Question about deferred student loans & rebuilding credit!!!

[Anonymous]

I am trying to rebuild my credit to buy a house next year. I know I need to pay down a few credit cards about $1000.00 total and start working on my collections. My question is my student loans are the only installment accounts I have & they total about $16000. They are being deferred for in school status the problem is the Debt to credit ratio for them are a total of 104%. I don't know if I should work on paying off old collections or pay off student loans I don't need to repay back yet to raise my score to purchase a home next year?

Thanks in advance for any help.

[llecs]

Paying on the loans really won't help your FICO score. Installment utilization is a teeny tiny part of FICO scoring, otherwise we'd all see scores drop when adding a loan like an auto loan or mortgage.

You'd get a bigger bang for the buck for the collections. Just don't pay it off though. There are steps to take.

Welcome to the forums!

I'd suggest reading the following:

Common Abbreviations

Credit Scoring 101 - great for knowing what is in your credit score and to see how your score is impacted.

What Steps Do I Take - great for learning the repair process.

and Example letters - PFDs, GWs, DVs, etc.

[Anonymous]

Thanks so much for the help I have been looking everywhere for this answer & couldn't find it!!! This is great news to me & Thanks for the links!!