JRobertLaw

Student loan consolidation is a "right fit" for your financial life if, with all costs and calculations considered, it is worth it to extend the life and overall cost of your loan in order to save on your monthly payments now.

The biggest benefits of loan consolidation are reduced monthly payments, the convenience of paying one check a month and managing one repayment plan, and the opportunity to lock in lower interest rates than your original loan. But it comes at the cost of spreading out your loan over a longer repayment period, so the added interest on extended payments will add up to a higher overall cost for your college education.

For new graduates like yourself, the benefit of paying less a month, especially if you might not have stable employment or be able to afford paying your current monthly student debt, paying less monthly for loans could make consolidation worthwhile.

To determine if it's the right fit for you, go here to see what you will expect to pay if you consolidate your multiple loans, and consider if the money you save in monthly payments is worth the longer payment plan:
http://www.bankrate.com/calculators/home-equity/debt-consolidation-calculator-tool.aspx

For example, let's say loans A, B, and C cost you $212.00 monthly for a 10 year repayment plan. You decide to consolidate your loans to a single 15 year repayment plan with a reduced monthly payment of $166.00 monthly. You will spare the extra $46 a month, but you are also paying for loans 5 extra years and could end up paying, let's say, $5,000 more in interest over the life of your loan.

Also, consider the interest rate your lender offers you. If your current loans have variable interest rates and you want to refinance to lock in a low fixed rate now, then consolidation might be a good idea that could end up saving you more money. While federal student loan consolidation does not require a credit score check, lenders for private student loan consolidations do run a hard credit inquiry. So if you are consolidating private student loans and have poor credit, your lender may only offer high interest rates that could end up costing you thousands in the long run; is it worth it to refinance to a much greater overall loan cost for a monthly savings of $25-$50?

If you only have a few more years to pay off or only owe a couple thousand dollars to pay off your loan, then consolidation may be more hassle than it's worth if your current payment plan is manageable for you. It comes down to whether you are willing to pay more in the long-run in order to have extra money now to furnish your new apartment or buy your first car.

Check out more resources available online, such as Bankrate's FAQs on student loan consolidation, to educate yourself more about student loan consolidation before making a decision:
http://www.bankrate.com/finance/college-finance/faqs-on-student-loan-consolidation-1.aspx

As always, the answer depends on your specific situation. If you have a relatively short credit history (10 years or less), then you should try to keep the card open since that old card adds valuable credit history to your credit profile. If you have a few cards that are the same age, closing one or two may not be a big deal. In particular, we suggest closing cards with annual fees if you have good credit since there are few reasons to pay for a card with annual fees.

If your credit history is longer than 10 years, closing older cards should not have much impact on your credit score. Just remember that consumers with good credit have 3-6 credit cards on average, so don't close them all.

An account listed "not paid as agreed" means that you settled with the creditor to pay for less than the full amount on your account. Debt settlement almost always has a bad effect on your credit report and will be listed there for 7-10 years, which means it will wreak havoc on your overall credit score regardless of your other accounts in good standing. If you negotiated with the issuer to settle for less than the full balance, then you can try asking the lender to change the notation on your credit report from "not paid as agreed" to a better notation of "current" or "paid as agreed" since you paid the agreed settlement amount. A more positive notation on your credit report could yield a better score.

But there are no guarantees that debt settlement will work for you or that it will even save you money, so the best you can do is try and pay your debt in full through debt consolidation instead or just deal with a less-than-perfect credit score for the time-being as you are settling your debts.

Determining how long it will take between an item "falling off" your credit report and its impact on your credit score is difficult to say because your credit score won't necessarily improve due to one item "falling off". There is no guarantee it will reflect immediately, if at all, on your credit score. First of all, your credit score is calculated according to a complex algorithm involving all components of your credit report. Your credit score will improve relative to your entire credit report, and not just one item "falling off". Secondly, the impact of one item "falling off" may only have a slight point improvement on your score. Different credit actions vary in their damage points to credit scores, so an old bankruptcy would be a bigger weight off your credit report than a debt settlement. But the longer an item remains on a credit report, the less damage it has on your credit score over time; thus, it is hard to say just how much your credit score will benefit once an item is wiped off your report. The best thing to do is to monitor your credit report and credit score to keep a tab on any changes that happen.

