@familyinND wrote:My husband and I have been rebuilding our credit for several years. We both have scores in the high 600 range and are trying to push them into the 720+ plus range. We both have CC's, we charge fuel to his and pay it off each month while I charge about 1/4 of my limit each month then pay it down to about 8% as that is the only credit account I currently have with a balance. We pay off our loans early, beyond our mortgage we have never utilized the full amount of time for a loan pay off. Typically it only takes us 1-2 years to pay off auto loans, we have only taken out one other loan and that was paid off in less than a year. Are paying these loans off early hurting us? We have aboslutely zero negative debt, my credit is the lower of the two but I'll be opening another credit account in about 6 months to see if that helps. Will he need to get another credit card? Do we go back to making minimum payments on our current auto loan?
Installment debt really has little effect on your Fico unless you default on one. The closing of your last installment loan typically results in a Fico score drop but that can be made up with revolvers over time. If its a near 0 or 0% loan I would just pay the monthly payment and take the loan to term and put the money to use in other areas that will make money. Your mortgage is an installment loan so you would probably not see much of a Fico change by paying off other installment loans.
