Removing a Closed Student Loan from Your Credit Report

No one wants to have closed accounts, like a student loan, appearing on any credit report. If it was in collections at any time, it might stay on your credit report for 7 years. The first thing you should do is review your credit reports. If one of your reports is much lower than another, start with that one first.

When you want to remove a closed student loan account, you have a few options.

• Write a ‘goodwill’ letter to the credit bureau

First, writing a goodwill letter may be done when you couldn’t make your loan payment due to illness or circumstances you could not control.

• Dispute credit report account inaccuracies

If your letter is well written and has mitigating circumstances, the credit company will probably review your previous payment history to verify the accuracy of your letter before deciding if they will take any action.

• Wait until it ages out

If nothing else works, you can simply wait for the negative item to age. The older an item on your report gets, the less impact it has on your report.

Understand the Impact of Closed Accounts

Many people do not realize that an old, closed account may still be a significant factor in their credit score. Other factors include applying for new credit or loans.