GW request in person?

[money_talks]

I plan on going tomorrow to the school that gave me a student loan. The loan is currently in good standing but it does have one month reported as a 30 day late 2 years ago. I've dealt a lot with the schoo's loan department over the years and they know me personally. Is this a good idea? The account currently shows in my CRs as a "Negative Account", although it is paying as agreed.

Also, how are these 30 day lates removed from the report? Does the OC send an update to the CRAs to change that 30 day late to an OK status? Wouldn't that technically be inaccurate reporting? What's the legal way it's done from the OC standpoint?

[SCF]

If you can talk to the people actually servicing your loan, it can't hurt.  I would bring a goodwill letter with you so that you can leave them with something tangible after you make your request.

In terms of how the change is done, yes, the lender reporting the late sends a correction to the CRAs, who then update your report.  The law does not require lenders to report, but it does require what they DO report to be accurate.  I think that many lenders have bent that rule or interpreted it such that making a goodwill adjustment is just an omission of information rather than incorrect reporting (I didn't lie to you, I just failed to mention X).  Practically speaking, there are only two parties with any standing to challenge the information on your report, you and the lender doing the reporting.  If you both agree something is OK to have on there, no one's going to file any complaints so the rules can be fuzzed up a little.

[money_talks]

SCF: The law is the FCRA correct? Also, how is the late payment in question specifically omitted from the credit report?

Example:

The Experian CR has a chart that shows your monthly status of the loan.

April: OK

May: 30

June: OK

July: OK

Would the lender submit a change to the CRAs and basically say "For the month of May, this account has no data to report"? Would the new Experian report look like this once the change has been updated?

April: OK

May: No data

June: OK

July: OK

[SCF]

Yeah, the relevant law is the FCRA.  Ideally it would report as OK, I don't think I've ever heard of anyone having a "no data" or similar notation for a month that was covered by a GW adjustment.

[money_talks]

Hmm, but if the lender changes it to OK then it is inaccurate reporting and therefore in violation of the FCRA, correct? From what I've read in these forums it seems the lender simply chooses to not report the late to the CRA. I'm just curious how it shows up because again, if it shows up as OK then it is technically inaccurate. That's why I mentioned "no data available" as that would be more accurate. I think the CRA is saying with that comment that "the lender did not provide info for this specific month".

[SCF]

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m

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Here we go, I wasn't quite explaining it right, but this FAQ from the Rebuilding Your Credit forum does a much better job, here's the most relevant tidbit:

What response, if any, should I see?

Most of the time, you won't get any response from the OC or CA. The response will be the correction yourself so be sure to pull your credit reports regularly or use a Credit Monitoring Service (CMS) to see if there's any success before giving it another go. On some occasions, they will contact you and will let you know what action they'll take. If denied for your GW request, they'll usually flat out tell you "no" that they won't remove it. In some examples in here, the creditor might say something like "it is illegal to remove accurate items from your credit report." Ignore it. It is illegal to report inaccurately, but not to remove items early.

So rather than concieving of it as the lender simply omitting the negative report, it's better to think of it as removing the negative information early.  I've honestly never seen a tradeline report with a random month in the middle that shows "no data" or something similar, but there are a wealth of individual experiences on the Rebuilding Your Credit forum that should give you a good idea of the range of possible results.