Student loan consolidation

[Anonymous]

So, my lender told me that I needed to consolidate my student loans ( I had like 11) to get my DTI down to where I could be approved for a bigger loan. I'm concerned about that screwing up my AAOA because those loans are my oldest accounts. Literally. My next oldest account is my auto loan that I've had for a little over a year. All my credit cards are a year and under. My middle mortgage FICO is 685. Has anyone consolidated and still kept up a decent score? We're supposed to start officially hunting next month for a house and I'm nervous this could screw our chances since we are trying to get DP assistance and you need at least a 640 for that. I really cant afford for my score to drop too low.

[Sarah30519]

What happened? Did your scores drop? Did you close on your home? 

[Anonymous]

My scores did take a slight dip because of the way they were reported. All of the accounts became closed, but did not drop my AAOA. I lost just a couple of points. It did not stop us from obtaining a loan. Unfortunately, we are still looking for a house.

[Anonymous]

That's great! Was the original loan date for the consolidation loan recent or the same as the old loans?
Good luck in your house search.

[Anonymous]

It was recent.