Meaning of Default

[Anonymous]

My wife has a Perkins loan reporting that she doesn't remember taking out.  Consequently, she has never sent in a payment (as notated on one of her reports - "First payment never received").  The loan was opened in 1999 and is still open, but despite being almost ten years late with that first payment, they are only reporting as 120 days late. 

Is this loan in default if is ten years behind, but not actually reporting as defaulted, or is it merely delinquent?

[LynnInMN]

Oh she is definately in default....perkins default after 270 days.  She should have made her payments to the school as they are the ones who administer it....so if she didnt leave a correct mailing with the Perkins collections department, she would never have received notice. 

Who is collecting it now?

[Anonymous]

Campus Partners is collecting, but I don't think they are a collection agency, and they aren't reporting the loan as defaulted or in collections or as filing a claim with the government, just 120 days late.

Her other loans were in default (just completed rehab on the Federal ones) so we're all too familiar with how defaulted loans look on a credit report.

[Anonymous]

I looked at a recent statement and it says to send the payment to the school, and the status on it is Past Due, not Defaulted.