and behold 3 years later I do a credit report check because I'm buying a home. And there is that 30/60/90 day delinquincy on my report.

obviously ticked off, I file a dispute through experian. 30 days go by and I'm notified that the dispute has been verified and remains.

Even more steamed now, I try to contact eduserv to see what the deal is. Eduserv has since went out of business and my account was given to ams servicing. I call them up, explain the situation and they politely tell me there's nothing they can do, and that I must contact my university's financial resource person (given name and #).

So i call her up, and explain my situation. She basically tells me that there's nothing on file to show that the 90 day delinquincy was to be removed, and that there was no way my account could be deferred over the phone(must be done in paper). Trying to get her to understand that maybe I was misled or lied to by eduserv resulted in her telling me that maybe I just wasn't telling the truth (this turned me bright red)


After much heated discussion i find out that I can dispute this with a government program called the Federal Ombudsman, which handles disputes that can't be resolved between the university and the student loan payee.

After talking to a rep, explaining my situation, she has recorded everything i told her and has made a case#. She said that i'll recieve a call in 7-10 days from them for my information, and then they'll try to help me and the university come to an agreement on what to do......

 

now my question...

What can be done if, after all this, the 90 day delinquincy is still not removed?

Have I exhausted every option I can take?

I've done quite a bit of reading before posting, and understand the theory behind the nutcase letter, but is it still plausible to use it in this situation? Or should i be looking to take a different approach?

This has really got me floored, as this one negative remark prevents me from getting the best interest rate on a mortgage i can get, and I'm already on a low fixed income thanks to the military, so anything I can do to get this removed(within reason) I'm willing to try.

I'm hoping you guys can help me out, and this can be added as another success story later on. Thanks!

-Michael