topic Re: Making 9th payment on my rehab.. UPDATE in Student Loans

Making 9th payment on my rehab..

Kathy4NU — Tue, 22 Jan 2013 15:54:49 GMT

I'm getting nervous and excited at the same time.

I am making my 9th payment on my student loans 2 weeks early in hopes they get picked up sooner so I don't have to make a 10th payment. I have $100,000 in student loans. My monthly payments were a hefty $1270 a month. I am looking forward to having this chapter behind me.

I consolidated my student loans in 2003 into two loans (subbed and unsubbed). My loans have been with DOE since the consolidation. I defaulted in 2008 and have been that way since. My loans prior to consolidations are still reporting all the positive tradelines. I suspect they will fall off this June when they hit 10 years of age since being paid off.

I am excited to see what my score jumps too. From what I can tell DOE should remove all the negatives and whoever picks them up should report a good tradeline since 2003. My credit reports shows 120 days late for the past 3 years on Trans Union and as a charge off/collection on the other two reports. I am lucky in the fact that I don't have two negative lines (original servicer than the DOE when it was turned over to them). I would really like DOE to service them again but the agency said they are seeing Sally Mae and Great Lakes picking up the majority of the loans. I have heard to many horror stories of Sally Mae so I am keeping my fingers crossed they don't pick mine up.

I will keep everyone posted.. Until than I think the next month will be filled with some anxiety as I wait.....

Re: Making 9th payment on my rehab..

SCF — Wed, 23 Jan 2013 04:05:06 GMT

Kathy4NU wrote:. I have heard to many horror stories of Sally Mae so I am keeping my fingers crossed they don't pick mine up.

Make all of your payments on time, regularly monitor your account for issues (even if you have auto-pay) and be pro-active in communicating with your new lender. If you do that, you'll prevent 90% of the "horror stories" that you hear. Sallie Mae doesn't have a good reputation for GW adjustments, or being particularly lenient with missed payments, but now that you're back on the right track, I wouldn't worry about it.

Re: Making 9th payment on my rehab..

Kathy4NU — Wed, 23 Jan 2013 23:32:48 GMT

A bump in the road less than 24 hours after making my 9th payment.

Everyone who is rehabbing needs to watch for this!!!

I got on the myeddept.com website and I noticed all my payments including January 15th payment were posted with the exception of my Decemeber payment. I immediately checked my bank statement to verify my debit card did processed it and found that in fact it did post to my bank on December 21st. I immediatly called the CBE Group who is handling my rehab and was told that the DOE computer system has had many problems updating accounts and for some reason all payments from Dec 21 did not post. He verified this should not affect my rehab. He went ahead and took my 9th payment which was nearly 4 weeks early. I called the DOE and they told me just the opposite!!! They said if the payment is not posed on their website than my rehab will not get certified and picked up!!!

I called back to the CBE Group and talked with a supervisor who confirmed that my loan could not get certified without all the payments posting. She told me it was a DOE problem and nothing could be done but sit and wait. She explained that they get a few hicups each month and the other collection agencies doing the rehab for DOE has the same problems. She said their is a batch of payments from MAY that have still not posted. I told her this was completely unexceptable. She was kind and said that since I made my February payment early I could go all the way until March 18 before my 10th payment would be due and maybe the error would be fixed. WHAT!!!! I did not make my payment early in order to have more time until my 10th payment - I made it early so my loan could get picked up before the 10th payment was made. Basically, she told me I had no choice but to sit and wait it out. Sometimes it gets fixed in a matter of days and sometimes it takes up to a year. She said 1000's of people are in the same boat as me and have to continue making payments until they get the problems of those payments posted. I suggested maybe I should contact my bank and dispute the Dec payment and than remake it and hope this one post. She suggested that could cause more problems.

I hung up and called DOE after sitting on hold for 21 minutes I talked with a nice gal who tried to find my payment before realizing she does not have authrorization to view that screen. She talked with her supervisor who advised her to have me call the CBE Group back and have them put the information including the confirmation code of the payment from December line in the notes area of my file. After this DOE can manually enter my payment!!!

I can't imagine how many people have been in rehab for over a year waiting and waiting for their loans to get picked up when the only problem is a past payment not posting because of an ongoing computer glitch!!! What a simple solution that know seems to know how to fix.

I called the CBE Group back who said she would do it but that would be time consuming to do for the 1000's of people whose payment have not posted correctly! BOO HOO for you! I have kept my part of the deal up and I think it is only fair that someone fix the problem so their deal is kept up too!!!

