The Truth About Grad Plus Loans: a guide Forum

[cmd06]

Call 1800-557-7394, and get an appeals process number.

Once you have documentation with the collection agency's letterhead stating your account has been paid in full or that you have a payment plan with them, send it to:

CODSupport@acs-inc.com

With subject line "Attn: [Your appeals reference number]". Attach a scan of your documentation.

or fax your documents to 1800-623-5082 with a cover sheet ""Attn: [Your appeals reference number], [Name]". On each page you send, write the appeals reference # on the top right corner.

It takes 5-7 business days from the day they receive your documents till they render a decision on your Grad PLUS loan.

[melanne89]

Call 1800-557-7394, and get an appeals process number.

Once you have documentation with the collection agency's letterhead stating your account has been paid in full or that you have a payment plan with them, send it to:

CODSupport@acs-inc.com

With subject line "Attn: [Your appeals reference number]". Attach a scan of your documentation.

or fax your documents to 1800-623-5082 with a cover sheet ""Attn: [Your appeals reference number], [Name]". On each page you send, write the appeals reference # on the top right corner.

It takes 5-7 business days from the day they receive your documents till they render a decision on your Grad PLUS loan.

This is correct, but I'm not sure about the "payment plan" part. They changed the guidelines this past October and now you have to show proof that you have ALREADY been paying on negative accounts consistently for at least 6 months before the appeal process begins.

They really should have let anyone who has ever taken out a grad PLUS loan know that the guidelines for approval had changed. Is it really that hard to send out an email stating that the guidelines had changed so that people knew and had appropriate time to adjust their credit for the new guidelines?

I was approved last year, so I had no idea I would be dealing with all this appeal BS when NOTHING has changed with my credit since I was approved last year. I don't have a problem with changed guidelines, I have a problem with them not letting students know. They really did a disservice to students by not emailing or making students more aware of the changes.

[Humchuckninny]

What part of the country are you in? My letter clearly says they use Equifax.

I'm in Colorado (and that's where my entire credit history is at) but I'll be at an East-coast school this fall. What letter do you mean? My stuff is from the website directly, did they send you a letter?

[TaxLaw2010]

Humchuckninny, the letter is on the website under PLUS Correspondence. I was approved for the loan upon a credit appeal a few weeks ago and last year, the approval was good 90 days from the date of the appeal approval. This year, it is 90 days from the date of the credit check. Since it took 120 days from the date of the credit check for my school to certify my loan, I'm going through the appeals process all over again, and it royally SUCKS!! School starts in a few of weeks, and my loans are supposed to disburse in less than two weeks, and the person handling my appeal hasn't even bothered to call me after nearly two weeks! I mean, SERIOUSLY! This is INSANE!!

Also, just FYI, the person I spoke with did ask for proof of the last six months of payments for my issue, and beware, if your payment is even 1 day late, the six months starts all over again. The account has a 10 day grace period built in, but it doesn't explicitly say that in the loan docs, so the grad plus people were being huge sticklers about a payment that was paid on the 2nd of the month instead of the 1st of the month as listed in the loan docs! Unbelievable!!

I am praying this gets resolved before school starts! I can't sleep at this point!!!

[TaxLaw2010]

UPDATE:

I received an email this morning indicating that the appeal was approved! Whew! Tears of JOY!!! But the new rules are a bit ridiculous! They should keep a copy of the appeal on file so that when the same issue comes up year over year, you don't have to go through this process!

Good Luck to all who are still waiting for a response.

[eleventhnight]

I realize this might be a long shot, but I would appreciate any advice you guys can give me.

I was denied the Graduate PLUS loan due to adverse credit history (account in collection/charge off).

I'm in the processing settling one charge off (pay for delete) and the collection balance is something small that I didn't even know I had (will be paying it off tomorrow).

I have one additional charge off, though, with a balance of 0 that's apparently been sold to a different lender. The other lender doesn't show up on my report at all, and I'm not sure if I need to negotiate anything for this particular charge off for my appeal for the Graduate PLUS loan.

