keep paying on collection, or tell them to shove it?

[Anonymous]

Took out a private school loan directly from the school.  Got way behind a number of years ago.  A little over three years ago, after the debt had been sent to collection, got things together and have been paying as agreed every month on time since.  It is showing on my EQ as 120+ days behind and in collections.  It shows a DOFD date of 9/2002.  I am a good 4 years away from paying this off.  Can they change the date of the DOFD since I've been paying?  Would that mean that I'm looking at this on my credit as 120+ behind and in collections for the next 11.5 years????

Should I

1.  keep paying the way I have been and hope that they don't re-age (can they?)  and the negative part falls off in a year and a half?

2.  keep paying and contact the school to see if, due to my good faith, they will remove the negative for the past three years, or something along those lines? (I am not really even sure how to ask for what I want.)  Or will this alert them to re-age?

3.  contact the school tell them that it's not in my interest to continue paying unless they agree to remove the neg from the past three years. 

My EQ score is 100 points lower than TU, and 60 lower than EX all due to this debt.  (Although none are great.)

Thanks in advance

[Anonymous]

What you need to know is...was this closed / charged off????  If it was  NO it will drop from your CR in 2009 (approx)

CRTP.....after COd will remain on CR 7 years from DOFD.

CRTP can not be changed!    BUT most states use DOLA (payments)  for SOL.

Because you made payments  you may have restarted SOL!!  this means that if you stop paying  they can file a lawsuit!!

[Anonymous]

Yes, this is one of those perverse cases where the consumer gets the shaft for trying to do the right thing.

[Anonymous]

It doesn't show charged off or closed that I can tell, although in the report it is listed under the big heading Closed Accounts.  The Current Status  box is blank.  Date opened is 01/2001.  Date reported is 4/2008.  Date of las payment is 4/2008.  Is the date reported the last time they updated? Certainly not the first time they reported? Date of first delinquency is 9/2002.  Amount past due $8463.  Comments read:  "Collection Account, Customer has now located consumer"

Payment history lists CA for each month since 2005 when  I started paying.

So, forgive me for being dense, but what is my best course of action?  (And what is CRTP?)

[Anonymous]

Many states have a proviso in the SoL that even partial payments will restart the clock ... chances are, if you imply that you're considering not paying, they might sue you. I've seen lenders sue for less than $8K!

It will report to CRAs until 7.5 years from the date of last activity or date of first of delinquency, whichever comes LAST, AFAIK.

I think that by trying to do the right thing, you've given yourself the shaft. But then, if you HADN'T made those payments, it's possible that they would have sued THEN. I'm assuming that prior to the payments you've been making, you owed more than $8K!!

Did you default? I don't know about private school loans, but the rules for federal loans state that if you go into default and "rehab" the loan, I'm pretty sure that after a year of payments, they have to list your account as current, paying as agreed.

Anyone?

[Anonymous]

It's not a federal loan so my understanding is that the rehab program is not an option.