Hi everyone,
My student loans went into default but are now all paid in full. I got the original loans from the Department of Education deleted which had 120 day lates on them however the defaulted trade lines still exist and it states 0 balance paid collection. I have 7 of these tradelines on Equifax and Experian all saying the same thing. Transunion never showed any of the loans thank goodness. Can I goodwill these off? Anyone ever had any success goodwilling a defaulted student loan off their report?
@Madoffed wrote:I'm in pretty much the same boat. I've sent one goodwill letter, nothing.
I posted this a long time ago with no responses, so either no one has ever tried, or no one has had success. Either way, not great for you and me.
LOL hey well at least I got you to respond! Have you tried calling? I was thinking of trying that tomorrow and see what happens and I was in the middle of writing a goodwill letter to them when I saw my email notification from myFICO
I hope something can be done short of waiting for it to just drop off from my credit reports.
I called and spent like an hour on the phone with a really nice rep. He said there was nothing he could do, but that the fact that I just stroked them a check rather than accept rehab on the prompting of the representative might present an opportunity. He suggested I write a letter to the Dept of Education - oh? send a letter to the government? that'll work well - telling them that I was induced to pay in full in a manner that harmed me when the rep should have (was obligated to??) offer rehabilitation. They responded saying basically that the debt was accurately reported, wait 7 years.
So, I paid off about $85,000 in student loans...the last $20,000 with one check a bit over 10 years after graduation and it shows derog on my credit report.
I'm due to write another letter this month, but their position is that regardless of the circumstances, what the rep did/didn't do, how fast or how much I paid off that one of my loans was delinquent and I paid it off without rehabbing so it is forever delinquent. I'm thinking of writing Obama...think he'll know I didn't vote for him? 
@jacksont1981 wrote:Hi everyone,
My student loans went into default but are now all paid in full. I got the original loans from the Department of Education deleted which had 120 day lates on them however the defaulted trade lines still exist and it states 0 balance paid collection. I have 7 of these tradelines on Equifax and Experian all saying the same thing. Transunion never showed any of the loans thank goodness. Can I goodwill these off? Anyone ever had any success goodwilling a defaulted student loan off their report?
Looking at this screen shot is kind of surreal. My Equifax profile has 16 of these Department of Education (ED) student loan accounts that mirrors this image. Only difference is that my accounts start with 1189XXXX and was opened in 10/2003 not 10/2001 like yours here. I had 16 of the accounts deleted from TransUnion, but both Equifax and Experian have "validated" the accounts as mine although when I ask them to give me the contact/party that "validated" the information they're unable to do so. I had a very heated phone conversation with Experian on two separate occasions recently; complete waste of time and energy. I want these accounts GONE like yesterday!!! I consolidated my federal student loans so they were paid in a full a year ago exactly, but I DO NOT want 16 negative trade lines reporting for several more years to the CRAs. It's so frustrating!!! I seriously believe that defaulted student loans are worse than filing bankruptcy because they damage your credit and are nearly IMPOSSIBLE to get removed! From every source I've heard from, the ED DOES NOT goodwill loans that are paid in full. Maybe someone out there can chime in and prove me wrong. So, the only thing I care about is working an angle to get them removed. Good luck to you, and anyone else, going through this struggle.
@Madoffed wrote:Well, I don't want to jinx it, but I got a call back from a very nice gentleman at the ombudsman's office after last month's call with some pretty unbelievable news. Looks like they removed my student loans from my credit reports on or about the 15th of October. I just pulled my Experian and Dept. of Education no longer shows up in the derrogatory items section - no longer in accounts in good standing either. My score hasn't changed at all, is it possible that the positive and negative effects were perfectly balanced???
Anyway, going to check the other two reports over the coming weeks. I'll come back and let you guys know.
Bear in mind, the story I told was no bs (genuine consolidation error resulting in an orphaned loan, natural disaster, wife with serious illness, followed by full payment of $20,000 to settle the loan when rehabilitation was an option), so YMMV. The good news is that it seems as though if there is a genuine error/hardship they will research the issue and help you. The bad news, I really got no bang for my buck in the score dept. Still, I'm pleased with the outcome.
Congrats! That is awesome! Even though you didnt get the score bump you hoped for, I am a firm believer in clean reports is better than dirty ones. Especially dirty with student loan debt. I am going to give the ombudsmans office a try and see how that goes. Thanks for reporting back as this is very helpful info.