Before I pose my question, I want to commend everyone for this very thorough and informative thread. Because of this, I feel comfortable to post my first question on creditboards.

I started graduate school in Fall 2003 and took a leave of absence Fall 2004. I financed my first year of school with a combination of grants and loans, both private and federal. I applied to consolidate my loans in March 2005. I mistakenly thought that my private loan would be a part of the package. Fast forward 14 months later, and I am paying on a private loan that went into collections. I would like to return to school in Spring 2007 and I know that I will need a private loan to finance that semester. Is there any way I could get another private loan, either from this lender or another one? Has anyone heard of a situation like this?

I don't know about your specific situation, but here is some general information that might help . . .

It is still possible to get private student loans with bad credit, BUT it can be more difficult. Because the private loan went into collections, you will have at least one negative tradeline on your report, and it will lower your credit scores. Private loan companies pull credit reports (sometimes more than one) and base their decision on what they find. (Unlike federal loans.)

After a BK7 filing, banks that I was able to get private student loans from in the past (Citibank and Key) would have nothing to do with me. I was able to get a private student loan from another bank, but the loan required a co-signer and had a higher interest rate than the pre-BK7 loans.

It seems likley that one private student loan going into collections would not be as detrimental to a credit score or a loan decision as a BK7 - so I would be really surprised if you couldn't get a loan, but I don't know for sure.

One thing you might want to do is pull your 3 reports and check your scores - then you can see where you are at and fix any incorrect information you find. Good idea to plan ahead!

Good luck!

Thanks Brigitte for the information! I guess it doesn't look as bleak as I thought it would.

Like I said, I don't know about your situation specifically but I would be surprised if you couldn't get any private loans. The bank that went to collections may not want to loan to you but there are a lot other banks out there. Good luck!