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Hello, Newbie here and excited to find such a helpful and vast forum site on all things credit! Anyway, I've recently decided its time to start fixing my poor credit that has largely been caused by credit cards used in my early 20's and a private student loan balance that ended up going to collections. My private loan debt is $19k and credit cards are $7k (recently paid down from 12k) I'm a recent college graduate (2010) and was lucky enough to get a good job right out of college. I just got a new job 3 months ago that pays even better than my old one which coupled with having a newborn son, has inspired me to get my credit back on track as soon as I'm able. I recently sold some assets and have managed to scrape together $7k I'd like to use to jump start my credit road to recovery. So my question is, which is a better decision in repairing my credit. Settling my student loan debt (which after speaking with a local debt settlement attorney should be possible, at least on the 15k loandisbursement debt. The remaining disbursements a are small adding up to the 19k). Or payoff all my credit cards in full and shut them down. Obviously I'm kind of leaning towards the loan settlement option as that is what's most detrimental to my credit, considering the credit cards are not in default. But I also wonder if paying off the credit cards will not only immediately improve the look of my credit report, but also will allow me to use those would be monthly payments to get the 19k debt paid off in 2-3 years. That way I could also avoid the painful debt settlement smear on my credit report. But is the damage already done in that regard, due to the default? I should also note that my primary goal is to purchase a house soon, but I know that will be challenging with my private loan problem. My choice in this matter will be heavily swayed by the ability to obtain a home loan hopefully sometime in the next 5 years. Just looking for some experience and insight on my predicament and I thank all in advance.

Need help and I think after reading this board this might be the place to get it. Back in January of 2008 my wife and I applied and received an AES Private school loan, through TERI. My wife co-signed the application as well. We needed help covering the student costs that had accrued because I wasn't able to work and initially we were going to try and avoid student loans (dumb dumb idea). The amount was 25k+. Now it's May of 2009, and I'm no longer at the same school. I've transferred. We receive notification from the lender that we were now in repayment mode which is a surprise to us. I am in school full-time, my other Federal School loans were in deferment. We spoke to several people, very confusing ,I spent more time on the phone with people than I care to admit. COuldn't keep track. We submitted faxes upon faxes of notification of Full-time status at my school but never was able to move loan to deferment. The last payment we made was May of 2009. The last time I sent a fax to apply for deferment was in July of 2009 (which we have copy of fax to this day). We never heard anything. I called repeated times and never heard a thing. Then we stopped receiving any mail or notices from the lender. Fast forward to December of 2009 and we receive notice we are in collections. To which we fight, unsuccessfully. We were told the total charge-off amount was 29k+ and we could (still can't) not afford that whatsoever. Any attempt at a restructured payment plan was outrageous. We visit several credit "advice" agencies but none are help. Then in May of 2010 we meet a lawyer in our town (We live in NE) who used to be a collections agent. He for years represented banks trying to get back owed debts. He liked our case, and wanted to take it basically pro bono. We felt like we had done everything to meet the standards of deferment. I received my degree in May of 2010 as well. Our lawyer advised we wait for the statute of limitations in Nebraska (which is 4 years for all types of debt). It is now December of 2013. Supposedly the SOL would have been up in May of this year. So this is my question to the board: is this done? More in deptH: Are we in the clear? My credit is ruined, and my wife has great credit except for this blemish (big one). Are there anythings we can do to improve our scores (my most importantly). Any insight into this would be so incredibly helpful. This has put a real strain on our relationship obviously. Thank you

the counselors over at national debt relief and curadebt advised me that private student loan balances that were charged off and in collections could be included in debt settlement plans. i was told this after careone indicated they could not include any student loans whatsoever in debt settlement plans. i understand that federally backed student loans (e.g., sallie mae loans) cannot be included in such programs, however, can anyone clarify whether or not private student loans from banks like key bank, can be included in debt settlement programs with companies such as national debt relief and curadebt?

I defaulted on my private student loans in 2010. I have about 114k is private student loans. I'm not sure what happened to them after TERI went bankrupt. I was contacted by NCO first who then forwared them to a local law firm Bierer & Margolis. I sent them a DV letter after they made initial contact. What are my rights, if they don't properly validate it? It's only been two weeks so far, and I have received a letter from AES/NCT stating that my name "may" be wrong on my account and that they need proof of the spelling of my name ie. birth certificate, social security card. I haven't produced them with anything. Do you think this is a stall tactic? I have agreed, if they validate, to start a payment arragement with them. I don't care about paying them, I just want it removed from my credit because its stopping my score from further increasing. Pleae help!!!