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Has anyone gone through the process of accepting graduate PLUS loans who might be able to shed some light on the question of "adverse credit" and how this is defined by the DOE?

My financial aid package at one school in particular, within the admitted students portal, shows both subsidized and grad PLUS loans, so I'm curious whether this means they ARE being offered and I've already been determined to be eligible.

Has anyone had difficulty being approved for PLUS loans due to adverse credit? If so, I would really appreciate hearing what sort of credit you have so that I can compare (I have a "fair" rating in the low 600s, with several accounts from about 5 years ago in collections, but everything is current in the years since).

Thanks in advance for any insight.

I'll let others say more about their adventures with getting PLUS loans without perfect credit. I do know that scores don't matter, it's just the presence of a certain amount of money above a threshold in collections and you not having any kind of default, judgement, bankruptcy, or anything like that. usually if you can have a score as high as 600 you shouldn't have something that bad on your file. If you do have some old collection accounts, etc. I do vaguely remember folks being able to pay those off and share the documentation after an automatic denial and getting the loan eventually approved.

Anway, the PLUS loan you're awarded in a financial aid package is NOT an approval. You'll go through that in the summer and your financial aid office will share instructions for how to sign promissory notes, etc.

fliptrip wrote:I'll let others say more about their adventures with getting PLUS loans without perfect credit. I do know that scores don't matter, it's just the presence of a certain amount of money above a threshold in collections and you not having any kind of default, judgement, bankruptcy, or anything like that. usually if you can have a score as high as 600 you shouldn't have something that bad on your file. If you do have some old collection accounts, etc. I do vaguely remember folks being able to pay those off and share the documentation after an automatic denial and getting the loan eventually approved.

Anway, the PLUS loan you're awarded in a financial aid package is NOT an approval. You'll go through that in the summer and your financial aid office will share instructions for how to sign promissory notes, etc.

This is super helpful, thanks very much! Just one more wait-and-see aspect of this process I suppose...