@Anonymous wrote:
I have a few specific questions about improving my credit score with a history of late student loan payments.
1. I have one standalone loan through my university that has only reported to TransUnion. It has been in good standing for about two years but it does have a period of late payments prior of 120 days. But, TransUnion happens to be my highest reporting bureau. Is it advisable to ask the university to report to other agencies even with the positive recent history but not a perfect longer history?
2. The remainder of the loans are with FedLoans. Last year around this time my IDR was due and I had some difficulties getting it to process at first because of a name change within the previous year. I had two months of loan bills that were not at the reduced IDR plan rate and did not make the payment on them. The IDR processed and I made payments for the current month at the new rate but did not pay the older balance. The COVID forbearance ultimately saved me. I want to move forward and try to put this behind me and improve my score as much as possible. Understanding it's a longshot, I still think it is worth attempting to write a letter of goodwill. Some questions I have for the letter: Is it any more likeliness of success to ask for a reduction of reported lateness rather than removing? Do I mention I was on autopay at the IDR rate prior to the mess up? Is it advisable to go into detail about the difficulties with the IDR? Just any tips to improve its likelihood of success.
They will not "reduce" the severity of delinquencies reporting because that definitely is the definition of innacurate reporting, which creditors are bound to report accurately.
HWs work because creditors are not *required* to report, so when they grant GW requests, they just omit reporting.
To be painfully honest, FedLoan will likely not grant GW requests, they generally do not, and most success has been after the loans are paid off.
I would not add account woth derog info to the other creditors, as each bureau has their own scoring models, and what you think may be helping that score may not work for the others or even be what is helping the scores. Also, if the creditor does not report to the other bureaus, they simply may not report.
