@Anonymous wrote:
I took out a loan for about half the cost of a new car in November, I had the cash but there was $1500 to save if I financed. The dealership asked me to make 4 payments before paying it off (even with the small amount of interest, I'm still ahead). So first, is this going to hurt my score? I dropped from 820 to 810 when I got the loan which seems sort of like a rounding error, I assume I'll drop another 10 when I pay it off because that is how backward this process works. But would it be better to pay off all at once or pay off in chunks? Does it make any difference at all?
I agree with the above post, the finance guy probably needs you to hold onto the loan for 3 or 4 months for him to get his commission. If you are able to pay it off all at once, as a banker I would ask you, "why didn't you just pay cash for the car?" I'm guessing you just want to improve your score? If this is the case, at your score 800+, then there is no need to try to improve your score. You will be approved for anything so long as the other factors are good in any credit application. If I were in your shoes, I would just payoff the loan today and not worry about the scores.
