Rehabbed, paid in full student loan reporting as charge-off???

[robinpittman]

In March 2005 the IRS snagged my income tax refund for a WAY overdue Student Loan account. This gets one's attention very quickly!

Consequently, I finally decided to get serious about repayment.

So I set myself up with the Florida Dept. of Ed./Allied Interstate to rehabilitate my long overdue Student Loans. The required number of payments were made. The rehab was completed once ACS/Suntrust purchased my rehabbed Student Loan account. All derogs were removed as promised and all subsequent payments to ACS/Suntrust were made on time as required. I have a printed copy of my payment history directly from their website.

In May 2007 I took out a home equity loan and paid off this rehabbed loan early and in full along with some other debts. Shortly thereafter, a congratulatory/paid in full letter was received from ACS/Suntrust informing me that all was well. (From ACS: "Our records reflect we have received the final payment of your student loan. The account number referenced above is paid in full. Please retain this letter as confirmation that your student loan has been fully satisfied.")

Good, Right?? But wait....

Very soon after I paid this account off, the tradeline for ACS/Suntrust showed up as "Claim filed with the government/Never Late" (????) on my Credit reports. A charge-off/"CO" notation then appeared in the payment history dated for May 2007!! In the past 8 months the "charge-off" date/Payment History keeps moving forward one month at a time??? The "moved" CO is always replaced by OK under the payment history and a new CO appears in the current months' history???

EXAMPLE: In Nov. 07, the CO was under Nov 07 and all previous months showed as OK. In Dec. 07, the CO was under Dec 07 and all previous months showed as OK. Today my account payment history with ACS/Suntrust shows "CO" under Jan '08 and all previous months show as OK.

How can this be??? The account is closed and no history should be showing beyond the Paid In Full date of May 2007!!

I have disputed this information repeatedly with the credit bureaus but they keep coming back as Verified/No change. I even sent EX copies of my payment history and the completion letter but they wrote back and said they were unable to use the information I provided and again verified this account. Experian won't even look at another dispute regarding this account as they have "already verified".

I have been in touch with an ACS CSR as well as the Ombudsman with the US Dept of Ed. who both confirm that ACS has admitted to inaccurate reporting of this account. An E-Oscar report was sent to all three CRA's in October, again in November and December and again this month to correct this information but it still is not corrected!!!!!

Please advise. This has been going on for over 8 months. I am very frustrated as I did rehab this loan and paid it as agreed yet nobody seems able to correct my Credit Report.

Robin

Florida

[stefdr]

Thats the way it is with student loans. I'm in the same boat. I paid in full a student loan that is still showing as charged off and in collections. You are going to hear that thats just the way they report. I sent the letter the DOE sent me proving it was paid to all three CRA's and got the same response. I'm going to call the student loan people again and piss them off some more. If the loan is paid off, how can it still be reported as being in collections? The only thing that is accurate in my reports is the $0 balance. The rest is crap. Its all due to drop off my reports next year, but everytime a dispute comes back verified, I just dispute again. If they are going to keep the black mark on my reports until the last possible day, they get to reinvestigate it every month.

[brokeinok]

This notion that the credit bureaus don't have to accept verification and proof from the consumer is incorrect. I've been reading the FCRA more closely and nowhere does it say that... in fact it states the exact opposite. I would recommend reading the FCRA and see if there is something you can use or quote in there, then resend all the documentation with a VERY nasty letter saying that you will sue if they do not correct it. Also, search the boards for emails and fax numbers of the higher up folks at the CRA's and send it to them instead of the main dispute address.