Sallie Mae Deferred/Consolidated Loans

[TheAmazingRando]

Back in 2004, I attended ITT Tech (terrible decision, they're a bunch of crooks, but that's another post). At their encouragement, I took out some student loans from Sallie Mae, each semester. The counsellor/salespeople were very convincing that signing it wouldn't be a problem. So for each semester, I ended up with two loans, one for tuition, and one for books. I ended up with 6 loans total.

 

Once I realized ITT was a scam and a degree mill, I left. I attended a real college, and deferred my loans several times. The way I think it works, is that you can defer payment for six months at a time, just by saying you are still in school. However, due to university life, frequent moves, and my own ignorance, I was less than prompt at deferring the loans. Due to some strange technicality, being tardy in deferring the loans results in a 90- or 120-day delinquency on the credit report. Because I had no consolidated my loans yet, this results in SIX 90 or 120-day delinquncies on my credit report, every time I didn't defer it on time. So for each of the 6 loans, there's 3 90-day and 1 120-day delinquency.

 

I pulled my credit report, and these are the only negatives on it. I have a good job now (no thanks to ITT). I've consolidated my student loans, and am paying double the minimum payment every month. I have an auto loan I'm paying, and a credit card that I'm paying off in full every month. I've never, ever, been late paying my rent. I'd like to buy a house soon, but due to this student loan fiasco, my credit score is an abysmal 603, which means my interest rate will be higher than I want, if I can even get a loan in this day and age.

 

I was hoping you guys might have some advice on how I can fix this. The latest missed deferment is from Jun 2007, so I have 5 more years before these go away naturally. All six are marked as "Closed/Paid in Full". Is there any way I can get rid of them? I know the restrictions on student loans are much stricter than normal accounts.

 

Thanks in advance for your suggestions.

[CTK]

in general the deferments last for a year, and you can do it a max of 5 times i believe. BUT, i'm pretty sure you should not have had to defer them yourself if you were a full time student. SLM should've known on there own using whatever database they use that you were a student and put them in deferment for you. not much you can do usually with these, but that at least gives you something. I'd do a little research on that, whether you really should have even been paying at that point. i could be wrong about all that but it's what i've always seen.

Edited July 29, 2009 by CTK

[Saria]

in general the deferments last for a year, and you can do it a max of 5 times i believe. BUT, i'm pretty sure you should not have had to defer them yourself if you were a full time student. SLM should've known on there own using whatever database they use that you were a student and put them in deferment for you. not much you can do usually with these, but that at least gives you something. I'd do a little research on that, whether you really should have even been paying at that point. i could be wrong about all that but it's what i've always seen.

 

Not necessarily. It depends on whether the school was participating in the clearinghouse at the time. I attended a CC for a while that didn't, and I had to have paper enrollment verification forms signed and mailed to SM.