Does paying off Mortgage boost FICO??

[orscrubs]

We just sold our house a few weeks ago and are building a new one which will be ready in early December. Currently, my FICO is at 710, I got an alert today from my Equifax monitoring account that the Mortgage account I had with Chase (the mortgage loan on the home we sold was just under my name) on the previous home has been updated as "Paid Off" (we had sold the house and closed the deal on July 24th, but it hadn't appeared on my credit report unitl today) . We will of course be getting a new mortgage once our new home is complete and we sign in December....but, my question is that in the meantime from now until December will my FICO go up being how my mortgage account has been paid off? The mortgage account that was paid off was opened up in September of 2005, so it was basically open for 4 years.

I'm kind of hoping it will boost it up in order to maybe qualify for an even better rate....?

Thanks in advance guys!

Message Edited by orscrubs on 08-21-2009 01:57 PM

[Anonymous]

It is my understanding that having an open mortgage helps your score.  Having a closed mortgage instead is still helpful but slightly less.  This is because the scoring model likes to see a good mix of credit.  Also where utilization is an issue with credit cards, it isn't an issue with installment loans.  In that light, I wouldn't expect to gain points in paying off a mortgage.