Student loans showing up as 11 accounts

[grootinator]

I know this is a very simple topic, but I presently have 11 student loan related accounts, would it be beneficial to combine all these loans into one (as far as my credit score is concerned) or is it better to leave them seperate?

[MeredithLepore]

There are actually a lot of pros and cons to consolidating student loans and how doing so can impact your credit. Given you have 11 student loans, the loan amount of a single consolidation loan will be significantly larger, and therefore the term and amount you end up paying in interest over time may increase. On the pro side, managing 11 loans can be extremely difficult, and having only one can simplify the repayment process. In terms of your credit, consolidating your loans could help your credit as long as you can afford the monthly payment and fulfill the commitment. Your credit report will show your student loans as paid and you'll still have an installment loan, which will help support your payment history and credit diversity going forward.

[RBD22]

Are all of these 11 accounts under the same loan servicer (Nelnet, Mohela, etc)?  If so, they will take a single payment from you then automatically divide your payment across the different loans so managing them will be the same as managing just 1 loan.  A huge benefit of having the separate loans that I found (at least with Nelnet) is that I can make payments towards each individual account so I can still do the snowball/avalanche method if I want based on interest and/or loan size, all within the same servicer/website.  I found that as you pay off each loan, your overall payment amount decreases since the payment amount due to that loan account is no longer required, so that is still the same as having separate loan accounts at different banks.

If these are all with the same servicer, I would personally keep them separate.

[Cjaysmom]

I agree with the other posts. However, word of warning, DON'T miss a payment or be late with a payment. That would count as 11 missed payments even though you only have the one servicer.

[grootinator]

Yeah all the student loans are under nelnet currently.