Tomorrow I will call DOE back and verify the payment information was added in the note area of my file and that someone will manually enter the payment for December in. I am almost fearing what they are going to say to me already!

On to worst problems......

One reason I called DOE was because my largest loan is reporting twice to Equifax. I disupted and it came back verified so I disputed the other one and it came back verified. I called DOE and asked why they verified both when it was obvious that all reporting information was identical. She said it couldn't be. So I read to her exactly what it says on my credit report. Apparently with their new computer system that is causing problems it also gave each account number a new account number. The credit bureaus were notified of the change in account numbers and somehow the the computer glitched with Equifax and reported twice instead of deleting the old account number. She told me to dispute both and they would verify only the new account number and thus the old one would be deleted. I did exactly that! And low and behold this morning I get a score watch report:

MY FICO drops 53 points!!! 53 freaking points!!! How!!!!! Each of the loans are 18 years old so I can only assume it is because of AAoA but both loans were reporting 4 years of 120+ days late and in default and placed for collections.

Geez, I am beginning to wonder if this whole thing is worth it or not. They make jumping through the hoops way to difficult. I will scream so loud the whole world will hear me if I don't get a 100 point gain once the loans are picked up and reporting perfect!

Re: Making 9th payment on my rehab..

bahbahd — Thu, 24 Jan 2013 14:24:38 GMT

Technically you can't make any payment early to get picked up earlier. If this were the case, people could just make one huge payment at the beginning or at any time during the process. They want you to make 9 regular monthly payments to display that you can actually keep your life together and be responsible. Sorry to tell you this too but 9 payments is not a guaranteed hard limit on the number of payments necessary before your loans are picked back up by a lender. It could take 10, 11, 15 or more even before a lender takes on your loans. Till this happens you still have to continue making rehab payments each month or you will not complete the rehab process.

Re: Making 9th payment on my rehab..

bahbahd — Thu, 24 Jan 2013 14:34:51 GMT

Your score dropped because you have defaulted on your student loans. Not because there is a duplicate tradeline. I also should tell you that the 4 years of 120+ days late is accurate reporting that will probably not come off after the rehab process is complete. They only have to update the loan status by removing the defaulted status and replacing it with ok/pays as agreed. You might have some luck GW off the old accounts or the derogatory late payment remarks at least. A few people have had old accounts just removed automatically. Now that everyone has finally figured out the procedures and laws for rehabbing, this is not the regular or common case lately.

Just be happy that any payment is paying down your balance due now and that you will eventually be out of the mess that you got yourself into.

Re: Making 9th payment on my rehab..

Kathy4NU — Thu, 24 Jan 2013 15:41:27 GMT

Yes, you can make your 9th payment early. You have a 20 day window on each side of your payment.

My payment is due on the 18th of the month - so I can make it 20 days early or 20 days late and still be considered on time.

True, you can't make one lump sum payment. It has to be 9 payments within a 10 month period. The earliest you can make it is 20 days earlier than your billing date on any given month. The billing date is always the same date each month.

I was able to make my last payment 27 days early because they told me it takes 7 days to post to the account so they charged my debit card a week early knowing it will not post for a week which will than be 20 days before my due date which is exceptable.

This is with CBE group. I don't know if the other collection agencies working under DOE follow the same guidelines or not. I did find the same information (except for the taking 7 days to post) on DOE website under the rehab section.

Re: Making 9th payment on my rehab..

Kathy4NU — Thu, 24 Jan 2013 15:50:24 GMT

@bahbahd wrote:

MY FICO drops 53 points!!! 53 freaking points!!! How!!!!! Each of the loans are 18 years old so I can only assume it is because of AAoA but both loans were reporting 4 years of 120+ days late and in default and placed for collections.

Your score dropped because you have defaulted on your student loans. Not because there is a duplicate tradeline. I also should tell you that the 4 years of 120+ days late is accurate reporting that will probably not come off after the rehab process is complete. They only have to update the loan status by removing the defaulted status and replacing it with ok/pays as agreed. You might have some luck GW off the old accounts or the derogatory late payment remarks at least. A few people have had old accounts just removed automatically. Now that everyone has finally figured out the procedures and laws for rehabbing, this is not the regular or common case lately.

Just be happy that any payment is paying down your balance due now and that you will eventually be out of the mess that you got yourself into.

No, when the default status was reporting correctly (but twice instead of once) my score was 53 points higher. When I disputed and the defaulted student loan was removed from the mix my score went down 53 points. When I disputed they removed BOTH the original (which was correct) and the duplicate one. So, with no defaulted student loan on my Equifax report my score went down 53 points. I will assume the DOE will update and put one of them back on. I have been in contact with them on the phone regarding this and they seem to be on top of the game. Again, I am going to assume it is from AAoA going from 18 years down to 7 months.

