As long as you keep up with your student loans, meaning you pay ‘at least’ the minimum payment each month, then your credit score will be fine. The loans will only hurt your credit score if you fail to pay on time; i.e. 30 days past due date, 60 days past due date. You can get a free copy of your credit report by all three of the credit bureaus online at http://www.annualcreditreport.com. It’ll give you a better idea of what can count as negative or positive toward your credit score. Take care!

KindaSmart

If I always pay a little more than the minimum balance due on my student loans but each month the amount of the payments aren’t consistent (i.e. one month $200, next month $1000), will this hurt my credit score?

Thanks

Thanks for your comment!

It depends on the individual company and their policy. Some do pull your credit report, some do not. If they do pull your credit report as part of the decision process, then your score will take a small hit. However, for most people the benefits of the higher limit on their debt-to-credit ratio would make up for hte hit in a very short amount of time.

Now to be fair, this response makes two assumptions:

1) That the customer actually gets the credit increase. If they do not get the increase, and their report is pulled, then their score will go down slightly, instead of up.

2) It also assumes that instead of continuing to charge on the card, they stop charging, and pay down their balance. If you get a credit limit increase, they pull your credit report, and they charge their card right back up, then their score will most likely drop.

Excellent question! Thanks for giving me a chance to clarify.