Two Car Payments left, will my score really go up?

Anonymous · ‎07-12-2013

Hello,

Been a while since my last post and now I am happy to say I have two payments left on my car through Cap One. WHEW HEW!

But from day one I have always been told the longer you have the payments the more your score will go up. I really have not seen that. And it really has me feeling I am not gonna see much of an increase (IF ANY) when the car is officially paid off.

I have made every payment flawlessly! 70 out of 72 payments thus far!

So really.... Should I expect to see a boost to my scores once its done? Or is that a fantasy?

I am asking because I got this car and committed to the long payments in an effort to rebuild credit etc and then hopefully qualify for a better car and better loan rates etc.

I have some credit cards to pay down and that will accelerate once the car note is gone. And then I plan / planned to try and get a nicer car mid year next year.

Currently all 3 scores are floating around 650 -670. No late's, one OLD collection that only shows on one report.

Thanks for any input

fittiger · ‎07-12-2013

@Anonymous wrote:
Hello,

Been a while since my last post and now I am happy to say I have two payments left on my car through Cap One. WHEW HEW!

But from day one I have always been told the longer you have the payments the more your score will go up. I really have not seen that. And it really has me feeling I am not gonna see much of an increase (IF ANY) when the car is officially paid off.

I have made every payment flawlessly! 70 out of 72 payments thus far!

So really.... Should I expect to see a boost to my scores once its done? Or is that a fantasy?

I am asking because I got this car and committed to the long payments in an effort to rebuild credit etc and then hopefully qualify for a better car and better loan rates etc.

I have some credit cards to pay down and that will accelerate once the car note is gone. And then I plan / planned to try and get a nicer car mid year next year.
Currently all 3 scores are floating around 650 -670. No late's, one OLD collection that only shows on one report.

Thanks for any input

It may actually go down slightly. Nothing significant to worry about though, but paying off an installment loan doesn't actually boost your score usually. Fico scoring models like to see that you have loans being paid on, with not high balances.

The thing that would boost your score significantly is paying down the credit cards and time.

SamsungHDTV · ‎07-12-2013

I have no idea, but you should post an update when it does report paid off and let us know your results. Most likely this is a YMMV situation.

Anonymous · ‎07-13-2013

OUCH! Never really considered that possibility! Well with my luck that is just what will happen! So will it not even help with my chances to get a better car deal?

Anonymous · ‎07-13-2013

@SamsungHDTV wrote:
I have no idea, but you should post an update when it does report paid off and let us know your results. Most likely this is a YMMV situation.

"YMMV" ?

unc0mm0n1 · ‎07-13-2013

Your mileage may vary

Last App March 23, 2015. Gardening until November 25, 2015
Current Score: 766 EX 734 EQ 780 TU 6/30/2015Starting Score/Goal Score: 580s/780s across the board

Anonymous · ‎07-13-2013

@unc0mm0n1 wrote:
Your mileage may vary

DOYYYYEEEEE !!!! Thanks for that. Still a newbie here lol.

Scuba · ‎07-13-2013

I think it will go down slightly. With my next auto payoff I want to get my balance as low as I can as fast as I can then delay the last payment to the last moment because the last time I paid off my auto loan my score went down something like 8 points.

Anonymous · ‎07-13-2013

@Scuba wrote:
I think it will go down slightly. With my next auto payoff I want to get my balance as low as I can as fast as I can then delay the last payment to the last moment because the last time I paid off my auto loan my score went down something like 8 points.

WOW! This is really getting to be depressing! Whats the friggin' point of paying it off if its gonna result in a negative effect ????? Really!!!

fittiger · ‎07-13-2013

Auto dealers often pull Auto-enhanced credit scores. Having paid this loan successfully will boost your Auto-enhanced score.

Depending on what your credit card debt is, say if you're using over 10% of the credit limits combined, if you pay that down, you could get a bump as much as 40-60 pts depending on what it is now and if you can really lower it.

For instance, in March I was using something like 80% of my credit card limits ( as reported to the credit bureaus). I paid all that down to about 8% and my EQ score went from 725 to 771.