I'm not 100% sure, but I think I recall that student loan debt does not fall off your credit report unless you were to declare bankruptcy, and even then it can take up to 7 years to fall off AFTER declaring bankruptcy. It seems they will just continue reporting it as a debt that is owed and tack on interest every month.

Unfortunate, I know. Don't quote me on this but look around on the internet for more info regarding student loans in Canada and whether or not they are collectible after 6 or 7 years. I'm pretty sure that they are one of the few debts out there that quite simply do not just go away after time. This is probably due to an increasing trend of students defaulting on their student loans in the past and dealing with a poor credit rating in exchange for a seemingly free education.

I'll skip the general back story since the end result is the same: I had financial difficulties in 2004/2005 that ended with an awful credit report that is now starting to get clean.

Out of my debts that went delinquent in those years, I recently became aware of one that wasn't paid, a BC direct award student loan. Why this was overlooked and whether I owe the money isn't an issue for me since I know that the debt is mine and I can afford to pay the debt in full at any time, I just need some advice on how to go about it.

This is what I've pieced together from my current TransUnion and Equifax credit reports:
As a direct award BCSL (as a student going to school in ON), this debt was reported as an installment loan with BCSL service bureau in September 2002. Since I was going to school everything reported as paid until July 04 when it became payable. The last reporting date of this on TransUnion is February 2005 when the account was closed/transferred. This is the last/only record of this debt on my TransUnion report.

Flipping to my Equifax report there is no record of a BCSL Service Bureau account. However this debt now shows up as a Revenue Service of BC account (from BC gov't website this is the procedure as unpaid BCSL direct award loans are collected by BC Revenue). If BC Revenue was reporting in the same manner as a collection agency it would be pretty simple for me in that the debt should drop from my report 6 years after the initial delinquency right? However my problem exists in that the debt is reported as a current/open/reported debt of BC Revenue:

EDS DBA REVSERVBC
Phone Number: (866)361-5050 High Credit/Credit Limit: $4,087.00
Account Number: XXX...583 Payment Amount: Not Available
Association to Account: Individual BalanceAmount: $4,087.00
Type of Account: Installment Past Due: $4,087.00
Date Opened: 2005-02 Date of Last Activity:

Months Reviewed: 05 Date Reported: 2010-01
Status: At least 120 days past due
Payment History: No payment 30 days late
No payment 60 days late
05 payments 90 days late
Prior Paying History: At least 120 days past due ( 2009-12 )
At least 120 days past due ( 2009-11 )
At least 120 days past due ( 2009-10 )
Comments: Student loan

The account was opened February 2005 (the month it reports as closed/transferred on my TU report) which makes sense. Notice that for "date of last activity" it is blank without a date. The account is also reporting open/delinquent as of January 2010. Based on the way it's reporting, if I was to call up BC Revenue on Monday morning ready to pay the full amount, this debt would next report as zero balance and paid in full (nice for me), but the date of last activity field would populate with March 2010 (definitely not nice for me since it means the account would stay on my report until 2016) right?

So paying the account is one option which I really don't mind in terms of dollars since I can afford it, but one I really don't like if it'll take until 2016 to come off my report. However, what does it mean if my date of last activity is blank? Is it deemed that the date of last activity is when the account was opened (February 2005)?? Ideally it would be when the original debt under BCSL went bad in July 2004, but I'd still take the debt dropping from my report in Feb 2011 instead of March 2016.

sorry for the lengthy post but I really would appreciate advice from those of you out there who experts with this sort of mess. I just figured I'd try and include any relevant details.

thanks,

bc guy