1 more student loan clarification ? and then I give up

[troublesinOH]

In April of 2004 I consolidated all of my student loans - these were in default for about 5 years and are now all paid through a Direct Loan which is reporting as current and in good standing since 4-2004. Before the consolidation all of the loans ( nearly 20 of them) were reporting all as individual charge offs. The majority were through AFSA / ACS and a bunch more were through Great Lakes Higher Education all reporting as individual accounts. Sometime in the early 2000's , many of the AFSA loans were transferred to Great Lakes and then Great Lakes started reporting them as CO's as well. AFSA kept reporting those same loans as CO's and still does. They report once through AFSA as a charge off - again through Great Lakes as a Paid Charge off and then again through my $90,000.00 Direct Loan which reports as current and never late since April 2004. This means that some of these loans are being reported 3 different times on my report by 3 different companies and there are about 30 entries on my CR for only about 20 actual loans. Is this being correctly reported? It does not seem right that some of these loans are being reported as charge offs twice and current all at the same time?

[TxQuiltGirl]

It sucks, I know, but it is correct. They were charged off and transferred/sold to someone else.

[threeve]

It is, unfortunately, correct as TxQuiltGirl points out.

 

On the brighter side, if they've been on there for 5 years already showing negative, they should fall off your report in another 2 years! (not exactly the best news, but better than nothing).

[troublesinOH]

Some of them are originally from 1992 - and still reporting as current charge off accounts??????

[ziggypop]

Some of them are originally from 1992 - and still reporting as current charge off accounts??????

 

Unfortunately, yup. Government-backed student loans are allowed special reporting abilities. Unlike regular debt where it's 7 1/2 years from the date of the first delinquent payment from which the account was never brought current for when it's deleted, for SLs, it's 7 1/2 years from when a claim for payment was filed by the lender with the guarantor. In your case, Great Lakes is the guarantor. As you can see from your own case, lenders don't necessarily file the claims right at the time of default -- in your case, that was in 2000. So, you have 7 1/2 years from that date before they fall off. I didn't have quite as long of a timeline, as you, but I also got hit with this -- mine are going to be reporting for an extra 3 years than they would have if they were another type of debt because of this rule.

 

Sorry about that! Hope this helps, though!!

[troublesinOH]

Not the news I was hoping for but the info does help. So even though the accounts show that they were created in 1992 - 1996 right there on my credit report. They will report for years to come as individual charge off accounts? Not all of my accounts were transferred to Great Lakes but were paid off through the consolidation and they are still reporting monthly almost 14 years later. I realize I was stupid to default on $40,000 in loans but the consolidation cost me $90,000.00 with interest and penalties and nearly 2 years later having kept up with the payments I have one account in good standing (the consolidation) and 30 CO's that wont budge. Can you tell I am going crazy with this mess