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HOW DOES PAYING OFF STUDENT LOANS AFFECT CREDIT ?

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Anonymous
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HOW DOES PAYING OFF STUDENT LOANS AFFECT CREDIT ?

My credit is around 820

15k in student loans  (9Loans), installment loans, average age 11 years

900K in mortgages (8 Loans), installment loans, average age 5 years

20 Credit cards 

my age of credit is 8 Years

 

My question is since I will pay off the studnet loans the mix of intallmnet loans to other credit will change, but I sitll will have 8 mortgage, to what extent does that changes fico 

and does it distinquses between student loans and mortgages or grups them all in installment category.

 

Since average age of studne loans is 11 years and average of credit i 8 y it wil reduce the average time of credit so want to see how would that change credit.

 

also reducing balance on total debt will by by only 15K which is not much compare to 900K still outstanding so not sure if this will help me at all 

 

1 REPLY 1
Anonymous
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Re: HOW DOES PAYING OFF STUDENT LOANS AFFECT CREDIT ?

How FICO scores different kinds of installment loans is conjectural -- nobody knows for certain.

 

In your case the SL payoffs will likely NOT hurt your score since (as you observe) it won't significantly change the total percentage of how much you owe on your open installment debt -- but that is only because you have these gigantic mortgage loans.

 

But here's one way to avoid trying to second guess how the scoring algorithm works. Reach out to the company that is handling the SLs.  You should find out if you can make big payments that will cause the next payment "due date" to get projected far into the future.  Many companies permit this.  If so, you can pay the principal way down as soon as is convenient, which will cause the interest your loan generates to become neglibible.  But at the same time you can keep the loan(s) open.

 

One nice benefit of that is that, when you do pay them off finally, they will be that much older, and therefore they will be helping out your AAoA (Average Age of Accounts) for that much longer.

 

Incidentally there will not be any immediate score damage to your AAoA if you do pay them off early.  The accounts will continue to age even when closed.  But eventually they fall off your report and THEN you will lose their benefit to your AAoA.

 

Bottom line is you should do whatever you want regarding the SLs, though keeping them open but almost paid off has a marginal advantage IMO.

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