A bulletin from the Post Gazette:

As many as 1 million student loan borrowers from Sallie Mae (ticker: SLM) may have found that their credit scores plunged after the loan company erroneously reported they were delinquent in their payments.

Tom Joyce, senior vice president of corporate communications for Sallie Mae, said yesterday that the lender discovered Friday that a recent download of account information to one of the credit bureaus, Equifax, included a computer code that caused some accounts to be considered delinquent when they were not.

Those affected have graduated loan repayment schedules. In an online forum about FICO, the scoring agency, some reported sudden drops of more than 100 points in their credit score.

Those who think they may be affected may contact Sallie Mae’s customer service line at 1-888-2-sallie.

Another good reason to check your credit from time to time!