First auto loan. Score question?

[Anonymous]

I'm sorry if this is in the wrong board, I searched for an answer but couldn't find one.

My question is when an auto loan first shows up on your report, with no other auto loans ever on it, does that typically boost scores? Or does it lower them because the utilization is high? Just generally speaking, since every report is different. 

I do have one other loan at <9% reporting, but it's not an auto loan. 

[ldkcivilservant]

Any new loan is going to ding your scores, generally speaking.

Yours will almost certainly hurt your score, since you say you have a current installment loan reporting. It won't be by much though. Maybe 5-15 points.

[Brian_Earl_Spilner]

How a new account changes a score depends on many things on your report like age of accounts, how thick your file is, and whether you're on a clean or dirty scorecard.

A revolving account could give you a score boost if the reduction in aggregate utilization is enough to offset the score loses from new account, reduction in AAoA, account under 12 mos old. This is especially the case for people with thin files on top of any additional score boosts from going from 0-3 cards.

An installment account can give you a score boost by giving you a credit mix if you don't already have an installment account. But then, you have to figure in new account, AAoA, and utilization score drops.