I recently graduated from college and pretty much screwed up my credit while I was there. I had a whole bunch of card that I didn't pay on too often. Right now my outstanding credit card debt is under $5000, but I am still at over 100% of my balances. My question is how does Student Loans help/hurt credit. I know that defaulting on them is a big no-no and I don't plan on doing that. I left school with about 23,000 in loans. I consolidated to 2.87%. My monthly payment right now is $56.00 but I pay $75.00 everytime. I have only been paying on them for 4 months now. Will these timely payments raise my credit score any? How long will it take for it to help if it does? Does paying over the amount due help my score also? Does the amount of the loans affect my score? I would love any info you can offer on student loans and credit scores. Thank you!
I'm not an expert, but I'll weigh in with what I know. Student loans that are paid as agreed help the score. In my case, as many of my loans are quite aged, they also help. Consolidating brings a new account on board, which may drop the score a little temporarily, but then you also will probably have several accounts left over that are paid and in good standing. And that's good. As far as I've learned, balance on SL's has no affect on score. Only revolving accounts affect your score in that way. SL's are installment accounts. I even have a few unsub loans that are above high balance (with interest) and they don't affect my score. As you pointed out, obviously, past dues hurt badly.
