I have had a private student loan with Citibank since 1999. In June 2007 I had some difficulty with repayments, as our condo fees nearly doubled (from 350 to $650/mo!) for a special assessment and at the same time my repayment plan from Citibank changed and my payments also shot up. Both of these increases came out of nowhere so I was caught off guard. Throughout the time I spoke continuously with Citibank and set up payments over the phone (e.g. "I can pay half of it this Friday and the other half in 2 weeks, please just setup an automatic payment.") I explained the situation to the reps I spoke with and they were glad to setup the repayments. Finally at one point I spoke to a rep who looked at my account again and was able to lower my payments and by September my head was fully above water. I was adamant at this time about speaking with Citibank and making repayment - I absolutely did not want any lates on my CRs and I was assured by the reps I had spoken to that there wouldn't be any............

Of course, now I have 3x 30 day lates showing in June, July and Sept 07 on my CRs I called Citibank and spoke to a rep last week who looked at my account and said that the information about Sept. 07 is definitely incorrect (even with the payment plan as we had it setup it was not late at all) but she didn't address the other two. I was able to check the Sept. 07 payment history and it was paid on the due date (the others I had setup via telephone so don't have the history available) I sent a GW letter via fax explaining the situation - do I have a leg to stand on? Is there a stronger approach I may be able to take (for example an individual or department I can actually speak to?) These are my only baddies and I know they are tanking my FICOs and will kill me when we go to refinance this fall.

Without any correspondence records, you'll probably be left holding the bag.

I would not give up though. Keep GWing those lates and don't take no for an answer.

I'm going to GW the s*** out of them

They asked me to send a copy of the credit report showing the late. Then they sent me a letter stating that it was correct. The interesting thing is that I called several times last week to check the status and was told that they received the fax and were reviewing it. I received a letter Saturday stating that it was correct, dated the 12th....

I sent another letter yesterday re-explaining the situation. Maybe they will actually read it. If this one comes back, I may start moving up the food chain.