A string of "60 days" late marks right out of the gate. Any advice?

[nceguyfromne]

I know I'm probably S.O.L. but would appreciate other opinions. From April to October, 2010, my student loans were in bankruptcy deferment status while my Chapter 7 was pending. Throughout this time, I monitored my student loan account online, which indicated a repayment date of January 15, 2011 (I think I have it printed out somewhere). However, in late October, 2010, shortly after my bankruptcy case was discharged, I received a letter from the loan servicer changing my repayment date to November 15, 2010, two months sooner. As a result of believing that my loans would not go into repayment until January 2011, I was unprepared to begin making payments in November 2010, so I contacted the servicer to request additional time to begin making payments, which was denied. Consequently, when I started making my otherwise "on-time" payments on January 15 and each month thereafter, they were already 60 days late. So now, looking at my credit report, I have a string of "60 day" late marks on this account beginning in January to present. I finally brought my account to current this month.

I have spoken to a couple representatives with the servicer who all have the same basic story. The servicer's hands are "tied" with respect to the date when my loan would resume "repayment" status and the January 15, 2011 repayment date was merely an estimate. One representative even claimed that it was the Bankruptcy Court that ordered this "estimated" January 15, 2011 repayment date and "Bankruptcy Law" that subsequently dictated that my account was to resume repayment in November 2010. "This happens all the time," she said. "A lot of people end up being late right out of the gate" (because the Bankruptcy Court evidently tells them to deceive debtors).

I don't take issue with the repayment date being changed as much as I do the deception that led to this point. All I am looking to do now is just get these "60 day" lates off my credit report if at all possible. Things are going nowhere with the servicer so I guess my next step is to dispute it with the CRAs. Has anyone else done this and had luck? Is there anything I or my BK attorney could say to the servicer that might get them to work with me? I don't care if my argument is right, as long as it gets results.

[frogger]

The loans are being reported correctly and there is probably nothing much that can be done. Changing the rules in the middle of the game is nothing unusual for a lender.

Dispute it, and hope that it falls between the cracks and no one answers the dispute.

[nceguyfromne]

That's what I'll do then. I was thinking of staggering my disputes to maybe increase the chance they would ignore one or more of the 3 CRAs. Then again, I guess that could backfire if my first dispute puts them on the lookout for the other two.

[KeithDoxen]

Everything the servicer did was within their rights. I agree with the strategy of disputing and hoping no one cares enough to say anything.

If it makes you feel better, I doubt there was any deception intended. It's more in the "incompetence" arena. There's probably some automatic formula that calculates when your next repayment will be due, and it probably has little to do with what will actually happen. No one changes this because no one cares enough to do anything about it. And student loans are a mess, and I mean a mess, when it comes to bankruptcy and defaults. I generally get the impression that most student loan companies have traditionally dealt with so few defaults and bankruptcies that they didn't bother to really create comprehensive policies to deal with them. Of course over the last few years, that's changed, and it probably isn't going back anytime soon due to the "new normal" of our cratering standard of living, leaving lots of people without the means to pay their student loans. Point is, student loan companies and servicers tend to be fairly clueless at anything beyond disbursing your loans and cashing your check.

[nceguyfromne]

Thanks for the feedback, KeithDoxen. I fully realize I don't have a leg to stand on and that is why I'm basically just hoping to sneak this through or push the right buttons to get them to work with me. I genuinely thought the servicer was planning to defer this until January, not to mention the court was taking so long to look at my reaffirmation that I figured that date might have to be extended again. My fault for not familiarizing myself with all those new laws my servicer has apparently contributed to the Bankruptcy Code. ;)

In the past, the servicer was a lot more flexible about reporting late payments but now you go a day over 30 and it's on your credit report. Times sure have changed.