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@ccquest wrote:You're not fully reading what I'm saying though. Right now you have 8 with an average age of 15 months. If you consolidate, you'll have 9 with an even lower average age because they all stay reporting for up to 10 years AFTER closing. It'll also still be a "new" account in that it is under a year old by the time you want the mortgage.
It's not like the current ones just fall off and disappear. And you'd add another hard pull into the mix which drops your score even more. The only benefit to consolidating, to me at least (I could be wrong), is mental. You're not going to get a magically lower interest rate, you still have the same amount of debt outstanding, it just looks like one account instead of 8.
Oh, yeah that's no good at all. (I thought the 8 would be replaced.)
Thanks!
@Shooting-For-800 wrote:Of course anything can hurt your scores, but...
She averages 815 Fico8s with 15% cc debt (Amex each month), a mortgage, a HELOC at 90% and 150% student loans that are over $200k.
So...how much could it really be hurting? 5 points? 10 points?
Huge difference between $50-$100k of cc debt and $50k-$100k of student loan debt.
She has two graduate degrees.
Thank God her loans are in Public Service Forgiveness Program.
Oh, sure it's not going to hurt someone with established credit (who already qualified for mortgage, great cards, HELOC, etc). It wouldn't matter to me in 3-5 years. But right now, my scores are apparently hurting, and I'm looking at any options for improving my score in the short-term (1-12 months).