Mortgage and Insurance

I have a boatload of student loans that went into default a few years back.  Part of my credit rebuilding process has been to rehabilitate the student loans and get all of those negatives removed. Unfortunately, although I completed the process for my 12 Sallie Mae loans in November 2009, 9 of my loans through them have continued to show tons of 120 day lates,”Charged off” and “Loan being paid thorugh insurance” rather than a zero balance and “paid as agreed.” This was for each of  9 loans, so you can imagine how this is killing my score.

 

I asked the guarantor (Pioneer Credit, who I rehabilitated the loans with) in February or March of this year when the loan records would be cleared and was told to contact Sallie Mae directly as Pioneer Credit no longer had the loan (it was purchased by Direct Loans after the rehabilitation process — still in good standing, btw).  I don’t know if anyone has tried calling Sallie Mae these days but all the 800 numbers go to India now.  I met a brick wall there and was basically told that, regardless of what Pioneer Credit promised me, Sallie Mae could not remove the negatives and they would come off in 7 years.

 

I then decided to dispute it with the CRAs and after a month or so my Sallie Mae listings changed — for the worse. Some of the loans that had been listed as “pays as agreed” now showed the 120 day lates and charge offs. My scores dropped 20 or 30 points across the board.  I tried calling again back in July or August and again got India. I was told “we can’t change it and the negatives will come off in 7 years” again. I asked to speak with someone in the US. I finally got someone at Sallie Mae who said they would investigate and there were some recent updates to my Sallie Mae listings but just things like “date of last activity” changes. Nothing that pulled them out of negative status.

 

After reading this board, I decided to try a different approach and a couple of weeks ago I emailed the President of Pioneer Credit at Sallie Mae. I told her my story and told her I had been assured the negatives would be purged after I completed the rehabilitation process. I explained how much these negatives were hurting my credit and that I had tried working through channels for nearly a year to no avail.

 

Two days after I sent my email I received a response from someone at Sallie Mae letting me know that the President had forwarded my note and assuring me that they were investigating the issue. Today I received a call from someone on her team letting me know that all of my accounts are being marked “Zero balance” and “pays as agreed” and should be updated on the CRAs by the end of the week.

 

My first success in the rebuilding process!! I just had to share!