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To preface, I took student loans out from Wells Fargo. I was never notified of Sallie Mae taking them over and I never received ANY communication from Sallie Mae. Therefore I never paid Sallie Mae. But I digress. Now I'm in the rehab program and am paying my loan off ever so slowly but according to agreed terms.
My question is: how long can Sallie Mae keep reporting to the bureaus? I've read that it's 7 years from first report. Since SM likes to report each term's loan individually, I have "Date Opened" as far back as 1995 and as recent as 2002. All "Reported Since" are within 2 years because they keep changing that date although I have copies of old reports that put all of the Reported Since at more than 7 years.
First, can Sallie Mae, being a govt loan, post to the bureaus for as long as they so choose? If not, would it be considered forgery for them to keep changing the Reported Since date to keep it recent?
I've been able to clean up all of the other inaccuracies on my report but these old loans that I never technically signed for and that are not now even owed to SM are really costing me a lot of money. Each time I report SM to the bureaus, SM updates the Reported Since dates to make the loans look newer than they are.
(Please refrain from pointing out the lack of need for the powerful and mighty SM to follow legal documentation procedures.)
Thank you in advance for letting me know about the application of the 7 year law in regards to this situation.
Welcome to the forums!
If I understand correctly, your Sallie Mae loans are currently open, is that right? (I'm not sure how it works when your accounts are being rehabbed.)
If your accounts are open, then they will continue to report for as long as you keep them open. If they are closed, then in theory, they should stay on your reports for about 10 years, & the negative information is what should drop off at about 7 or 7.5 years.
The "Reported Since" date is really unimportant, & has nothing to do with how long something will or will not stay on your reports. It is not making your credit history any longer or shorter.
@Anonymous wrote:
Thank you laz! The accounts are closed and have been at least since they first sent to collections a few years ago. I started the rehab with collections about a year ago and with Student Assistance Foundation about 4 months ago. ECMC has since dropped off but the original SM is still being reported. So I guess my question is when does the 7 year count begin and how would one convince the bureaus to stop reporting the old info? Ive done tons of successful disputes but I just cant get their attention on SM.
Sorry, I think I gave you partially bad information earlier. I should have waited until after I had napped to post! Sorry about that.
It occurs to me that if you are rehabbing your loans, it's so that there will be no more negative information, so there would be no negative information to drop off. But I thought the rehab process was about 9 months to a year? You said it's already been over a year, right? Are you just waiting for someone to pick up your loan?
What I said about open & closed accounts is still accurate, I'm just not sure it would apply in your case, because in theory, your rehab should take care of the negative information before regular credit reporting rules would kick in & take the information off your reports anyway.
The 7-year period usually starts from whenever you were delinquent & never got caught up again. So say you were only 30 days late in January 2004, & then got caught up, & were never late again. Then that late payment should drop off at the end of January 2011 (sometimes they drop early, but still). With collections, if you were late in January 2004, got caught up, & then were late again in June 2004 but never got caught up this time, your 7.5 year period (collections stay on an extra 6 months or so) would start from June 2004. Does that make sense?
Just as a general comment, you should stop disputing ASAP. Unfortuantely, the information is correct, & you could end up being flagged as a frivolous disputer, & then you will have a much tougher time disputing truly inaccurate things later on. (This is not a comment about Sallie Mae, this is about disputes in general.)
Anyway, hope that explains things a little better!
I have this same issue going on with Sallie Mae - do they not have to delete their lates once rehab is completed like all of the other loan agencies ? I assumed all of the negatives would be removed (as I too am waiting for my loans to be picked up since I've completed rehab in November).
If Sallie Mae was your original lender, they do not have to remove the lates as part of your rehab. A number of lenders DO remove the lates (or the old tradelines entirely), and all lenders are supposed to update the default status (though they may need some prodding). Any entries from the collection agency you worked with on the rehab should disappear once your loan is picked up.
Did Sallie Mae pick up your loan after your rehab was completed? Are the lates from before or after the rehab?
If they were your primary lender at some point before the rehab, they don't have to remove the lates, but they may if you ask.