@monkeywre wrote:
if you have the money to buy an item why are you concerned about being able to get into debt early and often? Save your money by paying in cash you wont regret it.
Because OP is wondering if an installment loan will help boost credit scores. If you have no other installment loans on your reports, an auto loan would improve your credit mix. If it is true you are looking to buy a home in the near future, within 6 months or so, I would not add a new account, such as an auto loan to your report.
You could get the loan and pay it off immediately, but this would not improve your credit mix, as I'm almost positive only open accounts factor into credit mix.
Since you have a score of 721, you will get very good rates on a mortgage, or an auto loan. I would not waste the money paying interest on money you have already.
The exception to this, of course, is if you plan to buy further in the future ~1yr or more, and you can put the money for the car into a high interest account that actually earns a higher rate than your auto loan. Like say you can get 4% somewhere (pretty high) and you get approved for 2.99% financing. In that case, it would be justified, but it is a lot of trouble.
