Old Studen Loan Lates impact on FICO

[Anonymous]

Hi all,

I had some late payments back in 2015 with Nelnet. They were in total 5 different loans that defaulted but have since been rehabbed so are no longer showing the default but are still carrying the lates. I have been rebuilding my credit and after this month all of my collections will be removed (thank the PFD gods), and these loans will be the last negatives I have. So that leads me to my questions:

1. From my research lates are supposed to fall off at the original date of delinquency, but these don't report as late until 90-120 (one shows OK until 180) days. Should I dispute the accuracy to have them show at 30 so they fall off just a little sooner?

I tried to reach out to Nelnet to delete but I guess its not a thing for student loans.

2. If I carry these lates to term, would it keep me out of the 700+ club? Anyone have experience with this? I am trying to hit my goal of 700 by 2021 (so I've got some time). I've been rebuilding from around a score of 515 back in 2017 to my signature scores today so I hope these old lates aren't going to cap me. 

Thanks in advance!

[Anonymous]

Reporting dates and DOFD can be different dates. You were correct when you said it's by the DOFD.
Example: I have an EOS cca collection for a verizon bill. DOFD was dec 2014. It was "reported" Jan 2018 but it's still set to come off dec 2021. So who knows what happened between dec 2014 -Jan 2018.

How high your score will go will depend on other varying factors. For optimal scoring it's best to have at least 1 installment loan and 3 revolvers (credit cards). Keeping utilization on those cards low and letting those accounts age will be a big help with your scores.

Do you currently have credit cards?

[Anonymous]

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@Anonymous wrote:
Reporting dates and DOFD can be different dates. You were correct when you said it's by the DOFD.
Example: I have an EOS cca collection for a verizon bill. DOFD was dec 2014. It was "reported" Jan 2018 but it's still set to come off dec 2021. So who knows what happened between dec 2014 -Jan 2018.

How high your score will go will depend on other varying factors. For optimal scoring it's best to have at least 1 installment loan and 3 revolvers (credit cards). Keeping utilization on those cards low and letting those accounts age will be a big help with your scores.

Do you currently have credit cards?

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I have 8 and am an AU on one. My utilization is at about 18% and will be <5% by end of month.

[Anonymous]

If you get each of your cards below 8.9% as well as your overall utilization under 8.9%, you should see a bump in score. If your youngest card by chance isn't a year old you will get a bump there too...

[Anonymous]

Yeah, all of my cards are under 2 years old. I mainly used them as a hack to get my score decent enough to get into NFCU. I will likely get 2-3 cards there and then grow those and get rid of the sub primes while I live in the garden for a few years (to get youngest account over a year and to let inqs fall off).

[Meanmchine]

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@Anonymous wrote:

2. If I carry these lates to term, would it keep me out of the 700+ club? Anyone have experience with this?

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I had unpaid chargeoffs  and still made it well into the 700 club

[Anonymous]

Just to give you an idea I have Navient for federal student loans. 2 "90" day lates Jan 2015, 2 "90" day lates Mar 2018, plus that settled collection. And I'm between 670-698 right now. And am expecting to be appx 15-20 points higher by sep/oct. so it's definitely all possible

[Anonymous]

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@Anonymous wrote:
Just to give you an idea I have Navient for federal student loans. 2 "90" day lates Jan 2015, 2 "90" day lates Mar 2018, plus that settled collection. And I'm between 670-698 right now. And am expecting to be appx 15-20 points higher by sep/oct. so it's definitely all possible

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Thanks a lot for the feedback. I put my focus on the last collection I have which should help out a lot especially since I am already at 640-655.

[Anonymous]

I can offer some info on this, as I had a similar experience with Nelnet last year. 

The short answer is no, and the long answer is "it's complicated." You can for sure get back into the 700s. Due to neltnet lates, my credit score was in the high 500s in June of last year. As of April of this year, my lowest score is 683 (EX) and my highest score is 694 (TU). Those are Fico 8 scores - my Fico 9 scores are already well into the 700s. It won't be very long until the Fico 8s return to 700s as well. 

But it's more complicated than that - because even though your scores can get well into the 700s, the negative reason code for "serious delinquincies" will continue to appear on your report for some time. Even if your score is high, it's very possible to be declined for credit cards and loans and such (or just be given bad rates) based entirely upon that. I was declined for an auto refinance after the lender (PFCU) pulled a 718 EQ Fico 9 Auto, but saw the reason codes. 

At any rate, just keep doing what you are doing. Maximize your score by keeping both your total and per-card utilization below 9%, though 5% is better, and don't apply for new credit if you don't have to. It takes patience, but you'll get there

[Anonymous]

Very True ^^ but people with no lates get declined all the time for things such as high utilization or too many inquiries etc. So it really depends on the lender, their flexibility , how recent the late was etc... people who have for example filed bankruptcy get great cards after a few yrs with good credit lines. It's just about timing and strategy but in no way do you have to wait until the negatives fall off your report. That's a popular myth that's been debunked over and over. I know that's not what you were implying but I just didn't want anyone to misinterpret what you were saying.