I have been working on improving my credit score since September of 2006. I can honestly say I went about it the wrong way. My scores were between 570, 589, and 611. Since that time I have paid off 9 of the 11 charge-offs that I have. The two remaining have been very difficult to negoiate with. I have made sure that all my payment are on time(I only have two payments car loan & student loan). In February I decided to try to apply for credit and I applied with premier & capitol one to my surprise they both issued me credit. I also started school again in January and that meant new school loans. Well my original student loan has been deffered as a result of my new loans and my payments have stopped being taken from my account. My question is will this cause my score to be affected negatively? The reason I am asking is I originally was told by a realtor to pay off my collections and my score wold increase but after doing so my credit score dropped to 501, 509, and 523. I have gotten my score back up to the mid 500's now and I am trying to stay on this path but I am afraid that this deferment will hurt my score? Please help