@kilpela wrote:Say I do the 24 month term and pay it off after 12, will it say it was paid on time for 24 months instead of just 12 on credit reports?
Thanks for the information O6. I am still a little new to credit and only know a little about credit cards.
No, it will report the actual day you paid the loan off. So, if you get the loan today and you pay it off, for example, on May 27, 2012, even though the loan was for 24 months it will show the payoff as 5/27/2012. It will, though, show the original term was 24 months.
In my opinion, paying the loan off early looks good. It shows you dislike unnecessary debt and handle your finances well. Of course, were I a banker I might think it is not so good because that is one less year I could have sucked a little interest out of you. 
One important thing to remember, though, is not to pay off the loan before it actualls reports the tradeline to your credit reports. I did that one time and then the darned loan never, ever reported. That was a perfectly bad waste of the $2.79 I paid in interest on the loan.
I routinely get unsecured loan offers from USAA and once or twice a year I accept them for $5k or $10k. I select 48 months as the loan term, but I end up paying the loans off within 90 days. I feel kind of bad because USAA earns minimal interest -- probably not even enough to cover the loan processing -- but now whenever I ask them for something they immediately say "Oh, you've got a stellar record with us. We can give you the sky." YMMV
Maybe consider going for 24 months and then pay it off early.