I keep reading that you should send validation letters out and I am assuming that this is to the company not the CRA. If that is true how do you go about getting the item removed from your report if you receive a response from them. I am just starteng ou trying to get my CR cleaned up. One more thing before I forget...What if any effect does a account that has been sold have on your credit rating? (all of my students loans have been sold but I don't start paying them back until Jan 2002) Thanks B
If I am understanding you correctly, although your student loans have been sold, none of them have gone to collections, right? They were just sold to other lending agencies, RIGHT? If that's the case, don't worry about it and don't mess with them. Just be sure you pay them and keep them in good standing. If they have been turned over to collection agencies, you can run the collection agencies off and maybe even make them pay the bill for you if you are lucky and go at it right. but if they do go to collection, then try to use the Student Loan Rehab program. I've heard that works pretty well
As far as your student loans go, what is the reason that you don't have to start paying them back until 01/2002? Are you in deferment, forbearance or are you in your grace period? All of these are valid reasons for not having to pay your loans and none of them will have an adverse effect on your credit. Student loans are sold by lenders and servicers all the time and in some cases that has caused students to lose track of them. That can and does cause problems with your credit, though the Feds do have a number that allows you to track where your loans are at all times. If you need additional information you can email me. Brian
Welcome to the board! For starters, you can search for a topic on here and read the previous postings - so search for the phrase "validation letter" to see what has been said in the past. There is a good outline for starting out in your credit repair journey here: http://mix6.com/credit read the whole page, don't just skim over the first part - there is good information there. Then you can come back and post specific questions. Validation letters are mostly used when a collection agency is calling you, trying to collect a debt. Dispute letters are sent to the CRA's when you want information in your file corrected or deleted. Validation letters may be used with original creditors if you are trying to prove that the debt is not yours, or that the information they are reporting to the CRA's is incorrect. Hope this helps, breeze
Breeze: WOW! That sure is some website that guy has going. More pop-up ads than frogs after a summer rain! Good thing I had powi.exe going or I never would have got done trying to kill them all off.
My student loans are in the grace period. I have read that some people were trying to get sold accounts off their CR and wanted to know if that effects you in any way. If I understand this right I should be writing the CRA because all the negatives are from so long ago (when I was a freshman in college) that the collection people can't track me down. This might sound dumb but about how long does it take to get something taken off your credit report. I am going to send a dispute to TU tomoorow about a carge off from FirstUSA? Any suggestions.
Be careful! If you are really counting on collections people not being able to track you down, disputing is the LAST thing you want to do. Negative information (excluding public records) stay on your report for seven years. When I started disputing with Lexington in March, collection agencies started crawling out of the woodwork trying to contact me. The CRAs update your address information (because they figure you gave them a valid address that they could use to send you the results of the disputes) and the collection agencies get a reminder in the mail from the CRAs that you still exist and that you care about removing their tradelines. I've been successful with one agency in getting them to remove their entries (I posted the letters I used on the board a couple of weeks ago if you want to take a look). I am still fighting with another.
You really ought to be happy if they do contact you. That gives you the opportunity to go after the collection agencies and force them to either send the debt back to the original creditor and get off your case or else eat the debt themselves. This gets the debt load completely off your back because if you do it right, you don't owe the debt anymore, and then once you have gotten rid of the debt entirely and it no longer exists you can go after the credit bureaus to investigate the debt and since the debt no longer exists, they have no choice but to remove it. They can't very well verify a debt that don't exist anymore, can they? No need to negotiate for settlement where you pay off either. Make them eat it and like it.
Having your loans sold should not effect your CR in any way. The loans don't change, just the ownership and or servicer changes. As a matter of fact, if anything, it may improve your CR because it may show that the original owner of the loans has been paid in full. While you are in grace, this is the best time to consolidate your loans because your int rate is 0.6% lower than it will be in repayment, and consolidation creates a fixed rate loan and also improves your CR at the same time. When do you come out of grace? It is a win-win situation for you. E-mail me if you want additional information or contact your current servicer to see if they will do an in-grace consolidation. We do. BTW, you can not be denied a FFELP federal consolidation because of credit problems with our company. Brian
