Holy Cow, I think this is *seriously* screwed up!!! Help?!?!?!

[dwh164]

So I'm going thru my credit reports. I usually just skim the info re: my student loans, because I've consolidated several times and it's more confusing than I've been prepared to tackle up 'til now (was focusing on fixing one thing at a time and dreading this part).

But today I start taking a closer look... and I'm pretty sure Equifax is double-reporting many of my student loans.

For example, I currently have two student loans, both of which were refinanced in 2005. In my current credit report, it appears as though I have four current loans. One set (Set 1) is listed correctly, under the name of the actual lender, with correct balances and payment information. The other set (Set 2) is listed under some weird initials of the student loan servicing center I go through (not the lender), with no real balance, just a "highest past balance" listed, and no payment information. Both claim to be "Open".

And another example is that in 2005, I became delinquent on several of my former student loans. And again, some are double listed. Three sets, in fact! (With the ones above, that makes five sets of double reported loans!) Apparently, when my consolidation check cashed back in 2005, they left a small balance of $5-$9 on each of the closed loans. On my credit report, two of the three old, consolidated loans (Sets 3 & 4) are double listed, one of each with a balance, and one without.

The 5th set of old loans being double reported is oddest of all; I won't even bother with details here. Suffice to say that the only differences really are the name, the scheduled payment amount (which differs by only $5), and whether or not it's listed as having been late (it was).

My Experian is a little different- it has my current loans listed in TRIPLICATE! yikes! I think part of that may have been a transfer from one lender to another, while remaining with the same student loan servicing center. But that's the odd part- the servicing center is one of the three owners listed, albeit for only a few months.

So... this *CAN'T* be the way these are supposed to be reported, can it????

Transunion is the one closest to what I think it probably right, which sucks because it's my lowest score. I'm afraid that by cleaning up the other two, my scores will drop. But then again, I'm not sure how having two double-listed 120-day lates is doing me much good, either. Or accounts which are closed still being listed as open with balances/scheduled payments. I'm not sure how to even begin to explain this in a dispute letter!!!

Anyone have any experience or suggestions or insight??? Please??????

[Lel]

I'm having trouble following exactly what you're seeing on your credit report. As I understand it, you are seeing multiple student loan accounts appear on your report, despite the fact that you have only two open accounts.

The reason why this might be happening is that you have refinanced these loans several times. Each time you refinance, a new credit account is created. Even though the previous accounts were paid off, these still persist on your credit report. As some regulars have posted elsewhere, these accounts can remain on your credit report for many years.

For me, I used to have 4 separate student loans that I consolidated into a single loan. My credit report shows 5 student loan accounts now, but also correctly indicates that the four original loans were consolidated and have a zero balance.

It also sounds like that in at least one instance, a "new" account was created when your loans were sold to another lender. I had a similar experience when a credit card account was to sold to another company; I now have two entries in my credit report for the same card.

[Anonymous]

I have read other accounts of student loans spreading like kudzu across credit reports precisely because so many people refinanced during the cheap interest-rate blowout earlier this decade, and that does indeed entail creating a separate credit account.

[haulingthescoreup]

This is pretty common, and even though it looks appalling, it doesn't seem to cause a problem in real life. The more I read, the more I think that student loans are regarded in a clump or something. They don't seem to damage your scores.

If you have both subsidized and unsubsidized loans, and you have to re-up every semester, that's four a year that will jump on your reports right there.

FWIW, my older daughter consolidated her loans, and now, about six months later, not nearly as many are displaying.

[dwh164]

Reporting a new loan when a new account is open, I can understand. That's easy to follow on my account- Loan A becomes Loan B becomes Loan C, etc. Unfortunately, that's not the problem. Well, I think it *might* be the problem with my Experian report- I'm re-checking with my S.L. servicing center to see if they changed names/lenders, which would easily account for the triplicate reporting on that particular report- but not all the other problems on Equifax.

Problem is, Loan A became Loan B- and then Loan A is reported *twice*! (Both times with the 120-day late notation!) Same account #, same highest balance, same basic info- just a few minor changes such as monthly payment. This particular loan I'm talking about was one I never refinanced until 2005, so it's easy to keep track of.

Same thing with the other loans. Yes, I refinanced some of them several times, but that still doesn't account for why the original loans are listed in duplicate (with all the negative tradlines neccessarily doubled).

I ordered my "real" Equifax report, and it's a bit different than FICO. Need to go through it on paper, line by line, and figure out what's what, then start a dispute I guess. It's just frustrating as all get-out since it's like trying to untangle a plate of spaghetti, noodle by noodle!

[dwh164]

I should make that clearer above: Loan A becomes Loan B becomes Loan C- and they *all* stay on the report. But why is Loan A now Loan 1A/Loan 2A with the same friggin' info??? Grrrrrr!!!

[dwh164]

Ok, after some review...

Seems Equifax is reporting correctly. One student loan, one entry on the report: all is as it should be. It's FICO(!) that's double-reporting loans. One loan, two entries.

I called FICO Customer Service and reached a very nice lady who pulled reports and looked over it with me, and she's just as puzzled as I am why FICO is double-reporting. Her guess is that it's something to do with the scripting from Equifax, causing two entries to be made on several of my loans. At any rate, she said she'd "escalate" the issue (I assume that means she's passing it on to a higher up), and they'll investigate and get back to me within a few days.

It wouldn't matter so much to me, except that the particular loans that are double reporting have 120 day lates on them. Thus, I have twice the amount of 120-lates on my Equifax MyFico as I should. Strange, considering EQ is my highest FICO.

[Lel]

Are these loans appearing twice on the credit reports from the other CRAs when you pull them from this site?

It appears that even though you are "seeing double" , it doesn't look like this is having any effect on your score. So that's a good thing. But it would be nice to have it cleaned up a bit.

[dwh164]

Nope. I went through the other reports with a fine toothed comb, comparing FICO to my Equifax 3-in-1 to my regular Experian pull. Everything's in order there, except one separate duplicate loan on Experian that doesn't seem related to this and some fuzzy stuff that I think is the result of my student loan servicing center changing names/lenders, something. I'm following up with them.

I'm curious to see how this is all going to pan out. Has anyone else had any similar experiences?

[Anonymous]

Just remember that, while the mad proliferation of listings is an annoyance when you're trying to sort out which loan is in which, there's no way an installment loan in good standing is hurting your FICO score.