I’ve got a few late payments on my student loans from a while back and they’re still dragging my score down.
I’m current now and staying on top of everything, but those past lates are just sitting there and I’m not sure what I can realistically do about them. I’ve seen people mention goodwill letters, disputes, etc., but it’s kind of confusing what actually works vs what’s a waste of time. Has anyone here successfully gotten late student loan payments removed or improved? Or is it more of a “wait it out over time” situation?
How do you fix late student loan payments on your credit report?
byu/Express_Republic_632 inStudentLoans
Posted by Express_Republic_632
2 Comments
Yeah also interested. It used to be seven years but I forget how late it has to be to get reported. I posted a few weeks back here about how I had no idea that my ECSI loan which is a very low amount that I could easily paid had begun collections last month, until I was informed by my bank that I couldn’t be reached, and got alarmed. If anyone knows whether or not that gives me a 7 year scarlet letter again or not, please respond (I called the customer support line and from what the human representative I got and myself could understand, they said it was not “externally reported” yet and I scheduled an immediate payment to pay the balance plus the current one off, so I think I’m good but not exactly positive).
had similar issue couple years back when i was between jobs and missed few payments on federal loans. tried the goodwill letter route first – wrote to my servicer explaining the situation and asking them to remove as courtesy since i was current again. took about 3 weeks but they actually did remove 2 out of 4 late marks which was better than nothing
disputing with credit bureaus is hit or miss unless there’s actual error in reporting. if the lates are accurate they’ll probably just verify and keep them on there. the goodwill approach worked better for me since you’re appealing to human side rather than trying to find technical mistake
worst case yeah you’re looking at 7 year timeline for them to fall off naturally but even just having consistent on time payments after helps your score recover gradually