reformedfamilyman wrote:
I have a 12 year old student loan that shows as Paid Collection. I've been thinking that I should get it removed but recently found out that since it's over 10 years old and it IS paid, it actually HELPS my credit score on Transunion. I looked up my scores today (Equifax was 707 a month ago) and they were: Equifax was 728, Experian (which mirrors the same info as Equifax) was 733, and Transunion was 778. It clearly helps my score as that's the only extra thing reported that EQ and EX don't show.
How should I go about asking the US Dept of Education to report on all three bureaus? Call them? Write a letter? Do both (call, then write a followup)? Should I ask for it to be reported as just "Paid" or is that pushing it?
Catch 22. If you write them they may look at the letter as a dispute and delete it completely. If they delete, you will loose the history and your score will suffer. On the flip side, what would your score be if it reported as "Paid" or "paid as agreed". If it is a recent (0-4 yrs) collect, I'd probably ask via a GW.
DW had a similar issue with her father's CC of which she was an AU on. He kept a $6k balance on this $6300 TL, but no lates. Her utilization never dropped below 95% because of the card. On the other hand, it was her oldest by 6 years. So, we disputed and it dropped off her reports. Her score dropped by an avg of 20 points across the board. Dang if we do and dang if we don't. Ironically, dad-in-law paid off this balance completely to $0 one month after we disputed it. Grrrr.