Again, I don't know if anybody would have an answer, but I'd appreciate any input/help!

P.S. I'm calling the application number tomorrow to ask also!

Thanks

[TaxLaw2010]

It all depends on how the other charge off reads on the credit report. Does it read as "sold" or "paid"? I have a similar account that actually shows a balance, but I modified the loan, so I send them documentation of the modification, and they asked for copies of the last six months of payments made on the modified account.

Your best bet is to contact the Grad Plus people to find out what you need.

Hope this helps. Good Luck to you!!

[capnzzz]

Im in a similar sticky situation as the other posters on this thread. I have applied for the grad plus loan and been denied because of 2 accounts in collection on my equifax report. I just paid one of them off and will be receiving conformation correspondence from the agency that it is taken care of. The other account is actually a few months from falling off of my report as the date of first delinquency is 03/2006.. the original creditor had charged the account off and was deleted from my previous equifax report, now a new collection agency has purchased it and it is reported as opened and unpaid. Here is the entry from my report:

Date Reported: 06/2012
Date Assigned: 02/2012
Creditor Classification: Banking
Creditor Name: xxxx
Accounts Number: XXXX
Account Owner: Individual Account.
Original Amount Owned: $19,206
Date of 1 st Delinquency: 03/2006
Balance Date: 06/2012
Balance Owned: $19,658
Last Payment Date : N/A
Status Date: 06/2012
Status: D - Unpaid

I do not want to contact the agency to make payments because it is just about to fall off..is there any way I can show that this account is originally over 6 years old and was a charge-off? This is the only remaining item stopping me from getting the loan. Any ideas folks?

Thanks

[tabigirl84]

Thank you for the advice! I was approved with a cosigner! Even if you get DENIED do not give up on your dream! Call family member if you have any that can help. If you can raise the money to pay off your debt then definitely appeal! If not then start early on the process by getting six months worth of payments.

Whatever you do, do not give up! I am in a MONTH into school and I was just approved so have FAITH!!

[aalexander03]

Quick follow up question regarding the appeal process (I have 4 small debts on Equifax, some in collection, some not, adding up to $3000):

I understand the new requirement for the "payment plan" option, where you must start paying off the debts before calling and getting the appeals number. In my situation, I need the loan to be approved asap and don't have 6 months to spare on payment plans, so I'm going to try and pay off my few debts in full (or at least come to the settlement).

I want to follow the advice in this thread that states I should call the appeals people and ask exactly what is needed, but do I need to wait until I have paid off my loans to do this? In other words, if I can and they give me an appeals number, and I haven't yet paid any money toward my few debts, then I subsequently pay them off in the next few weeks and send in the documentation, will that suffice, or am I risking being denied on the technicality of my getting the appeals # too soon?

I would greatly appreciate any insights anyone might have on the matter.

Thanks!!

[DocHawkeye]

Quick follow up question regarding the appeal process (I have 4 small debts on Equifax, some in collection, some not, adding up to $3000):

I understand the new requirement for the "payment plan" option, where you must start paying off the debts before calling and getting the appeals number. In my situation, I need the loan to be approved asap and don't have 6 months to spare on payment plans, so I'm going to try and pay off my few debts in full (or at least come to the settlement).

I want to follow the advice in this thread that states I should call the appeals people and ask exactly what is needed, but do I need to wait until I have paid off my loans to do this? In other words, if I can and they give me an appeals number, and I haven't yet paid any money toward my few debts, then I subsequently pay them off in the next few weeks and send in the documentation, will that suffice, or am I risking being denied on the technicality of my getting the appeals # too soon?

I would greatly appreciate any insights anyone might have on the matter.

Thanks!!

You can call and get an appeal number now. Doing it before the debts aren't paid won't change anything. Just don't send documentation of anything until they are.

