topic Re: AmEx Personal Loan Questions in Personal Finance

AmEx Personal Loan Questions

Varsity_Lu — Thu, 12 Jun 2025 11:35:53 GMT

Logged in to AmEx this morning and was hit with a banner saying I'm pre-approved for a personal loan. Don't really need it, but I am curious about a few things.

1. Can you pay the loan off early? Any penalty to do so?

2. I currently have no loans at all, not even closed loans. Would an AmEx personal loan help my credit profile?

3. Once paid off, how long would a loan continue to stay on my report? Would I continue to get a score boost after it's paid and closed?

Re: AmEx Personal Loan Questions

JoeRockhead — Thu, 12 Jun 2025 11:54:02 GMT

@Varsity_Lu wrote:
Logged in to AmEx this morning and was hit with a banner saying I'm pre-approved for a personal loan. Don't really need it, but I am curious about a few things.

1. Can you pay the loan off early? Any penalty to do so?

2. I currently have no loans at all, not even closed loans. Would an AmEx personal loan help my credit profile?

3. Once paid off, how long would a loan continue to stay on my report? Would I continue to get a score boost after it's paid and closed?

Yes you can pay it off early with no penalty. Would help your credit mix if your reports are free of any past loans. Like other positive accounts it would stay on reports for around 10 years. You only get the score boost when the balance goes to under 9%, and if it's your only open loan. Once it's paid off, you get a healthy score ding for "no open loan"

You'd be better off to do a SSL.

Re: AmEx Personal Loan Questions

Varsity_Lu — Thu, 12 Jun 2025 12:33:39 GMT

@JoeRockhead wrote:

Yes you can pay it off early with no penalty. Would help your credit mix if your reports are free of any past loans. Like other positive accounts it would stay on reports for around 10 years. You only get the score boost when the balance goes to under 9%, and if it's your only open loan. Once it's paid off, you get a healthy score ding for "no open loan"

You'd be better off to do a SSL.

Thanks. So, the score goes go up once the loan is under 9%, then goes down once it's fully paid. Is there any boost to your score at all for the 10 years the paid loan is reporting or would the score be the same as if that wasn't listed at all on your report at all? I'm already getting the no open loan ding, so I guess I'm asking if a paid loan helps the credit mix portion of your score even after the loan is paid off.

Re: AmEx Personal Loan Questions

JoeRockhead — Thu, 12 Jun 2025 13:22:24 GMT

@Varsity_Lu wrote:
@JoeRockhead wrote:

Yes you can pay it off early with no penalty. Would help your credit mix if your reports are free of any past loans. Like other positive accounts it would stay on reports for around 10 years. You only get the score boost when the balance goes to under 9%, and if it's your only open loan. Once it's paid off, you get a healthy score ding for "no open loan"

You'd be better off to do a SSL.
Thanks. So, the score goes go up once the loan is under 9%, then goes down once it's fully paid. Is there any boost to your score at all for the 10 years the paid loan is reporting or would the score be the same as if that wasn't listed at all on your report at all? I'm already getting the no open loan ding, so I guess I'm asking if a paid loan helps the credit mix portion of your score even after the loan is paid off.

You'd gain points in the credit mix portion of your score, which as you know is a small segment of your score. It does add to your positive payment history which is another plus for your scores as time marches on. People who achieve 850 scores often have at least a closed loan still on their reports.

If you haven't seen it already, take a trip on the way back machine and check out this thread for more context.

Re: AmEx Personal Loan Questions

Vinjints — Thu, 12 Jun 2025 13:39:25 GMT

Just followed the link for the wayback thread mentioned. That's some seriously good scientific data that was tracked for that single loan.

Re: AmEx Personal Loan Questions

LivingTheAmericanDream — Wed, 08 Oct 2025 00:51:51 GMT

Took advantage of a AmEx personal loan offer and paid it off in 3 months - and my score dropped 3 points after paying off the loan. Good to have on the reports. I'm hoping this helps with bigger CLs and business LOCs.

Re: AmEx Personal Loan Questions

LivingTheAmericanDream — Thu, 09 Oct 2025 20:10:21 GMT

@LivingTheAmericanDream wrote:
Took advantage of a AmEx personal loan offer and paid it off in 3 months - and my score dropped 3 points after paying off the loan. Good to have on the reports. I'm hoping this helps with bigger CLs and business LOCs.

It was Transunion: Total Accounts Change

Your Total Accounts factor has moved from Excellent to Fair.

You may see a score decrease based on your Total Accounts changing from 22 to 20.

Total Accounts:
Excellent 21+
Fair 11-20
Needs Work 0-10