Student Loan Refis multiply the number of open accounts - why?

[Anonymous]

I opened up some student loans in college, about 6 to be exact. I have consolidated them a few times in 2000, 2001 and 2003 to get the best rates and now they are in 1 account as of the 2003 consolidation. These 6 loans show all of the different note holders for each refi, so the same debt is now listed as a total of 19 accounts on my credit report. This shows a flag as having too many lines of credit open. I've had this as a single account for 4 years now, why am I being dinged for the other 18 historical accounts? 13 of them have the current status as deferred, which is wrong since they were moved. There are no delinquent activity on any of the prior lenders, but my credit score is negatively affected based on the high number of accounts. Any ideas on how to correct this? Can it be cleared up? Thanks.

[jru577]

I would write to the lenders to let them know it is incorrect and to request that they correct it. The "open" status is what could hurt you. It should say closed and balance of $0.

[annah618]

I have multiple loans showing up like that on my CR too, but all the loans I've consolidated say "paid account/zero balance" and "student loan" on my EQ report. On my TU report, some just say "closed" and some say "unrated or bankruptcy" and "transferred to another lender" on my EX report some of them say nothing at all, and others say "transferred/sold to another lender" Only the consolidation loans say they are in deferment.

I have Sallie Mae... maybe your lender is not reporting correctly.

[Anonymous]

Thanks JRU, I appreciate the guidance. Sallie Mae show the old loans seven times as Open - Status is Payment Deferred with a date of July 2002 for the last activity for each. A 5 year deferral would be great, but it's inaccurate. I'm not sure where I have all of the old loan documents for all of the different account numbers. They are filed somewhere but I'm not sure it's worth the effort. Would another recourse be to just dispute the status with Equifax for these?

[annah618]

go to www.nslds.ed.gov

You can get all of your student loan history. It doesn't have account numbers, but it does have all of the dates, which should be enough for Sallie Mae to be able to find which loans you are referring to. I would try sorting it out with Sallie Mae first, and then if that doesn't work dispute with the CRA's as incorrect information.

[Anonymous]

Cool, will do. Thanks for the heads up Annah.

[Anonymous]

FYI:

They are required to separate the subsidized and un-subsidized protions of you consolidated loan.

For me my 4 SL's consolidated to 2.

[Anonymous]

That's a great website Annah ! thanks!

I just consolidated 2 of my loans into one with Direct Loan for nearly 18K...i am hoping that i win a lottery and pay this off as soon as possible.