[DarkLotus]

I was denied the GradPlus loan so I did a credit check. I had several accounts that I paid off over the years and show a balance owed of 0. There were also several other accounts that had balances at the time but I have now disputed or paid off to be a balance of 0. All of these accounts still show up on my credit report. I have applied for an appeal and called to find out what documentation is needed but could not get an answer out of anyone. Can I just have equifax run another credit report showing all accounts have 0 owed on them? Or do I have to have each collections agency send me something? I requested them to do so but most were very pompus and denied that they needed to or were snarky and said it will show up on my credit card statement. I do not want to have to do the appeal more than once so I would like to get it done right the first time around!
Thanks

[eleventhnight]

I was denied the GradPlus loan so I did a credit check. I had several accounts that I paid off over the years and show a balance owed of 0. There were also several other accounts that had balances at the time but I have now disputed or paid off to be a balance of 0. All of these accounts still show up on my credit report. I have applied for an appeal and called to find out what documentation is needed but could not get an answer out of anyone. Can I just have equifax run another credit report showing all accounts have 0 owed on them? Or do I have to have each collections agency send me something? I requested them to do so but most were very pompus and denied that they needed to or were snarky and said it will show up on my credit card statement. I do not want to have to do the appeal more than once so I would like to get it done right the first time around!
Thanks

I used the procedure posted earlier by cmd06:

Call 1800-557-7394, and get an appeals process number.

Once you have documentation with the collection agency's letterhead stating your account has been paid in full or that you have a payment plan with them, send it to:

CODSupport@acs-inc.com

With subject line "Attn: [Your appeals reference number]". Attach a scan of your documentation.

or fax your documents to 1800-623-5082 with a cover sheet ""Attn: [Your appeals reference number], [Name]". On each page you send, write the appeals reference # on the top right corner.

About 6 days after I e-mailed my documents, I received a notification from CODSupport that they had received my information, and that they would get back to me within 7-10 days. They ended up approving me after about 6 days (pleasant surprise).

As for the documents needed, I had trouble obtaining a zero-balance letter from one of the creditors. I attached in my e-mail 1) a copy of the online check they processed and 2) a section on my credit report pertaining to that particular payment (which showed a balance of 0), and 3) MY CREDIT REPORT IN ITS ENTIRETY SHOWING THAT NO ADVERSE ACCOUNTS EXISTED.

#3 was probably overkill, but better safe than sorry, right?!

Best of luck to you!

[DarkLotus]

I still have one account that is being disputed so it does not show a balance of 0 and paid in full. Hopefully it will be cleared in a month and I will send a copy of my credit report showing all accounts have been paid in full. It seems like none of the collections agencies I am dealing with want to send me anything stating my accounts have been paid in full!!! Should I contact the original companies the accounts were with and try to get letters from them?
Thanks

[eleventhnight]

I still have one account that is being disputed so it does not show a balance of 0 and paid in full. Hopefully it will be cleared in a month and I will send a copy of my credit report showing all accounts have been paid in full. It seems like none of the collections agencies I am dealing with want to send me anything stating my accounts have been paid in full!!! Should I contact the original companies the accounts were with and try to get letters from them?
Thanks

From my experience, it depended on whether the original creditor had sold the debt entirely to a CA or if the CA was merely collecting the debt on their behalf. If the original creditor sold the debt entirely, then they wanted nothing to do with it nor could they do anything even if they wanted to. In my research, I did come across things about asking the original creditor to remove the adverse report out of good will, but that's once the balance is settled.

The dispute, to be honest, can take a very long time. If the credit reporting agency doesn't receive a reply from the collector immediately, then I think they wait out the full 30 (31?) days until letting it go I'm actually waiting on a dispute right now.

I did a lot of Google searches, haha. Try to look more on Google: it might lead you to better answers regarding disputes.

[shesajar2]

Hi, I had a question regarding the six month rule. If I would begin a payment plan with my delequent accounts before I apply for the Grad Plus loan, will they not care that I have only been paying for the last 2 months? Is the 6 month rule only for appeals?

