New vehicle; need suggestions

[Anonymous]

Hello everyone, I recently purchased a car (financing) and was curious on how I should pay it off to build my credit best. I was told I should pay every month for one and a half years then just pay off the whole thing. However if I do that will my credit go up really high? Or will it go up higher if I pay it off on the original term? Orbshould I pay a little bit more then I'm suppose to pay? For instance I pay $400 month should I pay $500 month? Any advice will be great. Lastly, by time I pay off my truck and let's say I pay everything else on time what would I expect my credit score to be at? Thank you

[marty56]

Paying off an instalment loan won't increase your FICO score so I would PIF as soon as I could.  This will save you money and lower your DTI which would help in obtaining future credit. 

[MarineVietVet]

I agree with Marty. Installment loans are not scored as heavily as revolving credit because the debt is secured.

Pay it off as fast as you can. Being out of debt should always be your #1 goal in my opinion.

From a BK years ago to:
EX - 9/09 pulled by lender 802, EQ - 10/10-813, TU - 10/10-774

"Some people spend an entire lifetime wondering if they've made a difference. The Marines don't have that problem".

[RobertEG]

I agree with all prior respondents as to the FICO impact, but not necessarily as to advising you to PIF as early as possible.

That is a financial, not a FICO, decision.

Credit scoring is only minimally impacted by your current % util on an auto installment  loan.

Installement loan util is scored at a much, much lower impact than revolving % util. 

It is is not primarily a FICO issue as much as it a financial issue.  The sooner you pay, the less interest you owe.

If FICO is your major issue now, and not $$ in your pocket, I would not listen to advice that any magical FICO score boost will come from earlier payoff of this auto loan.

In fact,it could, if it is your only installment loan, result in reduction of mix of types of credit.