Q: I have $3,200 in debt on an old American Express, it went to a

Q: I am paying $420 monthly for a federally guaranteed student loan and soon will be applying for a home mortgage. Need to know how my student loan payment affects debt ratio.

A: In my experience I never had a case when the student loans wouldn't count, guaranteed or not. But before I said that they always do, I found this

We know that

The following is the recent exchange with the person looking for credit repair. He wants to fix bad credit to be able to buy a house and do it ASAP, in a fear of missing buyer's market. It illustrates the common situation today and is similar to many questions we receive on credit repair.

Q: I want to buy a house as soon as possible but have bad credit, how can I fixed it quick?
A: Please provide some details on the bad credit situation - what are the credit scores, why it is bad - collections, late payments, charge-offs , etc.

Q: The credit scores are in 500s, I have few collections and bad accounts. I want to pay them off. I need a personal loan, may be $14,000.
A: We don't give loans, just an advise. A personal unsecured loan will cost you probably 25% in interest rates, if you can get one with such low credit score. Your credit, I can almost guarantee will need much repair than now, in my opinion.

Q: What about cosigner, I want to get it over with, I feel like buyer's market is coming to the end.
A: Cosigner will certainly help, but even if he or she has high credit scores, an unsecured loan will be costly, likely 12 - 15%. As far as real estate market, it is not going to end anytime soon. I would suggest to get a second job to save some cash for a down payment, which I assume you don't have, and pay off