Thank You,

[eleventhnight]

Hi, I had a question regarding the six month rule. If I would begin a payment plan with my delequent accounts before I apply for the Grad Plus loan, will they not care that I have only been paying for the last 2 months? Is the 6 month rule only for appeals?

Thank You,

My initial denial of credit letter was based on adverse account history and open collection accounts. I googled "adverse account history Gradplus loan" real quick and came up with this:

An adverse credit history is defined as being 90 days or more delinquent on any debt, or having a credit report that shows default, discharge, foreclosure, repossession, tax lien, wage garnishment or write-off of a federal student loan debt during the five years preceding the date of the credit report.

I'm guessing that it all depends on how it's listed in your credit report. Sorry I couldn't be of more help. Good luck!

[shesajar2]

Hey guys,

I called one of my creditors to see what a payment plan would look like. They stated that they sent me a 1099c form and are no longer collecting on the debt. Does anyone know if this is good enough for the Grad Plus loan people, or do they need me to be making payments?

Thanks,

[DocHawkeye]

Hey guys,

I called one of my creditors to see what a payment plan would look like. They stated that they sent me a 1099c form and are no longer collecting on the debt. Does anyone know if this is good enough for the Grad Plus loan people, or do they need me to be making payments?

Thanks,

If you have a letter that the debt has been fulfilled, then yes, that would be good enough.

[JCFindley]

Tagged.

[Honey_Badger]

So if an applicant is currently in foreclosure, GradPlus is a no-go then, correct?

[anitadonielle]

I have a thing under potentially negative accounts. It was a past att bill and was sent to a collection agency. Will this hurt my chances, or if I pay in April and apply for the loan in mid-June, could I still be denied or will the charge disappear?

[facile princeps]

Thank you for this useful thread. I thought the following was useful for the oft cited "adverse credit," so I copied it from their web site:

Does my debt to income ratio, credit score, or employment status count against me?

These factors are not taken into account when your credit history is reviewed. A lack of credit is not considered adverse credit.

What is considered "Adverse Credit"?

Adverse Credit Conditions include but are not limited to:
Bankruptcy (Chapters 7,11, or 12 within the past 5 years).
Note: Department Policy does not consider Chapter 13 bankruptcy as adverse credit.
Voluntary surrender within the last 5 years.
Repossession within the last 5 years.
Foreclosure proceedings started.
Foreclosure within the last 5 years.
Deed in lieu of foreclosure.
Accounts currently 90 days or more delinquent.
Unpaid collection accounts.
Charge offs/write offs.
Wage garnishment within the last 5 years.
Defaulted loan that has been claim paid.
Lease or contract terminated by default.
County/State/Federal tax lien, within the past 5 years.

FWIW, I spoke to a representative today and she said that if you're using an endorser, the same criteria will apply. I was specifically concerned about the endorser's credit score and income/employment situation, but the rep said, as with the primary borrower, they do not consider income or credit scores of the endorser.

[facile princeps]

I have a thing under potentially negative accounts. It was a past att bill and was sent to a collection agency. Will this hurt my chances, or if I pay in April and apply for the loan in mid-June, could I still be denied or will the charge disappear?

From what I understand, yes, this will hurt your application. However, if you pay the bill and get documentation, then you will be able to send that in as proof and you'll be approved, so long as that's the only adverse credit item on your report.

[GreatOdensRaven]

I have an adverse credit history and know that I will be denied for the Grad Plus loan, I will appeal their decision. I have several credit card accounts that have been charged off in the last five years, however, I have settled all of my charged off accounts for less than was actually owed. All of my accounts read, "Account paid for less than full balance, charged off account." The accounts also read "paid and closed" and also "$0 balance". Has anyone also appealed the Grad Plus denial with similar circumstances as mine. Is there any chance that my Grad Plus application will not be denied since I have settled all of my accounts?