After returning to school at XXXX in XX/XX/XXXX, I applied for and received a Citibank private alternative student loan. At the time XXXX financial aid counselors, who had recommended that I go this route to subsidize my costs of attendance, did not notify me that the loans in question were " alternative '' loans, and therefore non-subsidized or guaranteed. After successfully completing my classes in XX/XX/XXXX, Citibank notified me that my loans would begin repayment immediately, at a cost of over XXXX. Given the timing of this repayment, during the height of the financial and banking crisis which was driven largely by banks like Citibank and irresponsible lending, I contacted the bank and notified them that I was unable to make a {$500.00} payment at that time due to job and economic conditions. I further requested that Citibank work with me to come to a compromise as to what would be a reasonable payment amount per month, given the circumstances. Citibank refused all efforts on my part to work out a payment arrangement, and declared that it was all or nothing. Their position was that either I paid the {$500.00} each month in full, or they would default my loan and thereby prevent my future purchases of homes, cars, etc. Their agent was rude, insulting, unprofessional, and inflexible. I responded, over a period of several weeks worth of calls and attempts to resolve the matter, that since they were making an " all or nothing '' demand, I would be forced to respond in kind. As such, I refused any payment and allowed the loans to go into default. Since that time in XX/XX/XXXX, I have never received a single letter, phone call, email, or text from Citibank regarding the status of these loans or any further attempts to collect or work out a compromise agreement. However, the loans were reported to the XXXX major credit bureaus, and remain on my credit record to this day as defaulted or in collection. The cumulative effect has been a significant drop in my credit score and denial of credit to me. I was recently instructed by several people, however, that because my loans were not federally guaranteed student loans, and because Citibank has made no efforts to collect or follow-up on these loans since the default occurred in XX/XX/XXXX, that I was legally entitled to have the loans wiped from my credit record, and the default removed without further penalty due to Citibank 's lack of action on the accounts in the last XXXX years. Should that not be the case, I was notified that regardless of status, having reached the XXXX year deadline since loan default, and even more since loan inception, Citibank is required to remove all references to the accounts in question from my credit files.