Are Sallie Mae Student Loan Eligible for Rehab?

[Junejer]

So, my sister is in ATL and I am helping her with her credit. Her main problems are with the student loans. She had a number of small loans with 120 day past dues from a few years back. She has had them consolidate into one loan and has been on time for about 1 1/2 years. My question is--does she qualify for the rehab program, seeing that she was on time for at least nine months straight. It seems like they did part of it (consolidation), but I understood that she would also get the derogatory expunged from her reports. Any thoughts?

Following are her actual entries from her EQ from myfico:

Status as of [?] Jan, 2006
Date opened [?] Nov, 1994
Date of last activity [?] Jan, 2006
Date closed [?] Not Reported
Account number [?] XXXXXXXXXXX0001
Loan type [?] Not Reported
Largest past balance [?] $5,500
Terms [?] Not Reported
Account Type [?] Installment
Account holder [?] Individual
Scheduled payment amount [?] $0
Account status [?] Account is Inactive
Descriptions [?]

90+ days late 2 times (Nov 2005, Nov 2005)
Worst Delinquency [?]
120+ days past due

This is only one of six more that look just like it. Following is the one that is current.

Sallie Mae
Status as of [?] Jan, 2008
Date opened [?] Jan, 2006
Date of last activity [?] Jan, 2008
Date closed [?] Not Reported
Account number [?] XXXXXXXXXXX0008
Loan type [?] Not Reported
Largest past balance [?] $13,842
Terms [?] Not Reported
Account Type [?] Installment
Account holder [?] Individual
Scheduled payment amount [?] $xx
Account status [?] Account is Open

Balance [?] Current Status [?] Past Due Amount [?]
$XXXXX Pays account as agreed Not Reported

Seven year payment history [?]
30 days late 0 times
60 days late 0 times
90+ days late 3 times (Nov 2006, Sep 2006, Aug 2006)

Worst Delinquency [?]
120+ days past due (Actually took place in Sep & Oct 2006) 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12

[Anonymous]

To my understanding, The rehabilitation program is for Defaulted Student Loans. I did it about 8yrs ago.

[Junejer]

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@Anonymous wrote:

To my understanding, The rehabilitation program is for Defaulted Student Loans. I did it about 8yrs ago.

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Is 120 days past due considered defaulted? If not, she would have to go into the crapper totally in order to take advantage of getting the derog removed from her reports altogether. Sum'n sum'n does not smell right.

[Junejer]

Bump. Any thoughts?

[ngerasimatos]

If you fail to pay for 270 days or longer, its in default.

http://www.bankrate.com/brm/news/advice/20030318a1.asp

[Junejer]

Well doesn't that just suck eggs? So, she fell on some tough times, fixed herself up and got things together, but because she didn't go completely "buck wild" and into default, there's no remedy for her? If the gov't is offering a remedy to someone at 270 days p.d., (ie. expunging their record of the derogs) then why not someone who rehabs themselves? Am I being unreasonable? Perhaps I am too close to the situation to see objectively. But, this doesn't seem right. Please give me your thoughts.

[treschic]

I think alot of people are misunderstanding what rehabbing a loan means.  Rehabbing simply removes the default status from the loan, and allows you to qualify for future federal financial aid.  It does not remove the lates.  I think some people have had success in asking the company to remove the lates, but they are not required to do so.  Also, you can be extreamly late on your loans, and not have defaulted, which i think some people confuse as well.  I think usually, once you hit 120-150+ days late, the company sometimes might send you into default, but it is entirely possibly to be 180+ days, and not be defaulted.  so, you do not want to purposely default on your loans, just to get lates removed, because IT WILL NOT WORK.  some people on the board have stated that when they consolidated their student loans, that the old loan trade line was deleted.  again, this depends on the lender, and is not always 100%.  it sucks, trust me, i am in a similar situation.  i was pissed at first, angry, and then i realized, well, there's really nothing i can do to change it.  i can send good will letters everymonth, but i can't let it ruin my day.  hope this helps.

[Junejer]

Thanks Angie. The student loan area, is one that I am completely clueless about. I had one small GLHEC loan my freshman year (which is my oldest account) and paid for the rest of my education through working 40+ hours per week, while carrying on average 17 credits per semester. I was only sure about the day of the week on Sundays, b/c I went to church. BTW, I paid that SL off within six months of coming out of deferrment.

I guess I will just have her GW the living doo-doo out of them.

Thanks for the information.

[treschic]

with student loans, credit, and everything else in life, knowledge comes with experience.  you only become knowledgeable in something once you have had to go through it.  i didn't know anything about student loans, what a private or federal loan was or even what financial aid was, until i had to go through it during my college years.  i wish i could've paid my college tuition by working, but working only paid for food and gas, and books.  i would've had to make 100k/year to be able to pay my tuition in cash.  it's sad but a true reality for those who want to pursue a higher education.   

[Junejer]

Literally, every penny that I made went to pay someone else something. Rent (luckily had the two best roommates ever--never late on anything), car payment, gas. Food was mostly provided by mom (Luv U mom). I made decent $, but never saw any of it. I was constantly threatened to get dropped from school, b/c I was on the payment plan. My last payment would would always be a week or two late (books ate me up). I just didn't want to get in over my head with SLs. Luckily, I went to a state university and the tuition was reasonable waaaaay back in the late 80's early 90's. The Reserves also provided a little over $400/mo to the cause.