Keep in mind that you need enough payments to record history. That a minimum of 6 months. As for it counting. It counts no matter what as long as it is on your credit report even 9 years from now. The debt on the installment may not hurt you. But as a rule we like to say below 50% of the total debt is recommended. As for under 10 I have not seen that make a difference. If you think about it you could have a 10 months loan. That counts right? Not a 10 month thing that I know of. Maybe they meant 10% of the total loan debt. That might mean something. But I didn't notice an score increase below 50% to 10% for my bucket. 