Defaulted loans are NOT on my credit report ... yet! PLEASE help before they get on!

[Anonymous]

This is so painful, so thank you for reading!

I was out of the country for 12 years and had not paid my student loans at all. I moved back to the US to help take care of a sick family member, am now in recovery for addiction and NEED to make good on this. I have every intention of reaching out to the Dept of Education to start paying back the approximate $100 k in federal student loans. 

Here is the problem: Until now, because I was abroad for so long, there is NOTHING on my credit reports about these loans (except for an NCO inquiry) and I have a GREAT FICO score of 759. I recently got on the Dept Education website, and requested a PIN to determine if, in fact, if there still is an outstanding obligation. While NOTHING is on my credit reports, the Federal Student Loan website has them on record as defaulted. So eventually it WILL come up and bite me in the you-know-what if I don't get to this!

Now I want to contact Dept Education to begin making the only payments I can afford (which are tiny). But I am TERRIFIED that, once I do so, they are going to put a big fat $100k default on my credit report for the next 7 years. I know I have to live with the consequences of my actions, but I REALLY don't want to shoot myself in the foot by contacting them stupidly, especially now that I'm trying to get my life back by making amends. Of course, given that I requested a PIN from the Dept Education site it is only a matter of time before they contact me, something I would MUCH rather avoid by taking a pro-active stance. 

So here is my question: given what I have shared, do you think it is remotely feasible that the Dept Education might agree NOT to put any of this on my credit report now if I contact them, make a feasible payment plan and actually DO it? I am tortured about this because, while I DO want to do the right thing (finally), I also don't want a very old black mark to go on my credit report now.

If anyone can help or provide any suggestions, I would be most grateful. And if you have gone through anything similarl and would be willing to privately message me or even speak on the phone, I would REALLY appreciate it. It can't hurt to ask, right?!

Thanks so much in advance! 

[Anonymous]

Definitely contact them ASAP and ask them if there is any Loan Rehabilation programs you can join so it can return your loans to their pre-default status. 

[tburns]

I was actually in the same boat as you. Defaulted SL wasn't on my CR at all when I started rehab on it. It never popped back on till it was out of rehab and showed up completely postive dating back 12 years of never being late.

NCO might be different though.

DOE might tell you to rehab through NCO though if that's who has your SL now for collection. I had to rehab through the collection agency then it was picked back up with Direct Loans once that was done.

However my Dad had a 25 year old defaulted SL on his report a few years ago listed about 4 times from different Collection Agencies. My Mom was trying to clear up his credit so they could buy a new house with his VA loan. He tried to call them and they wouldn't work out a reasonable payment with him so he just sent them $50 a month bypassing the CA. After a year they just considered his loan rehabbed.

Now I didn't even attempt anything like that. But his credit at the time was so bad I guess he was just at the mindset what else could they do but accept it lol.