Cheat No. 6: Disavow all knowledge
About a third of us have a collection on our credit reports, and many of those are for piddly amounts: a small doctor bill, an unpaid parking ticket, a tiny balance on a cellphone account. Those small amounts can have outsized effects on our credit scores.
The good news is that collection agencies think those amounts are piddly as well and may not bother to verify the information if you dispute it. Typically, this works for collections that are small (less than $100) and old (close to the seven-year mark where it will fall off your reports anyway). After pulling your free credit reports at AnnualCreditReport.com, you can try disputing small, old collections as "not mine" and see what happens.
Caveat: A collection agency might fail to verify an account within the required 30 days after you dispute it, but the company could report the account again later. You'll need to keep checking your reports to see if it pops back up. Also, this technique is unlikely to work on larger and more recent accounts. It really is meant for those who screwed up in a minor way once, long ago, and just want to hurry the black mark off their reports.
Cheat No. 7: Erase the evidence
Defaulting on a federal student loan has serious consequences. Your tax refunds can be seized and your wages subjected to garnishment, and you're shut out of future student aid. Student-loan collectors don't need to get a court order to make this stuff happen; they can just do it.
If you can get back on track with your payments, however, you have an option not available to most other borrowers: Your default can be erased from your credit reports and thus your credit scores.
How do you make this miracle happen? It's called rehabilitation, and it's available on a one-time basis with federal student loans only. If you default again, you won't be eligible for rehabilitation. Private student loans aren't eligible.
To rehabilitate most federal student loans, you're required to make nine out of 10 consecutive payments on time. ("On time" means within 20 days of the due date.) With Perkins loans, you must make nine out of nine consecutive payments on time. The required monthly payment must be "reasonable and affordable," as worked out between the borrower and the student-loan collector.
For more information, visit the student-loan rehabilitation pages for FinAid and Student Loan Borrower Assistance.
Caveat: You'll have to pay collection costs of up to 18.5% of the unpaid principal balance, as well as accrued interest, which can be substantial if the loan has been in default for a while. But even if you didn't enter into rehabilitation, you'd still owe that interest, plus collection costs that are likely to be higher.
Liz Weston is the Web's most-read personal-finance writer. She is the author of several books, most recently "The 10 Commandments of Money: Survive and Thrive in the New Economy" (find it on Bing). Weston's award-winning columns appear every Monday and Thursday, exclusively on MSN Money. Join the conversation and send in your financial questions on Liz Weston's Facebook fan page.
