@Anonymous wrote:
Or is it only accounts with a balance. I'm referring specifically to student loan accounts. I have about 9 sallie mae "accounts" with a balance, as each student loan I took out from them shows up as a separate account (on their website and on my credit report). One of the negatives on my report was having too many accounts with balances. If I get a bank to buy these loans (they have high interest rates and with my improved credit score, I could get a better rate), will that improve my score, due to effectively eliminating 8 accounts with balances? Thanks!
Both. A scenario with no $0 balances or a scenario with all $0 balances are both not that good per FICO scoring (though $0 reporting with no debt isn't a bad thing either). FICO tends to prefer more than half of your TLs reporting $0. It's certainly a YMMV thing though. I get that annoying red flag on my report if I hit more than half with a balance (and the negative on pg 3).
I bet if you consolidated with 1 new TL for your 9 accounts, you might see an initial loss with the new TL added, but a year or so out, you'd see an overall gain. Just a guess though.
