Long back story short:
Obtained student loans from 1999-2003. Half subsidized half unsubsidized. After graduating in 2003 I consolidated my loans with Mississippi Higher Education who processed the loans through one processing company I started with. My loan was set to be paid automatically via checking account debit. The loans were paid on time for approximately 5 years without issue. In 2007 Mississippi Higher Education switched processing companies from the first company to Chase. I did not know this had happened due to not updating my contact (mailing address) information. I missed two payments before I noticed. By the time I resolved the issue and located contact information from Chase I was over 90 days late. (On a side note I was highly upset with Chase, as I had a credit account with their company that had current contact information for me. I was told the standard "that is a separate division of Chase").
My payment had been $119 per month for the entire previous 5 years I was paying it automatically. Chase determined my new payment to be $189 per month due to there being two separate accounts (unsubsidized and subsidized handled separately). Being separate accounts added more account fees and auto withdrawal setup fees. I asked for the 90 late days to be forgiven, which they refused to do. I was told to pay over $1000 for late fees and the outstanding 3 payments of $189 or my account would be in default. I was living on a fixed budget and did not have the money. I had the $360 that I should have owed, but they would not accept partial payment.
My loans went into default and I ignored them.
In 2008 with a new job and steady income I revisited this student loan issue. My loans were now in the hands of a collections company threatening to garnish my wages significantly. I offered to pay in cash every missed payment with fees and bring my account current in order to avoid wage garnishment. The collections agency refused my offer. I obtained a lawyer. The lawyer waved a magic lawyer wand and the collections agency offered to rehab my loan with a 10 month payment program. I offered to pay the entire 10 months up front to speed the rehab process along and fix my credit, but they refused. (side note: what private business would not agree to this offer? )
I finished my loan rehab program over the 10 months and my loans have since been paid automatically for over 2 years through ACS. I also find it comical that JP Morgan Chase decided to purchase my loan from the government after defaulting on me. I could talk for pages about how absurd this program is. Mainly the part where the second you go into default they charge you up to 30% of the loan amount to "collect."
Now where I need the help:
The only negatives on my credit report are from student loans. Since I had subsidized and unsubsidized loans they show as 2 accounts. All 3 credit reporting agencies show the loans differently. All 3 agencies show the negative account history as two separate accounts. After reading on the forums I went with USAA CreditCheck Monitoring Premium to view this information. On the credit report section only one of the credit agencies shows late payment information.
I was told that after rehab the loans would be removed from my credit history. Is this not true?
All 3 credit reporting agencies show my current loan in good standing with good payment history. All 3 agencies however only show a single loan account. I feel like this is dishonest as when it's good they only show it as a single good account, but when it's bad they hit you twice.
All 3 agencies show the accounts as closed with zero balance. How long will these account affect my score negatively. Is there any way to remove them? How much is this dropping my score? Right now the scores are Experian 699 Equifax 707 TransUnion 717. (side note: I find it odd that Experian is the only agency that didn't show these accounts as delinquent, but it's the lowest score.)
I wanted this post to be much shorter...sorry and thanks for any help offered.
