Consolidated a student loan - showing up as a new account

[ridiculous_nicholas]

So I've had student loans since about 2003.  I have 2 from a private lender and 2 from the dept of education.  I was making 4 seperate payments and decided to consolidate my 2 federal loans.  These were not consolidated into a private lender but instead consolidated with the dept of education.  It essentially just combined the loan amounts and now I pay the DoE 1 payment instead of 2.

This unfortunately is now showing as a new account opening in my credit report/fico score.  I can only assume this is hurting my fico score.  Is this something I should dispute or is this just the way it is when I consolidate?  Since both loans are with the same lender I can't see how this could be considered me opening a new account.

[altimatuner59]

dude, you just opend a new account. all those consolidted loans= new account. the old ones will show closed, account transfered/sold to another lender. and it may stay on your report for up to 10years. so hopefully everything was paid on time.

[ridiculous_nicholas]

Everything was paid on time, I just did it out of convenience and to lower my payment $50 a month.  So what you are saying is that consolidating loans will always hurt your credit?

[llecs]

Whenever you consolidate, you'll always have a new TL reporting. That new TL will lower your AAoA and that'll ding your score. Also, FICO doesn't like to see new credit. On average, I've lost 20-25 points with each new account appearing. A large majority of your point loss will return within a year.

There's nothing to dispute. It is reporting accurately. You'd have to weigh the economic benefits of saving hundreds or thousands in lower interest payments by your consolidation in relation to a relatively small drop in FICO score.

[Lel]

I consolidated a whole raft of student loans into a new consolidation loan a few years back.  I wasn't checking FICO scores back then (heck, I hadn't even heard of them), but when I finally did check mine, it clearly did not have any long-term negative effect.  As long as you pay on time, you'll be fine.

You can't pay your bills with FICO points.  Saving money was your goal, and you accomplished it.