If I understand the question correctly, a payment to your credit card bounced? If that is the case you shouldn’t have much to worry about. Assuming you made the previous payment on time and have good payment history and most importantly made right on the owed payment, you should only be hit with a late fee.

If this is your first late fee, you should call your credit card company, explain the situation, and ask them to waive the late fee. This works for many people but just remember that your credit card company is under no obligation to do so. The better your payment history, the more forgiving they will be of the late fee.

When it comes to delinquencies that affect your credit score, most reported delinquencies are 30 days past due. This means that you have to miss one full payment cycle before your credit card issuer would report the delinquency to the credit bureaus.

If you have trouble with late fees, a simple trick is to use your bank’s bill payment system and always send in a payment that will cover the minimum fee. This can save you hundreds of dollars in late fees if have problems sending payments on time.

It depends on the lender and how often they report updated consumer accounts to the credit bureaus. Some larger banks and creditors report every month, while smaller financiers report on a quarterly basis. It can take as long as 90 days for your resolved debt to show up on your credit report and reflect on your credit score. Keep in mind though that there is no guarantee that the actions you take, like paying off debt, will immediately improve your credit score because there are so many factors affecting your score.

If you do not see your credit report updated after 90 days, contact the creditor because there may have been an inaccuracy when reporting your actions which will impact your credit score. If you have written proof of a discrepancy, you can go directly to the credit bureaus and attempt to get them to update the report. This will work sometimes, and is dependent on the documentation you provide.

Disputing "old baggage" will make a difference if you can succeed in having them removed from your credit report. Derogatory items, such as late payments and charge-offs, are deleted from credit reports after seven years, with the exception of bankruptcies, which remains for 7 to 10 years. Credit bureaus start the 7 year countdown from the Date of Last Activity or Date of Last Contact, which is listed under the account entry in your credit report. If there is a negative mark on your report damaging your credit score that you think should have already fallen off your report, investigate by looking over your credit report from all three credit bureaus to see when the 7 year term started.

Absolutely, if you can obtain a personal unsecured loan at a lower rate than your credit cards, it definitely makes sense to consolidate your credit card bills to that loan. Just remember that personal loans have fixed rates are close ended meaning you have to pay them within a certain time frame. This means that your minimum month payments will often be higher than the minimum payments on your credit card. Make sure you plan for this increase in your budget.

If you do get the personal loan, be wary of overspending. Some people who consolidate their credit card debt then view it as a license to go further into debt because their credit card balances are low. We as consumers tend to compartmentalize debt and have comfort around a certain amount of debt. Remember you still have credit card debt it is now just in another financial instrument.

It is almost always better to pay off your credit card completely if you have the financial means to do so. From a financial perspective, unless you have a special rate on your credit card balance (say 3.00% or lower), you are generally better off paying the monthly balance in full. An exception could be to have cash for emergencies. In today’s economic environment, having cash can be very useful should you lose your job or run into another financial emergency.

From an optimal credit score perspective, paying interest on a balance doesn’t help your score. Using your credit card once every few months is enough to build a history of responsible credit use and payment.

You should take care of the collections account now rather than later. It is in your best interest that you settle the collection instead of being charged-off. The further away you can place yourself from any derogatory information on your credit report, the better. If you are planning on buying a home in several years, and depending on where your credit score is now, you will need to allocate adequate time to increase your scores to meet today's more stringent mortgage qualifications.

Generally speaking, anytime you pay down your debt your credit score should increase. Now that is the common results. With that said, there are over 200 attributes that determine your credit score so the affect of each financial transaction is not always clear.

In one case, using a broad range of credit products can boost your credit score. After your auto loan is long paid off, the value of this variable may diminish if you don’t have any other auto loans. Remember that excellent credit means you demonstrate responsible payment history across many loan types. You should take comfort in that fact that if not having an installment loan lowered your score, it would be a small effect.