Some companies suggest that debt consolidation may improve your overall credit score, but as a strategy for credit repair, debt consolidation may not be the best choice. According to Fair Isaac, the company that invented the FICO credit risk scores that lenders use, there are many factors which affect your credit score. These factors must all be considered before taking out a debt consolidation loan, particularly if your hope is to achieve a higher credit score.

A credit repair debt consolidation strategy assumes that monthly payments on credit card balances are unaffordable and therefore causing occasional late payments. FICO says that payment history accounts for about 35% of your score. They also say that delinquent payments can have a