Hey all. I would appreciate some advice.
Back in March of 2012, I logged in to the Dept of Ed's website to pay my student loans, and it said that my balance was $0 for both my consolidated subsidized and my consolidated unsubsidized student loans. My happiness lasted less than five seconds, because that was too good to be true. After a lot of digging, and going to the student loan database, I found out that my loans had been transferred to Fed Loan Servicing. (Note that neither entity notified me before the transfer.) The DOE's website said that I owed $0, and wouldn't allow any further payments. FLS's website took a couple weeks past my regular payment date to get going, but I paid whatever amount they specified as the minimum right away, and started e-paying them every payday.
I just pulled my credit report, and it's saying that my loans with the Dept of Ed had no data in March or April 2012, were OK in May 2012, and 90 days late in June 2012. I am freaking out! I checked both websites for months, because I've always tried to be on top of my student loans. The DOE had my email and snail mail address, and my phone number, and never notified me that I owed them anything. The website kept saying $0. I pulled my entire student loan history today from the Department of Ed and some text file says that in June 2012, the loan amount was a few dollars higher than the amount disbursed, and that in June 2012, $56 was cancelled. What the heck do I do now? My credit is taking a huge hit for saying that I'm 90 days late on $56 for the sub and unsub loans. I would have gladly paid $56 if I'd known that someone thought I owed it. (Not gladly, but at least quickly.)
I filed disputes with all three credit unions immediately. Experian came back as "Updated" (but no changes) in like 45 minutes on a Saturday morning, so clearly no actual investigation took place. I tried calling the DoE, but they said that I have to call Fed Loan Servicing. I haven't yet called FLS because they don't answer the phone on the weekends. I also tried to reach out to the DoE Ombudsman via the online support request, but who knows if that will work. FLS's website doesn't go back more than 12 months, and I'd have to pay my bank for bank statements that old. But I don't even know if that will help. I'm not looking forward to fighting the FLS phone tree to try to get them to remove this late payment notation, but I will.
Does anyone have any other suggestions? I'm so frustrated. I made it a point to pay more than the minimum on my student loans, and in exchange they trash my credit?? I'm trying to buy a house this summer, and a major ding on my credit for a $56 that I never knew I owed could cost me thousands and thousands of dollars.
