Hi, all. First, I just want to say hello and thank you for everyone who works to keep this trove of information together. After a few years, I finally have hope that I will be in a more tenable credit situation next year.

I've been reading up on student loans, and the general gist of what is said is that it is near impossible to remove or fix accurately reported information. Is this a fair assumption?

I have 4 student loan accounts that were reporting 120 days late last year before I finished a consolidation and brought everything current. I was going to two different universities at the time, and therefore can't prove I was at least going half-time.

At the time (it was pre-Creditboards) I didn't even know I could ask them nicely to remove the lates before transfer.

I really want to remove these. My wife and I are going to be buying a house at the end of this year, hopefully. Her credit is perfect (thanks to me!) and mine is hovering around a 550 FICO. I really want to raise mine so I can look her square in the eyes as we go through this process knowing I've done my best.

So, to my question... does anyone have an opinion on how to approach this subject with Citibank SL and the other lender (small time outfit). Try the standard CRA dispute as "never late"? Or a goodwill letter to both companies begging for the mercy? Or maybe I'm just going to have to live with it. Thanks again everyone. I'll be back on in the morning to see how many kind people helped out! Thanks again!

and..... GO STEELERS!!!!

I have been wondering the same thing. I made an error on DH's student loan and I feel really bad about it. I have been paying our bills for almost a year (since we got married). My student loan is the same amount every month and has never, ever changed. When I started paying for DH, he gave me one coupon out of the coupon book he had and I started paying the amount using our online banking. I have been paying the same amount each month. Just yesterday he came to me and told me that the payment amount changed 3 months ago! We did not get a new coupon book in the mail or any other letters from them and I had no idea the payment would change or that we were out of coupons. I immediately paid the $40 past due and the late fees. I know that it is ultimately our responsibility to know this information and make sure the payments are correct. I have not checked his credit report yet to see if this is reflected there but I am afraid, based on this post, that it is being reported. Of course, my DH is really nice about it, but I still feel bad.

Thanks, Lynn.

Sorry to hear the bad news... If they won't budge, I can't make things worse by trying to dispute them as late, right?

I truly do not mean to offend you, as I see that you are definitely an authority here on student loans. I also appreciate your time in responding. I'll have more questions later on, I'm sure. Until then, take care.

Make sure they're reporting the same way on all of your reports. If they're only reporting late on 1-2 reports (and that's not at all uncommon), you'll want to seriously think about whether or not you want to dispute it at all. If it's not reporting as late on all three of your reports and you dispute, you run the VERY high risk of them not removing the lates from the ones where it is reporting and then adding the lates to those where it isn't reporting now, obviously making things worse (which I would imagine is probably not your intention!!).

Hope this helps! Good luck.