I got three CitiAssist student loans, each around $4K while studying in NY. I believe they were private student loans as I can't find them on National Student Loan database. Back in late 2008, I moved to Cali and was supposed to start paying the loans but due to the economy I couldn't find a job and citibank wouldn't allow deferrment - since I had graduated. After them sending several noticies they finally transferred my case over to collections (DCS), who started annoying me with phone calls and letters in mail. I eventually gave up and stopped responding to them altogether.
For past few years, I have been saving money as well and became conscious of my credit rating/score. When I got my credit report I noticed that all three loans were listed as in-dispute and that the accounts have been closed & charged-off. However, equifax is still reporting them to be on-time...which is really confusing me. Suprinsingly my credit score is 720+ as well. I've been paying all Federal loans and credit cards on-time.
I wanna do the right thing and want to payback OC, however, I'm concerned that it'll reset 7-year clock on the loan and also the SOL. Here are my concerns:
1. When I got the loan, I was in NY (SOL: 6 years), Citibank is based in South Dakota (SOL: 6 years), but the entire time I've been defaulted, I have been in California (SOL: 4 years). Unfortunately, I can't find my MPN and wondering whether it had choice of laws clause in it. Do you guys think, I'm safe? since I'm in Cali and 5 years have gone by? I just don't wanna engage the OC and reset SOL clock.
2. My credit report is still showing the loans as Citibank accounts, however, my understanding is that CitiAssist loans were taken over by Discover. Also read somwhere that DCS doesn't buy the debt from OC, they just try to collect the debt. Should I negotiate with Discover or Citibank? Btw, I only get calls from DCS.
3. Assuming I'm negotiating with Discover, would they be able to do a PFD on a loan being reported as Citibank's account?
