Applying for a student loan? Shop til you drop.

FICO credit scores do not penalize you for shopping for the best student loan deals. When you apply, the lender pulls your credit report and leaves behind a credit inquiry. In some cases the inquiry can lower your scores. However, student loan inquiries from multiple lenders are assumed to be "rate shopping" rather than multiple debts. This logic also applies for auto loan and mortgage inquiries, which are also likely the result of rate shopping. So, be sure to do your rate shopping to find the best deal...your FICO score will be just fine.

John Ulzheimer – Credit scoring and credit reporting expert and author, John is the President of Consumer Education for Credit.com. Formerly with Equifax and Fair Isaac, John shares his unique insight of the inner workings of credit scoring models and the credit reporting industry on CreditBloggers.com.