cancel
Showing results for 
Search instead for 
Did you mean: 

Should I consolidate?

tag
fittiger
Frequent Contributor

Should I consolidate?

I have two federal loans #1 Sallie Mae $3350/$2600 and #2 Great Lakes $36,000/$46000.  I am wondering if I should consolidate them into one loan and how this will affect my credit score.  A few things to note:

 

* Loan #1 is currently about $700 over the orignal balance (i'm guessing this might hurt my score or affect creditors wanting to give me new credit)

* Loan #1 is the older loan of the two, est 10/97 vs Loan #2 est 7/05 (will consolidating create a new loan and close these older and long standing accounts....will this be bad?)

* I believe the consolidation would lower my monthly payments and therefore DTI, since Loan #1 has 8 yrs left and Loan #2 has 28

 

I am wanting to open up a couple new credit cards by this summer and I and wandering how best to manage this situation?  

 

Thoughts?  Recommendations?

 

Thanks

Message 1 of 3
2 REPLIES 2
SCF
Valued Contributor

Re: Should I consolidate?

Consolidation has a limited impact on your credit score.  Basically, it will create one (or more) new tradelines, with the new lender.  The number of tradelines will be based on the number of TYPES of loans that you have.  For instance, if you have both subsidized and unsubsidized loans, you will have two tradelines.  The new accounts will impact your Average Age of Accounts, but given that your current accounts will remain for around 10 years, I don't think this will drop your average substantially unless those are your only older accounts on your report.

 

Consolidation can lower your monthly payment, but it may also increase the amount of interest you pay by increasing your payment term.  The fact that Loan #1 is over the limit has a very limited impact because it is an installment loan, utilization is not nearly as important with these as with revolving accounts.

 

The main reason to consolidate is convenience.  One payment, one lender website/statement to monitor your loans.  It can also lower your payment, but like I said, may increase what you pay in the long run.

Message 2 of 3
fittiger
Frequent Contributor

Re: Should I consolidate?

Thanks
Message 3 of 3
Advertiser Disclosure: The offers that appear on this site are from third party advertisers from whom FICO receives compensation.