Fico 08 is known to ding scores with no installment loans open
You could take out a personal loan or secured but the real question is do you need one?
No need if you don't need 
Maintain your profile and the points will return in time
@Anonymous wrote:not looking to buy another car anytime soon, my ? is what other way can i get those points back...
personal loan maybe???
Least intrusive way to get the points back is to (a) set up savings account of $500 or more at Alliant Fedl Credit Union, (b) take out secured "share secure" loan, with long payout (48 mo or 60 mo) secured by savings account, (c) either decline autopay or cancel autopay after setting up (d) after loan reports once, pay it down to 9% of face amount of loan, (e) make slight payments for the next 47 or 59 months.
On my credit profile that was worth around 25 points in FICO 8.
@myjourney wrote:Fico 08 is known to ding scores with no installment loans open
You could take out a personal loan or secured but the real question is do you need one?
No need if you don't need
Maintain your profile and the points will return in time
I agree with this. Unless you know what you are doing, don't just do it for the sake of points.
@disdreamin wrote:
@Thomas_Thumb wrote:
@disdreamin wrote:
@Ghoshida wrote:
^
Paid off instalment loans don't get scored unlike closed credit cards.
I opened multiple student loans for small amounts and paid them off. They show on my report. But every time I get a FICO score, the first negative is the lack of instalment account.
BTW, even without a current one, you can go to 780+ scores. I think it becomes necessary to get over 800 maybe?Do mortgages count as installment loans for FICO scoring purposes? I thought they were scored as a different category, but I know I've hit over 800 without anything but current mortgage, open credit cards and paid/closed auto loans. It's possible to hit 850 with that profile as well.
Yes mortgages are installment loans and if you have an open mortgage no value in getting another type of installment from a score perspective. A Fico 08 score of 850 is certainly achievable with one open mortgage and no closed loans on file.
Really, no requirement to have an installment loan of any type (open or closed) to reach a score in the 800 to 820 range.
Well that explains why not have an auto loan did affect my score! For some reason I though mortgages and other installment loans had different effects. Thank you for straightening me out on that!
They might've been for FICO NextGen; there were a number of folks back in the day (including yours truly) who pontificated there may be a Michelin Star type rating system, but I found pretty much concretely there absolutely isn't in FICO 8. Identical points gained for my reindeer games with the small secured installment loan testing, as were lost when my brand spanking new mortgage reported.
On the topic more generally, I don't agree with the advice if you don't have an installment loan you don't need one: if you've ever spent a yuppie food stamp on anything trivial (and to state concretely, everyone has), or if you've ever paid said yuppie food stamp to check your scores, why not do something meaningful for the same price and improve your credit for both FICO 8, FICO 98, and reportedly FICO 9 too?
It's a scorecard, and being back in school I'm all too familiar with not wanting to start my exam out of a 90% instead of a 100%.
Don't need it to get to 800, agreed, but you'll get there faster with the share secure loan trick than if you don't have an open installment loan currently. No sense leaving points on the table, and more buffer is better even for the pretty credit folks.
ETA: VantageScore 3.0 likes mortgages, took a non-trivial hit (18-24 points depending on bureau) on FICO 8, but my Vantage leaped 728->781
