How Much Score Increase?

[Brooks14]

I came into some money and was thinking of paying it towards the principal of my car loan.

As of right now my principal left is $5700 on my car loan - Would I see a big jump in my credit score if I was to pay $2000 towards that principal? Leaving principal at $3700.

If yes , how much of an increase would I see in my credit score by doing this? 

Thanks in advance.

[Remember0]

Almost none. Installment loan util is a VERY small part of FICO, if a part at all.

Now if you had credit card debt and you put that money towards reducing revolving util, depending on the percentages we could be talking decent FICO increase. But installment loan? Sorry you're out of luck. Though you would still save interest, so still consider it, just no FICO increase.

[Brooks14]

But wouldn't change my score a lot because of debt to credit ratio?

[Remember0]

That only applies to revolving accounts aka credit cards.

Installment accounts are different. Trust me, your score will not change much if any at all if you take a installment from 5k to 3k. You could try though...let us know if we're wrong.

[CAnNY]

what is meant is paying down an auto loan will most likely do nothing for your score. However, if you have credit cards with balances paying them down would give you a higher FICO. 

If your goal is to optimize your FICO then your plan of action would be to pay your credit cards down not the auto loan. What's been said on the board is to have $0 on all CCs except one. Have that one report 9-10% of the available credit when the statement closes. This method maximizes your FICO score. 

Now, if you don't have any credit card debt then pay down your auto loan and save on some interest. 

Hope this is clear. 

BEST OF LUCK!

[Brooks14]

Haha 2k is a lot of money to take a chance on a small gain....rather keep the cash. I would put it towards my util but that's already at 3%.

damn I was hoping for a big increase...guess I will save the money. Thanks for the fast response