Surprise delinquent student loan.

[Anonymous]

I'll try to keep this short. Basically this is a Federal Perkins Loan that came into repayment 10/2016. I didn't know about it and never made a payment. In February 2016 I was unemployed and all my fenderal loans went into forbearance. They came out for a few months, I made on time payments, then wen't back into forbearance where they sit today. This perkins loan wasn't a part of that. I only discovered the existence of the loan after it was transferred to ECSI and they reported it to the 3 CB's. I was declined a credit card  surprised me given my scores were just over 700. The denial letter listed "delinquency" and showed a 595 score.
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At the advice of ECSI I applied for forbearance for the perkins loan. They said it could be back dated. It would remove the delinquency but leave the late (forbearance would have started in February so it would still be 120+ late). It was conditionally approved but they needed documentation explaining why it was 32 months delinquent. I typed up a letter and gave as much documentation as I could. It took ECSI too long to process the paperwork and the US Dept of Ed pulled the loan for collections. From my understanding there was nothing ECSI could have done. They were incredibly helpful the entire time and very easy to work with. It is just a little frustrating that everything had to be mailed when I was dealing with rather urgent things.


I know there is a rehabilitation program where I can make 9 on time payments and have everything deleted. But I really don't want to be waiting until the second half of next year to have this sorted out. The total amount with interest and fees is just shy of $1200. I can easily pay it off with emergency fund money; the amount has never been an issue.

Is it possible to get a "pay-for-delete" on a loan like this? I would think my circumstances would help.

Given that the first servicing company never reported to a CB that I was late, could I dispute the information? Would this hurt or help? Right now, there is no payment history on my report. It just says I have one missed 120-180 day payment. I'm just wondering what sort of proof might exist.

[Anonymous]

I do believe with federeal loans those will remain for the full 10+ years once paid in full.   If I am mistaken, I hope someone will jump in and correct me. 

[calyx]

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@Anonymous wrote:

I do believe with federeal loans those will remain for the full 10+ years once paid in full.   If I am mistaken, I hope someone will jump in and correct me. 

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^  The federal loans will remain for the full 10 years if they close as positively paid (the lates aging off at 7 years).
Unfortunately, the collection account is not a positive account, and could remain for 7y+180d from the DOFD.

I need to brush up on my Perkins loan information - but they are actually have specific provisions in the HEA (which complicates things further).

I would not dispute them, because it will very likely comback accurate, and the recent update might further suppress your scores.

As for PIF - that generally doesn't work for student loans because they are covered not just by the FCRA, but the HEA as well, but, that doesn't mean that you can't try.   Student loan collections companies will sometimes remove/delete tradelines.    Servicers/collections are supposed to report, and they have to report accurately, but no report is not technically inaccurate - my paid student loan collections were deleted after I sent a goodwill letter - so it is possible.

You have nothing to lose by calling and asking.

[Anonymous]

Thanks for the advice. I'm still waiting to see if the DoE passes the collections off or manages it themselves.