How to remove student loans from a credit report is a popular topic for just about anyone who has a student loan.
But let’s get this broad question topic off the table right away: removing student loans from a credit report is not possible, at least not legally!
And if your student loan is in good standing, you shouldn’t want to remove it anyway. It’ll be a good credit reference, that will help your credit score.
- How To Remove Negative Student Loan Info
- Sample Student Loan Dispute Letter
- Follow Up
How To Remove Negative Student Loan Information From My Credit Report
But just as it’s not possible to get a student loan that’s paid on-time off your credit report, it can’t be done with a defaulted one either. In fact, it may be even more difficult in the case of a defaulted loan.
So let’s modify the question a bit from how to remove student loans from a credit report? to how to remove negative student loan information from a credit report?
In most cases, that can be done with a well-worded student loan dispute letter. And you may need to do that, because negative student loan entries will remain on your credit report for up to seven years.
The Type of Student Loan Matters
In general, the type of student loan you have will make a difference in this process. It’ll be easier to remove negative credit information from a federal student loan than a private loan.
Federal Student Loans
When it comes to late payments or the threat of default, Federal student loans offer a number of options not available with private loans. For example, if you’ve defaulted on a federal loan, then make nine out of 10 consecutive on-time monthly payments, the default will be removed from your credit record.
You can also take advantage of income-driven repayment plans that will lower your monthly payment to a small percentage of your income, even if you’re in default. You can even have your federal student loan forgiven through the public service loan forgiveness program, through 10 years of service with either a government agency or an approved nonprofit, and as long as you make your payments on time in the process.
Private Student Loans
Though some will offer some type of forbearance if you’re experiencing economic hardship, they’re unlikely to remove a default or legitimately late payment (or series of late payments) from your credit report.
What You Can Have Removed From Your Credit Report
While it’s not possible to make all negative entries on your student loans disappear, there are a few you can fix:
- Removal of a student loan that does not belong to you.
- Correction of late payments reported in error.
- Negative information reported on your student loan while it’s in deferment or forbearance.
- Correction of default status that’s reported in error.
Number 4 is the most damaging, but it can happen even if you’re making your payments on time. Sometimes payments are misapplied, or there’s a clerical error on the servicer side, either of which can result in your student loan being placed into default status.
If you’re $500 loan in Webb facing any of these situations, you’ll need to do your homework, determine what the error is, and dig up any documentation you can to prove the negative information is incorrect.
Once you do, contact your student loan servicer and see if you can get the situation resolved over the phone. But if you call, make sure you follow up with email contact, and request an email response. This will create the all-important paper trail in case there are any questions later on. Be sure to print copies of your email communication with your servicer. You may need those copies should the negative information mysteriously reappear (and that does happen!).