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The same thing happened to me and I am also with Great Lakes! I don't believe I took a score hit because of this but I would have to double check. Has anyone found out anything new on this subject?
@Anonymous wrote:I too had the same problem and I contacted the student loan carrier. it appears that they have changed their reporting structure and will now only report the amount disbursed as the credit limit, where before they reported the amount disbursed, plus interest and late fees as the credit limit total. With that being said, for a vast number of us, we are now OVER our credit limit, which in turns has a negative impact on our scores, thus dropping our credit scores....
Please let me know if anyone finds out anything any different, or if there is a way for us to fix this. I think its really unfair to change the reporting structure, without notice, affecting thousands, if not millions of people. And yes we only know now because we actually check and monitor our credit reports on the regular....
FICO only cares about the amount you borrowed vs the amount you owe. You didn't borrow the principal + interest, just the principal. Without making any interest payments while in deferrement they you DO owe more than you borrowed. Which stinks, but it's the truth. And for installment loans you don't really have a credit limit like with a revolving account, you just have the amount borrowed. Not until you pay down below a certain percentage will it really make any difference to your score. Trust me, I feel your pain. I have 2 more semesters of grad school and that means an additional $20,500 to add to my SL total.
I had the same thing happen with My Great Lakes accounts and it is now being reported that I am utilizing 114% of allowed credit limit. I cannot believe they can do this being that most students will owe above their credit limit since disbursed amount will always be less once interest is tacked on. I am in the process of buying a home and this negatively impacted my score. I hope something changes.