@Anonymous wrote:
Hi there. I have a consolidated student loan thru FedLoan where I missed 4 payments at a time I thought it was in forbearance (Dec 2018-Mar 2019) but my application hadn't actually been approved; the forbearance was ultimately approved retroactive to when the loan was first overdue, and all my payments since then have been on time.
The issue I'm having is that the four late payments are listed on my credit reports and are hurting my scores at a time when I'm looking to buy a house. I sent dispute letters to the two bureaus that listed it (Equifax and TU) with an explanation and documentation showing that my loan was placed in retroactive forebearance for that time period. Not only did they both decline to remove the late payments but Experian added it when they hadn't listed it before and now that score is damaged, too.
The reason I'm even worrying about this is because I have limited recent credit history (I completed and closed a chapter 13 bk about a year ago) so these 4 late payments alone bring my on-time payments down to 88%. I'm just not sure what to do. Is it worthwhile to bring this up with FedLoan directly? I've seen advice online that it's a waste of time to ask for goodwill adjustments or the like, and a credit counselor I spoke with advised me not to rock the boat at all re: student loan listings on credit reports unless they're overwhelmingly, obviously wrong. I appreciate any advice. Thanks!
I would call FedLoan and beg for forgiveness regarding disputing the lates.
While you may have been granted retroactive forebearance, it is administrative and not for credit reporting purposes, because you were actually late and it was not resolved until after the fact.
Someone recently reported this working (though they had to sign they would never dispute those lates again) and they removed the extra lates that they tacked on to their CRs (because as you know, they start at 60 or 90 d late and like to add on the 30 and 60d lates if you dispute).
Fedloan does not like when you dispute lates.
I believe legally, federal SLs are required to report accurately and do not entertain GW requests until once the loan(s) in question are paid off (this is actually written in the reporting law/policy for fed SLs).
So maybe you can get the extra ones you had tacked on removed, but the original ones will almost certainly stick. I wish I had better news regarding this.
Also, % of on-time payments is fluff. No creditor cares about your % of on-time payments. They just want to see if you have lates and how recent, as the lates themselves ding your scores and increasing your % of on-time payments alone will not increase your score unless the late payment marks are removed.
Good luck!