Re: Making 9th payment on my rehab..

bahbahd — Thu, 24 Jan 2013 15:50:28 GMT

That is not technically paying early. That is paying after the statement date and before the due date. You would still pay, as you said, a payment each month.

Re: Making 9th payment on my rehab..

Kathy4NU — Thu, 24 Jan 2013 15:51:48 GMT

@bahbahd wrote:
That is not technically paying early. That is paying after the statement date and before the due date. You would still pay, as you said, a payment each month.

True, but in making it 20 days before the due date it gives the DOE an extra 20 days to get the loan certified and ready to be picked up before a 10th payment would be due.

Re: Making 9th payment on my rehab..

bahbahd — Thu, 24 Jan 2013 15:54:30 GMT

@Kathy4NU wrote:
@bahbahd wrote:

MY FICO drops 53 points!!! 53 freaking points!!! How!!!!! Each of the loans are 18 years old so I can only assume it is because of AAoA but both loans were reporting 4 years of 120+ days late and in default and placed for collections.

Your score dropped because you have defaulted on your student loans. Not because there is a duplicate tradeline. I also should tell you that the 4 years of 120+ days late is accurate reporting that will probably not come off after the rehab process is complete. They only have to update the loan status by removing the defaulted status and replacing it with ok/pays as agreed. You might have some luck GW off the old accounts or the derogatory late payment remarks at least. A few people have had old accounts just removed automatically. Now that everyone has finally figured out the procedures and laws for rehabbing, this is not the regular or common case lately.

Just be happy that any payment is paying down your balance due now and that you will eventually be out of the mess that you got yourself into.
No, when the default status was reporting correctly (but twice instead of once) my score was 53 points higher. When I disputed and the defaulted student loan was removed from the mix my score went down 53 points. When I disputed they removed BOTH the original (which was correct) and the duplicate one. So, with no defaulted student loan on my Equifax report my score went down 53 points. I will assume the DOE will update and put one of them back on. I have been in contact with them on the phone regarding this and they seem to be on top of the game. Again, I am going to assume it is from AAoA going from 18 years down to 7 months.

Yes, you lost the installment tradelines and also the aaoa dump both. This score drop makes sense. Why not leave them off your reports. You should get new tradelines from your new lender/servicer combo once the loans are picked up again. Last thing you need is old tradelines with 4 years of 120+ days late remarks in the tradeline. Leave well enough alone for now.

Edit: these new accounts should backdate all the way to when the loans were disbursed also.

Re: Making 9th payment on my rehab..

Kathy4NU — Thu, 24 Jan 2013 15:56:33 GMT

___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

I don't know why they removed both. She clearly told me they would verify the one with the correct account number. Not complaining except for losing the 53 points. I would think I would gain those plus a few more when my loans get picked up and start reproting again.

At this point I am just going to sit back and wait for the new servicer to pick up the loans and start reporting and hoping for the back dating of 18 years as others have seen.

Re: Making 9th payment on my rehab..

Kathy4NU — Mon, 28 Jan 2013 23:15:15 GMT

Called the DOE today because my December payment is not showing up like they told me it would. My February payment that I made early is posted though. The lady I talked to today said that it is not as simple of a fix as the lady told me last Friday. She asked if I was in urgent need of my loan to be cleared and picked up. I told her not urgent but I didn't like that January and February's payment have already posted and not December and I understood this would delay the process and after 9 months of hefty payments ($1270/mo) I didn't appreciate the delay. She asked if I had any big purchases I was prepaing to make. I told her no but I wanted to get my house refinanced this spring before rates went up. She VOLUNTEERED to remove my name out of the data base for defaulted loans and to remove all negatives from the credit bureaus. I asked her how long this would take and she said they have a department that can expedite it and have it done in 48 hours for people who have completed the 9 payments and their is a hold up that is DOE fault (such as mine). I told her I wasn't that desperate yet but she said 'Lets do it anyways that way we have the defaults and baddies removed." WORKS FOR ME!!!!

I will sit back and wait for my score report notice. I anticipate my score to take a drop once the baddies are removed. This will severely hurt my AAoA but once my loans get picked up and all my backdating with positive tradelines go back on my report I should see a nice jump.

This is really a test of patience more than anything else!

Re: Making 9th payment on my rehab..

bahbahd — Tue, 29 Jan 2013 04:25:33 GMT

Congrats!

