Share secured loan, extra payments

[vanillabean]

Is it generally possible to make extra payments for a share secured loan? And if you do, does that mean that it's applied to firstcoming monthly payments in such a way that the schedule of the remaining payments is left unchanged?

[CH-7-Mission-Accomplished]

They work just the same as other installment loans like car loans.  If you make additional payments it goes to principal but your next monthly payment is still due on the regularly scheduled due date.  The effect is just that the loan will pay off earlier than originally scheduled.

I have had two credit builders through a local CU.  The second one is for four years but I'm paying it down a little faster than scheduled to get it under 80% of the original amount for FICO scoring purposes.

[Anonymous]

That's interesting - that paying off a portion of a secured loan will improve a FICO score...

What's best tactic for secured loans prior to a mortgage application?

Pay it off to less than 80%, or less than 10% like credit cards?

(I am using secured loans and secured credit cards to build credit ahead of a planned mortgage appplication in 6-12 months)