Can student loans lower your credit scores? Well, yes—but how much depends largely on how you handle those debts. One thing’s for sure: the amount of student loan debt owed has increased pretty dramatically in just the last seven years. New figures from FICO show that the average student loan debt since 2005 has increased 54%–from $17,236 to $26,549. And the number of consumers with two or more open student loans on their credit report doubled in the same time, from 6 percent in 2005 to 12 percent now. The increase in loan debt, by itself, doesn’t necessarily affect the credit scores of those who are carrying it. How is Student…