Re: Making 9th payment on my rehab..

Kathy4NU — Sat, 16 Feb 2013 18:25:44 GMT

Things are slowly moving along for me in this rehab game.

Mailed in my bank statement and letter from the bank to show when the December payment came out. Sent to DOE. Once they received the letter it was noted on my account. The rep said they can see I did in fact make my Dec payment but now they have to wait for data entry to put it in. She said they are back logged and it could take up to 30 days for them to enter the payment. I check myeddebt.com several times a day. It only took a week but the payment showed up on Friday.

I also check my Equifax report daily (using backdoor method). Today all my negative tradelines from DOE are gone. I have not received a scorewatch report. I am actually expecting this to drop my score because my AAoA is going to take a major dive. I suspect I will regain those points once my loan gets picked up and the new provider reports the past 8 years as perfect paying!!!

Also this week I was able to negotiate 5 of my 6 remaining collections to be deleted (all medical) but they have not been updated yet. They told me to give it 30 days. My last collection will fall off in July.

I have been rebuilding for the last 9 months. I have seen almost zero movement in my score. I started out with 32 collections, 2 student loans in default, 5 judgments and two tax liens. I have added two credit cards (secured visa through my credit union and a VS card). I think the next 30-60 days I am going to see my scores skyrocket as the last of the negatives comes off and only positives report!

I will keep updating as things progres!

Re: Making 9th payment on my rehab.. UPDATE

Kathy4NU — Tue, 26 Feb 2013 04:27:14 GMT

UPDATE:

My loans have been picked up. Went to myeddebt.com and saw that I owed nothing. Saw on here thqt someone elses report said that and that meant their loans were picked up. I quickly called them and they told me GREAT LAKES picked up my loans! I am thrilled!!! I was afraid Sally May was going to pick them up. I have heard of people having lots of problems at no fault of their own and Sally May dinging their report. I worked hard to get to this point and I don't want to play hard ball with anyone.

All of my old student loans have been deleted off of my credit reports (except for one duplicate on TU that I will dispute if it is not gone in the next week or so). At this same time I had 3 collection reports removed.

My scores hit 653 last week with all the changes.

I also negotiated for 2 of my last 3 collections to be removed. They should come off in the next week or two. And soon the new student loans with 8 years of positive trade lines reporting. I am hoping to be visiting the 700 club once that happens.

When I started this journey 10 months ago I was in the mid 500's.

Re: Making 9th payment on my rehab.. UPDATE

Simply827 — Wed, 27 Feb 2013 16:12:19 GMT

Congrats

Re: Making 9th payment on my rehab.. UPDATE

Shogun — Wed, 06 Mar 2013 04:59:59 GMT

Congrats!

Re: Making 9th payment on my rehab.. UPDATE

kjel — Fri, 08 Mar 2013 01:35:16 GMT

Thank you for detailing your experience. We owe about the same amount in student loans and I am in rehab with CBE Group as well which has been pretty easy to deal with. My payments are shockingly low compared to yours (probably due to family size and income) but I offered more than what they told me I had to pay. I am getting ready to make payment #9 and following your path I checked myeddebt.com to make sure all the payments are there and they were. I had a bit of a heartstopper last month when they called me asking if I had made my payment, which I had and had drafted out of my account. They said DOE was behind and is glitchy at times which is not awesome. Hoping the rest goes smoothly!

Re: Making 9th payment on my rehab.. UPDATE

Kathy4NU — Sun, 10 Mar 2013 23:20:49 GMT

My loans hit my credit reports this past week. They are dated back to 2006 and show one month of on time payments. Nothing negative. My scores did not budge when they hit my reports. I think this is because they are showing in deferment. I created an account on Great Lakes website and applied for IBR. It atommatically put me in deferment until June. I need to send in this years tax information. Since I am still in the process of filing I will do this in the next week or so.

Anyone have any idea as to why I didn't see a score bump when the new loans hit my reports? Is it because they are in deferment? Once my IBR papers are filed and I have a pyament plan will I than see a bump?

Re: Making 9th payment on my rehab.. UPDATE

SCF — Mon, 11 Mar 2013 00:34:21 GMT

Being in deferment doesn't have any impact on your score, since loans in deferment still show as "Paid as agreed." You probably didn't see bump because no additional negative information was removed and the new account may not have changed your average age of accounts. Because your score is based on everything in your file, it's hard to guess what impact a specific action will have on your score.

You'll start to see some gradual, positive impacts as you pay the loan on-time and it ages with a good payment history.