Help with information on defaulted Perkins Loan

[Anonymous]

Hello, I've done some research but come across conflicting information.

Thus, I'm hoping someone here can help me.

I took out a Perkins loan with my initial school and then transferred to another school one year later.

This Pekins loan was never pursued by the initial school and got lost by me.

I never received anything from the initial school or DOE about this loan.

Just recently I received a letter from ECSI that they are handling the Perkins loan for the school now. The loan is listed as 3985 days past due. ECSI mentions in their letter that they are not a CA and are just handling payment of this loan for my initial school.

I went to the NSLDS site to confirm details of this Perkins loan and it showed that the loan defaulted in 2001 but was still being held by my initial school.

This defaulted loan never showed up on any of my credit report checks.

Thus, I wanted to find out if it is past the SOL for credit reporting. I loked at the section for Perkins loans in the regs.

However, I'm a little confused on why it never showed up on my credit reports and if it can show up now despite being 10 yrs from default because the DOE never took possession of this loan and it's still held by my initial school.

More importantly, I want to pay this loan back in one payment but I'm worried that about it showing up on my credit report esp. since my scores are pretty good right now

If I just call up ECSI and say I want to pay it back in full will my credit report be fine. 

Also, do I need to get them to send me a letter stating that I am paying it in full.

I really wanted to deal with this right away but am afraid tha some how it will hurt my scores and thus am trying to figure out the best course of action.

Any advice would be much appreciated.

Thanks!

 Mod cut. Links to this credit repair site are not allowed- MarineVietVet, myFICO moderator.

[laz98]

it's hard to say if they will skip putting the account on your reports if you pay in full..  i've heard stories both ways, where a company promised such and such & then reneged, & companies who gave their word & stuck to it.

[Anonymous]

I am having the exact same issue. I have a federal perkins loan from 1999 that I have never paid. The original amount was $600, but now the collector is telling me it's up to $1200. They keep threatening to take legal action but the thing is so old I'm not sure how much benefit they'd find from that.

In any case, this loan does not appear anywhere on my credit bureau report but I am in the process of trying to get my score to a place where I qualify for an FHA loan. I discovered this loan because I thought about going back to school last year and applied for federal student aid and was denied because of this outstanding loan. All of my other loans are current and being paid as the result of a wage garnishment in 2009. They are now "rehabilitated" but apparently this one was lost in the shuffle some how. I am pretty sure, based on what I've read that if I don't pay this I will not get approved for the FHA loan. However, I am also concerned that paying this will cause something that isn't even on my credit bureau report to suddenly appear. Talking to this company on the phone is nearly impossible. They won't even send me a statement in the mail and just give me a song and dance. They are VERY sneaky and I just want to pay it off so I don't have to deal with them any more. In their speech on the phone they mentioned something about the fact it is negatively impacting my credit and could for up to 15 years. ???? I didn't bother to tell them that it's not on my report now.

Anyone have any experience with this? If I pay this off, will it "refresh" my credit report? I've heard that it can update the date of last activity, but that items only stay on the report for 7.5 years from the date of first delinquency. So even refreshing the last activity date won't impact my score because the account is so old, the original date is outside of the 7.5 years.

[Anonymous]

^bump^

Anyone have any experience with this one?