I had an excellent credit score in the 800's. I had an autopay set up to pay down my student loan debt each month. It had been set up for years and I never thought about it. I was getting a lot of what I thought were spam calls of "debt collectors" telling me I owed them money. I ignored them for months along with the other scam calls I get all the time "The IRS is coming to arrest you..." "Your cars warranty is about to expire.." etc. You know the calls i'm talking about. I never pick up for numbers I don't know.
Well one day I decided to check on my credit score randomly. I knew it was excellent but wanted to see if it was going up. When I pulled it up I was shocked that it was at 650 - in the "Fair" category. Surely this must be a mistake. I check two other credit score sites and they both showed the same amount. What is going on? Fraud?
I found the month that my credit core tumbled 150 points and it was due to mispayment. I was confused because I autopay everything and my credit card balance was at zero. It turns out that at some point, the autopay for my student loan debt just stopped working. I have no idea why. I was never informed of anything. I'm thinking the school may have switched bank accounts and I never got any notice. Anyways, after months of no payment the school sent my account to a debt collection agency which I had been ignoring for months because I thought they were scam calls.
So I immediately paid off my outstanding balance. I actually paid off the rest of my school debt. I thought that paying off the full balance would put me back into good standing.
Nope. Credit score still in the shitter. I called the school and they said they didn't know why the autopay stopped working and that they have nothing to do with credit score. I sent in letters to three credit score agencies trying to explain my situation. I got responses that my case was reviewed and denied by all three because the information they received from the school/debt collection agency was correct.
At this point I don't know if there is anything I can do. I read that it takes 7 years for a debt to be forgiven and I want to buy a house soon. My excellent credit score that I worked so hard for all of my life is now average because of an autopay error that no one seems to be able to explain.
I've read that in some cases a "goodwill" letter can help but I have no idea if that is even worth the time. Does anyone have any advice? Or am I screwed?
Submitted May 29, 2021 at 03:21PM by HollandOates69 https://ift.tt/2SIqLxO
