Fresh Data on Paying Off Auto Loan w/ Open Student Loans

[Aahz]

Am posting to help add further info to the mysteries involved in this post from @iheartwings and this request from @CreditGuyInDixie back in November.

Reports are totally clean.  No mortgage accounts, past pr present.

My paid off auto loan just reported and dropped 10-11 points on my FICO08 scores from each bureau.

Prior to paying off loan I had-

- 1 open auto loan @ 65%

- 3 open student loans @ 14%-16% each

- 1 closed auto loan

- 2 closed student loans

- Total installment utility @ 52%

After paying off auto loan I have-

- 3 open student loans @ 14%-16% each

- 2 closed auto loans

- 2 closed student loans

- Total installment utility @ 15.3%

There were no other changes to my reports between my last score updates and these.

Sorry, but I'm not willing to open a shared secure loan at this time.  March and April will be a very busy time for my scores with an expected 12-15 changes on each report, so it will be unlikely I would be able to isolate any changes due to the new loan.  And, I'm also working on simplifying my finances, so would be unlikely to open one regardless.

But I wanted to add support to the theory that student loans are calculated differently in FICO08 scoring then auto loans or S/S loans.

[SouthJamaica]

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@Aahz wrote:

Am posting to help add further info to the mysteries involved in this post@ from @iheartwings and this request@ from @Anonymous back in November.

Reports are totally clean.  No mortgage accounts, past pr present.

My paid off auto loan just reported and dropped 10-11 points on my FICO08 scores from each bureau.

Prior to paying off loan I had-

@- 1 open auto loan @ 65%

@- 3 open student loans @ 14%-16% each

- 1 closed auto loan

- 2 closed student loans

@- Total installment utility @ 52%

After paying off auto loan I have-

@- 3 open student loans @ 14%-16% each

- 2 closed auto loans

- 2 closed student loans

@- Total installment utility @ 15.3%

There were no other changes to my reports between my last score updates and these.

Sorry, but I'm not willing to open a shared secure loan at this time.  March and April will be a very busy time for my scores with an expected 12-15 changes on each report, so it will be unlikely I would be able to isolate any changes due to the new loan.  And, I'm also working on simplifying my finances, so would be unlikely to open one regardless.

But I wanted to add support to the theory that student loans are calculated differently in FICO08 scoring then auto loans or S/S loans.

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1. Usually when one's installment utilization percentage goes down, one's scores go up.

2. Was the auto loan much, much larger than the combined student loans?

3. There would be no point in opening an SSL. That's only for people who don't have open installment loans; you still have 3.

[Anonymous]

I think what the OP may be saying here is that he doesn't think his student loans are being counted under FICO 08... so since he just paid off his only auto loan he effectively may have paid off his only installement loan in the eyes of FICO and thus the score drop, as well as the SSL discussion as it would then result in a scoring benefit.

Since his auto loan was at > 50% utilization perhaps that's why his scoring loss was less than would have been the case if he had say single-digit utilization on that loan like is usually the case just before paying such a loan off.  Paying it down to single-digit utilization may have resulted in another 10 points gained or so, where paying it off resulted in a loss of roughly the same amount.  That's my theory of what's going on anyway.