I have $67k in federal student loans that went into repayment 5/2012. Right before I went into repayment I consolidated them with Direct Loans and put them onto IBR. The only other debts I have is a car loan.
I was curious to know how are these student loans affecting my credit score? Does the whole balance affect DTI? Or do they just take into account my payment? My scores themselves haven't dropped since entering repayment and I didn't have any issues getting my car loan in July of this year with a nice3% interest rate.
I have no intentions of ever buying a home. The only things I would ever need credit for is a car and of course credit cards I use for the rewards. As the interest adds to my loans will it affect my ability to obtain a car loan in the future etc?
Sorry if this is too many questions. 
@arjames01,
Good question. I would like to know the answer to that also. I consolidated 125k with Direct Loans in 2010 and entered the IBR. I have had no payment due since consolidating; however, I will start paying in 2015 based on my family size and income. I too wonder if once I start making payments, if the loans will affect my credit card limits. I've estimated that how the plan is set up, I will have to start with approximately $215 a month with slight increases every year. I'm also going to do the public forgiveness application after 10 years, so I have 6.5 years to go for that.
(Formerly known as: Credit is my hobby (1.6M)/TCL objective)
When you say plenty of income, what kind of figures do you mean?
I hope to knock 30K out the way next year with the help of my spouse.
Currently all my loans (except for 1 private-30K) are consolidated w a 50/mo payment for 132 months (Income plan). Does this low monthly payment help? Or does it not matter?
I can't believe I went on word of mouth that "student loans dont hurt your credit/etc.."
If I would have known they can be responsible for holdong me back from purchasing a home I would have never went to (EXPENSIVE) grad school. 
@ladyMJ wrote:When you say plenty of income, what kind of figures do you mean?
I hope to knock 30K out the way next year with the help of my spouse.
Currently all my loans (except for 1 private-30K) are consolidated w a 50/mo payment for 132 months (Income plan). Does this low monthly payment help? Or does it not matter?
I can't believe I went on word of mouth that "student loans dont hurt your credit/etc.."
If I would have known they can be responsible for holdong me back from purchasing a home I would have never went to (EXPENSIVE) grad school.
Student loans don't hurt your credit. Borrowing $200,000 without having a good six-figure income places your debt-to-income ratio very high. Your ability to pay is what would hurt your chances at a mortgage. They look at monthly expenses vs income. I don't know first hand how being on an IBR plan would figure in with the lender, but I would tend to think they would be very sensitive to your situation and inclined to deny. You are basically telling one lender you don't have enough income to pay them back on a normal schedule and turning to another lender and asking them to borrow another sizable sum of money.