Hello all! I discovered this board yesterday and am shocked at how quickly I have become obsessed with yet another area of my credit crusade! I have already used the ideas here to help me write three GW letters, one PFD and a letter asking for an error to be fixed.
My fiance and I are planning to buy our first home as soon as possible. After messing up my credit pretty early with a couple of charged off credit cards in college, some book club collections and a defaulted student loan, I felt like it was an impossible task to fix it. My boyfriend at the time made a ton of money, so we paid cash for everything, making credit something I was able to avoid thinking about.
When we broke up, the first thing I did was look for a new apartment. The landlord of the place of my dreams basically told me that there was no way he should give me a lease with my credit, but I seemed like a nice person and he gave me a chance. I got lucky there, but I knew it wouldn't always be this way. Little by little over the last six months, I have gotten more and more obsessed with fixing my credit and my fiance's credit. He doesn't get it at all, but I tried to explain that it is like a great strategy game where the outcome actually affects your real life. It's better than the video games he plays all the time!
Hope started for me when I got a call from Allied Interstate about my defaulted student loan. (I hear the collective groan of my readers...!) I've read so many horror stories about them, but the gentleman I spoke to was very polite. I set up a payment plan which I hoped would lead to rehabilitation of my loan. I was very wary though, because of all of the stories I had read about them. But with the hope of getting the biggest black mark on my credit report fixed, I thought maybe I could fix the rest as well. My earliest credit transgressions had finally been wiped from my record as I have now reached the decrepit old age of 30. :-)
After this long background, here is my first question: With the student loan rehabilitation program, it was my understanding that after 9 consecutive payments, the loan would be removed from the defaulted status and would be a loan in good standing again. Well, what happened is that after about three months, both the TLs on my credit report for the government loan and for the bank loan were completely removed. This actually caused me to not have enough info on my report to have a credit score until I opened a secured credit card. I have considered calling Allied Interstate to ask them about it, but I'm afraid they will go back and re-insert the negative TL again. It's now been about 6 months. Should I call them and ask them if they will insert a positive TL or would it be safer to wait until the 9 months are up and just see what happens? I would also like to ask them to remove the inquiry they placed on my report, but again, I'm afraid of bringing their attention to what I think is a mistake on their part. The other item worthy of mention is that the guy I spoke to at AI said that I should wait to file my taxes until after the 9 months was up or it would automatically be garnished to pay my student loan. I had three tax returns that I hadn't filed (don't ask...) and one of them was about to run out of time to file, so I filed it and they sent me a check. I filed the other two and they sent me checks as well. So, it appears as if everyone involved is considering my loan out of default.
I should note that the only report I am regularly viewing is my Transunion report and by regularly, I mean I update it every day, as I am subscribed to TrueCredit. I told you I am obsessed! My current score is 560. Thanks for any advice anyone can offer! You've all been such a great help already!
FYI Here is what is listed on my report right now:
HSBC Bank - Open Credit Card Account - Opened 11/05/07 - Limit $200 - High balance $152 - Everything current, no lates
CR SYST INTR (for Oklahoma Natural Gas) - Paid collection - Opened 8/1/06 - Original balance $202 - Have written GW letter
CMI (for At Home Entertainment cable) - Unpaid collection - Opened 7/7/06 - Balance $440 - My ex-bf didn't return the equipment when he moved out. I thought about a PFD, but I've already talked to them, because I didn't know what this was for. Not sure how to approach this one.
N AMER COLL (for Comcast Cable) - Unpaid collection - Opened 4/1/02 - Balance $496 - Also for unreturned cable equipment. I thought I should let this one ride out, bc it will fall off CR 02/09
Again, any advice is appreciated, not only that related to my student loan question.
