student loan consolidation increases fico score?

[treschic]

I was reading on the direct loans website, and they make the claim that consolidating student loans helps to increase your fico credit score.  Is there any truth to this?  I currently have around 18 (can't remember exact number) federal loans, that i'm considering consolidating. 

[Anonymous]

IMO- no

This CAN increase your credit score-

I would say most people will lose a few ponts when they first consoliate- 

# of open trades paid as agreed would be lower after consolidation-

I think the logic is that not having to make 18 payments every month- and not having anything get screwed up- This is where your scores can go up.

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angiepharm wrote:

I was reading on the direct loans website, and they make the claim that consolidating student loans helps to increase your fico credit score.  Is there any truth to this?  I currently have around 18 (can't remember exact number) federal loans, that i'm considering consolidating. 

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[haulingthescoreup]

Not to mention that TU likes to report student loans as consumer finance loans, and having only one inaccurately labeled loan is bound to be better than having 18.

[Anonymous]

I consolidated my loans in Dec/January, first payment is due next week, my scores went up across the board.  More then 50 points each... Experian went from 506 to 658, I also had an inaccurate collection that was removed.  Equifax went from 598 to 643, plus my payments went down over 300 dollars.  I didn't pull transunion score to see what the increase was, but i'm sure there was an increase. 

[Anonymous]

So I checked transunion today and it's 673 up from 568, I'm also paying my credit cards down to 35% or less usage.