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I paid off my student loans about nine months ago. Both Experian and Equifax now report a zero balance but TransUnion never did update my final payment. Should I ask that this be updated (dispute this)? Would it be beneficial to my score that it show a zero balance? I did have Equifax scores before and after and the score did not budge. Are there any other reasons I should ask that this be updated? If I apply for a mortgage would this in any way affect me? I guess what is reported is not wrong, rather it is not up to date.
I would contact the creditor and have them update it and not dispute with the CRAs.
You would probably not see a bump but YMMV.
If it is only a small balance of just before your last payment, I would leave it. It helps diversify your open types of credit. My score dropped between 5 and 10 points across all CRAs when my last open installment updated as closed, leaving me with only open revolving accounts.
If you have another installment open, then it wouldn't matter.
ETA: I agree with Guiness though that disputing with the CRA only opens up possibilities for new problems. If you need it to report as paid then contact the lender and ask then to update the account as closed. I don't think this will benefit your score though, and as I mentioned above, it could drop a little if that is your only open installment.
Thanks guys; I will call the student loan servicer and see if they can update it.
Okay, so I called them (Student Loan Sevicer) and they told me that they did report a zero balance (PIF) to TransUnion. They told me that whatever happened, and the reason it didn't update, would be on TransUnion's side and not theirs. Basically, they told me they couldn't help me and that my only recourse would be with TransUnion. I do want to apply for a mortgage, so now I am not sure where to take this. The last payment covered six loans for a combined total of $685. I am just not sure how this would look if I applied for a mortgage and my TU report shows seven accounts with a balance but six really should show closed.
@WhiskersTheCat wrote:Okay, so I called them (Student Loan Sevicer) and they told me that they did report a zero balance (PIF) to TransUnion. They told me that whatever happened, and the reason it didn't update, would be on TransUnion's side and not theirs. Basically, they told me they couldn't help me and that my only recourse would be with TransUnion. I do want to apply for a mortgage, so now I am not sure where to take this. The last payment covered six loans for a combined total of $685. I am just not sure how this would look if I applied for a mortgage and my TU report shows seven accounts with a balance but six really should show closed.
If you contact TU, they will start an "investigation" (this is really just a status, it is usually only electronic) and a dispute flag will be put on your account. Sometimes this can take more than 30 days to complete and sometimes dispute comments are left on the account even after the electronic "investigation" is completed. You will then have to further dispute to get the comments removed so that you can apply for the mortgage. It doesn't always happen this way, just know that it is a possibility. Sometimes a CRA dispute will get the reporting issue fixed in a short amount of time with no further issues, but this is not 100%. If you are planning on the mortgage soon, I would attempt contacting the loan servicer again and asking to re-send the $0 statement balance.
Are you saying that this is SIX separtate tradelines on your credit report? What were the original amounts on these loans? If you are talking about tens of thousands of dollars in student loans that are now showing as open accounts with $100 balances, I would just let it be as it is.
Thanks for responding. The total for the original six loans was $47,000 and now reports as $685. So I guess in terms of the amount owed with respect to the original amount of credit extended, it not a big deal. I was just hoping they would get it right. I did think about calling the loan servicer a second time (perhaps at a different time of the day) and try to talk to someone else, but I may just opt to leaving it alone. I know the previous post suggested that it might help my score by giving me different lines of credit, but I have found from Experian and Equifax that it makes no difference. I no longer have open installment loans for EX and EQ and it didn't change my score at all when these loans showed zero balances or thereafter. I just hope that when I apply for a mortgage that the person looking at my application can tell that it is obvious that these loans are paid in full.
Why is it so bad to have dispute comments on your report? Why are lenders so against it? It just feels like we're being punished for our "right" to dispute.
@Kratos-TM wrote:Why is it so bad to have dispute comments on your report? Why are lenders so against it? It just feels like we're being punished for our "right" to dispute.
The reason is because when it is an OC account, certain aspects of the TL are removed from scoring and it can significantly change your score. If you get a 100 point increase due to a dispute, that is not your real score. They want to see what your score is with everything included.