So I have already applied and have been accepted to the school I want to attend next fall and now I am in the stage of getting financial aid stuff together. I know I'm gonna need some Grad Plus money because my school is private and I know I need to make sure my credit is ok because I do not have a legit co-signer. I have never defaulted on anything dont own home etc. but I have had a old phone bill in collections I didn't know about for awhile. I got a letter this summer from the collections agency letting me know that the company sent it to them. The funny thing is I pulled my all 3 of my credit reports yesterday and none of them show that collections but around July or so I tried to do a auto-refinance and it showed up. To make a long story short I called the so-called agency yesterday and they said they dont have my account anymore because they stop taking payments for that company; I called the company and they said thats the only company they have in the system who my collection is with. I was so frustrated cause all I wanted to do is pay it off so it doesn't affect my grad plus loan approval. I ended up paying the company directly including a 18% fee for collections and the lady assured me that it would get notified to the right collection agency whomever it may be. I have a confirmation number as well as bank statement saying I paid the amount($314) in full because I paid using my debit card. Is there anything else I should do to make sure everything goes as planned, I have never been in a situation like this. I just NEED to get my Grad Plus loan!!!!Anybody?

Assuming it does show up on one of your credit reports as an unpaid collection for some reason, a lot will depend on how flexible your Grad Plus lender is.

Some lenders will allow you to file an appeal with documentation. In that case, you would send the lender a copy of a signed letter from the collection agency/dept and a copy of your bank records showing that the money was paid to them.

If your lender doesn't allow appeals with documentation, you'll have to make sure the relevant credit reporting agency (TransUnion, Equifax, Experian) updates your report to reflect that it has been paid off. That can be a slow going process sometimes, and will often take at least a month or more.

In general, most loan companies are just going to check your credit reports. If it's not on the report(s) they check, they don't care. Not all loan companies check all 3 reports.