I already posted this info on the main forum, hope it's not against any rules
to add it here (since it's about a student grant).

Long story but basically - Pell grant in early 2000; didn't attend that quarter; called school
and DOE, told that IF it needed to be repaid they would contact; no contact. Submitted
FAFSA to same school in late 2002, red-flagged that I owed on a loan. Called DOE, no
record of anything owing. Turns out the school had screwed up the paperwork and nothing
ever got sent to DOE.

Contacted by DOE a couple of months later; unable to make payments at that time; contacted
a few months later by CA representing DOE; CA made illegal claims and basically broke every
rule in the book, including posing as Feds; I contacted DOE and informed them I would pay, but
only directly to them. They revoked the CA, took back the debt, I made payment arrangements,
paid off as agreed from that point.

Up until about a month ago the debt showed as "paid after collection/chargeoff" on all three
reports. Now EQ is showing it from 12/05 (LONG after I started paying it off) through
7/05 (when it was PIF) as 120 days. WTF??? I contaced DOE and they're sending me a
letter verifying it as paid as agreed/PIF but told me I should submit it myself to EQ.

This is crazy and I've already been denied one CC because of it. I've disputed online
w/TU and EX about the "charge off" (how could it have been charged off when it wasn't
even in DOE's database?) and am waiting to see what becomes of that. But these
120s only showed up w/in the past month.

As an aside - I have three CCs, two from BofA and one from Direct Merch., all with decent
CLs and pristine payment records, but unfortunately all only about a year old. I would
like to start shopping for an auto loan but that EQ thing is scaring me.

Now what?

I'm thinking maybe I should also send a letter to DOE but I'm not sure what it should include.

Thanks for any help you can offer.

Just bumping this to see if anyone has ideas for me.

BTW, the dates EQ is showing 120s should be 12/04 - 7/05, not 12/05 (duh).

In the meantime, I've sent a goodwill letter to DOE - don't know how much good it will
do but I'll try anything to get the incorrect info off my CR. I have heard of occasional
removals of derogatories by DOE but I'm not holding my breath.

I just contacted one of my of old FA University coworkers who handles Pell and state/federal grants. His response was is that you will get nowhere with the DOE since 1) the error was not theirs and 2) written policy at both the school level and federal level state that these funds must be repaid if you do not attend. He stated that the onus would have been on you to return the funds immediately. He agrees that this might have been difficult to do since it sounds like your school had its head up its ass, but he said the funds should have been set aside to PIF the moment you were contacted. The fact that you had to pay it off in payments and that you did not pay it in full, would justify the negative credit rating.

Thanks for the info. But a couple of things...first, I spoke to someone at DOE's collections unit and he took quite a bit of time looking at the account. The only CRA reporting it this way is EQ, and apparently (from a search of CB) they have an ugly habit of hitting people with 120s if any error is reported. DOE never reported it this way - it was reported as "paid collection", paid in full. The DOE guy told me he's mystified by the 120s dating only from 12/04 - I started paying the debt off in 2003. It wasn't even reported to DOE until 2002, and then there was a lapse between the report and first contact by DOE. He did say he'd send me a letter verifying PIF with a zero balance, after collection. When it WAS being reported that way, it wasn't killing my credit score, it's EQ's frivolous 120s that are doing it.

At least one CBer has sued EQ over this 120 thing and got a settlement, and there's a thread of about nine pages about this problem with EQ - most of it on student loans, and most of it EQ's reporting, not DOE.

I'm going to keep trying. The collections notation is correct, but the 120s are NOT and they're costing me.

Thanks again for the response.

Oh, and just a footnote - by the time DOE got the info from the school and I started paying it off, I was permanently and totally disabled, and DOE was aware of it. Yet I was never informed that I could file to have the debt discharged under their rules. But that's probably another issue altogether.

I really dont think you would get a discharge of Pell funds that you were never eligible for.

Yes, you're right on that, now that I actually thought about it. D'oh.

But anyway...it's the 120-day lates I'm disputing, NOT the fact that it was a
collection. Maybe they will be removed, maybe not, all I know is that my EQ
score tanked 27 points as soon as those appeared out of the blue.

Just out of curiosity, do you believe inaccurate lates are okay just because
it was a debt owed to DOE? I mean no disrespect, but I see you formerly
worked in that area. In no way do I dispute that I owed the money, and yes
perhaps I should have read all the fine print whether the school used the word
"IF" or not.

Thanks for your replies to my thread.

I dont see how you think 120 days late as they are reporting is inaccurate. The funds were dispersed in 2000 and technically should have been returned immediately. You didnt finishing paying it off until /2005. Once a balance goes into a collection status, there is no such thing as being brought current. Same holds for defaulted loans...they will continue to report 120/180 days as the status even after they are paid.

Be that as it may, I'll do what I can to have them removed, since one of the
goals of credit repair/rehab is to get negative information removed through
disputes and other legitimate means.

And if one approach doesn't work, I'll try a different one.

And if all else fails - the SOL in my state is four years, and that's only about
three years down the line.

The notations area on all three CRs say "paid after collection" and show a
zero balance - not consistent with the 120s (and now a suddenly appearing
30 on EX).

I screwed up, I made it right. A little forbearance(sp?) would not kill a
creditor, whoever it is.

Actually the reporting SOL for your DOE tradeline will be 7 years from the time they paid the claim.

You will find that the DOE will be almost impossible to remove. They will validate and they will update and if you read this forum you will find that people have ended up with even more negative remarks due to disputes. "Oh yeah, he was actually 180 late, lets update that...."

Seven years from the date they paid what claim?

I don't quite understand what you're saying - from the date the Pell funds
were disbursed? That would be late 1999/early 2000.

It wasn't charged off.

What's the timeline?

Your 7 year reporting clock started when the account was turned over to the DOE for collections. By reading your initial post it sounds like late 2002/early 2003.

I just checked - June 2002.

So even if I have no luck with DOE or the CRAs, that's not so bad. A little over
three years.

That seven years means everything falls off, correct? Including the 120s (assuming
they are never removed) that show in 2005?