I totalled my car in an accident, and I didn’t panic. After all, I’m insured, and the insurance paid off my ruined car. I just had to find another car.
I found a used car that suited me and applied for a loan.
That’s when I learned that Sallie Mae has been reporting me as not paying my student loans ever since I started paying them electronically (about six months). I called them when I got ‘unpaid’ notices, and they told me they’d fixed the problem. It appears they had not.
Today I got the letter from my bank, rejecting my loan application. I have to give the rental car back in a week, and then I’ve got no car. I am totally able to pay for a car, but the note on my credit rating has utterly screwed me.
Any helpful advice would be… helpful. How the hell am I supposed to come up with a car in a week with apparently fatal credit? Can I get around this? Am I doomed to ride the bus to work and give up all my hobbies? I’m really upset and panicking a bit.
I recently got a copy of my credit report and it showed that I’ve had a Layne Bryant credit card since 1985. I called Layne Bryant and they agreed with me that I don’t have (and never had) credit account with them. I told them the bureaus are showing a LB credit card on my CBR. They sent a correction to all three bureaus and I received a confirmation letter about two weeks later.
So call the creditor (whoever has been reporting you to the credit bureaus) and get them to agree that you were not late in making your student loan payments. Once they agree, tell them that there are skid marks all over your CBR that say you’ve been late. They are obligated to correct their error within 30 days otherwise they could be liable for damages and lost income (if you can’t get to work). This last bit is per Suze Orman - a few nights ago a caller asked what to do about a company that was dragging its feet on cleaning up some errors on the caller’s CBR.
It is easy to dispute credit reporting errors through the credit reporting bureau. In fact, you shouldn’t even have to call the creditor at all. You can order your credit reports for the big three agencies (TransUnion, Experian, Equifax) on their websites. You shouldn’t have to pay more than ten bucks for each. They all have an automated system for disputing erroneous information. Once you submit a dispute, they must contact the creditor for confirmation. If the creditor is unable to confirm the information, the item will be removed from your report.
The simplest method for starters is get letters from the student loan people stating clearly that you are paid up to date in full, and that you were never late. Also, if you have online transaction receipts for the payments, print out copies of those, too. Take all of this to the people denying you the loan and see if they’ll take care of it for you. When I worked as a loan officer for a mortgage company, I would have taken all of that info (providing that was your only issue) and had you internally rescored. As long as the rescore came up ok, you’d be fine to get a loan from us. Don’t forget, you don’t need a car company to get a car loan. You can go to a bank or a credit union, if you belong to one, and get financing from them. Don’t get too discouraged at car dealers rejecting you… the people who extend them the credit can have wacky rules and guidelines as to who qualifies and who doesn’t. Speaking from experience, you can have over 700 scores, but if your credit history is short, and your max credit line (ever) is low, you’ll have to show that you have good income to qualify, or you get a real hard time.
Just remember, though, if you go to a bank, and they rescore you internally based on your documentation you are NOT taken care of with the regular credit bureaus. You STILL need to dispute the claims, and you still need to make sure your credit report is cleaned up.
Hope that helps.