<prompt> Human: Back in 2005-2007, I attended a college, which shall remain nameless, that lied to me to get me to come to their college. They told me that my rent and college-supplied laptop would all be covered by grants and college programs. Needless to say, they all got tacked onto my loans. Since then, Ive been in the military who does have a Student Loan Repayment program, which is how I found out that my school duped me into getting personal loans, not federal, so no help there. Now, nearly 10 years later, the student loans that are on my credit have thrown my credit score into the 400s and is making my debt-to-income ratio unsustainable. In the past year, I have found out about the debt-collector statute of limitations laws in each state. I mailed my lender a copy of the law pertinent to that state with proof of it being over the required years to have it written off my credit. The lender came back with their determination stating they saw no reason to remove the loan from my credit report. I recently less than 6 months ago moved for work and tried to get some counselling as far as trying to get a mortgage. I was told by every lender that they cannot help me and to seek legal representation to fight the lender and prove that they need to remove themselves from my credit. They said if I dont I will never qualify for mortgages and always will pay top dollar when it comes for credit cards and auto loans. However, I dont have any money to get legal representation.Any advice would be helpful, as I find myself stuck between a rock and a hard place.  <response>: The lender came back with their determination stating they saw no reason to remove the loan from my credit report.Two things here.One is the statute of limitations only applies to the ability of the lender to sue you. If that time has passed, they no longer have a legal remedy to collect from you.Second is that your credit report reporting time frame is completely separate to the statute of limitations. Bad debt will stay on for seven years from the Date of First Delinquency. If it has been more than 7 years and the lender refuses to remove it or has tried an illegal aging technique to make it seem that you were current more recent that you were, then you can dispute it with the credit bureaus themselves. 