Credit rating and reporting

Your Federal Perkins Loan can help you or hurt you when you are establishing a consumer credit rating. Under federal law all Perkins loans are reported at least annually to a national credit bureau from the date of your first advance. This means from the day you sign for your first money until seven years after you have paid your loan in full it will have a payment history reported on it. This information is part of your credit history, potential lenders use it to see if you are a good risk for repayment before granting you credit. If you are just starting out to establish credit you may be finding that without credit it’s hard to get credit. Responsibly repaying your loan is an ideal way to begin to establish a credit profile for the future. If you make consistently late or no payments your account will go into default and be sent to collection which can cause you serious credit damage in the future. It may not seem important now, but where will you be in seven years? Will you be thinking of buying your first home? Refinancing your present home? Lenders do look at your student loans first. We cannot remove any adverse history on your account unless it is our error.