confused about refinanced loans and CR fall off

[ruggedfemme]

I'm quite new to all of this, and I'm still trying to make sure I understand when to expect negative information from closed student loan accounts to fall off my report.

Brief relevant backstory: I took out about a few thousand in federal direct loans in 9/2004.  In 2005, I had to withdraw from school due to a family crisis.  I was in forbearance for a while, but when that ran out, I was in default until I consolidated and refinanced in May 2009.  I have been on an income-contingent plan and in good standing ever since.

Equifax lists my date of first delinquency as 9/2007.  Status: Charge off.  Comments: Paid Charge Off, Refinanced.

Experian doesn't list a DoFD.  Account History: Collection as of 2/2008 to 5/2009.  Status: Refinanced, closed.

I won't pull my Transunion CR until January, but the last one (from just before i refinanced in 2009) gives an estimated date of removal as 8/2014.

What I've gathered these past few weeks is that what matters in terms of items falling off my CR is the most recent DoFD.  That the loans were consolidated/refinanced and closed, and later transferred to another company to deal with is irrelevant.

My options are:
1) to wait until the end of next year-ish until it falls off my reports (and it should, whether or not I can see a DoFD?).  Which WILL happen by 4/2015, right?

2) to attempt to send a goodwill letter to the address listed, even though Direct Loans aren't around anymore?  Or is there a secret address to send GWA letters Direct Loans that I should know about?

Does all that sound right to y'all?  If not, please set me straight.

[SCF]

You're right that the information should come off about 7 to 7.5 years after the DOFD, which is the date that the account went late and was never brought current again.  When was your first late payment after which you never brought the account current again and the loan eventually defaulted?  Count forward 7 years from that date, and then factor in that not all servicers and CRAs update things as quickly as we'd all like, and you'll have a good idea of when this information should fall of your report.

You can certainly try goodwill letters, this website (http://www.direct.ed.gov/callus.html) has contact information for Direct Loans and their various servicers, or you can just wait for the information to fall off.  GW letters are a YMMV situation, you may get lucky or you may wind up investing time and energy and still just have to wait for the baddies to fall off on their own.  Only you can decide if that's a worthwhile proposition for you.

[ruggedfemme]

Awesome.  I knew it was probably ridiculous, but I started getting worried that the refinance re-set the 7 year clock again.

Unfortunately, there isn't any contact information left on the old Direct Loans site, except an address for "Borrower Services Department" I found in the depths of my account.  I guess I might as well try sending a goodwill adjustment letter in that direction, since there's nothing to lose.

Thanks so much for the reply.