How will paying off student loan affect my credit?

[Anonymous]

Hi all, I have my last student loan thats at about $1670.00 I could easily pay it off right now and would like to (its at 9.75% interest rate). The Student loan account is also my oldest credit account. Would it hurt my credit score if I payed it off right now?

I am also house hunting (want to buy in 3-4 months), which is why I am trying to be careful of my credit (Fico 8 is currently around 780-790). Right now its in the range that would pretty much get me the best rates available (or so I was told during my mortgage pre approval), so obviously I don't want it going down anymore.

[RobertEG]

Do you have any other open installment loans?

[Anonymous]

My wife has an auto loan, but I think thats only in her name since she got it before we got married. So no I don't have any other installment loans in my name

[RonM21]

If you don't have any other installment loans, it can drop your score a bit due to the lack of credit mix in this category. However, I am not saying don't pay it off due to that fact. Do what is in the best interest of your personal and financial well being first.

[Revelate]

Just pay it down to $5 or whatever and let it sit till you have the mortgage, then pay it off (or let it sit till the last payment is due).  Best of both worlds.

If they do something unexpected since I'm guessing this is a private student loan, can always sort the score portion with a simple share secured loan; however, when we're talking mortgage trifecta of scores, only EX cares about installment utilization, TU / EQ ignore it so it likely won't make much difference either way to the scores that actually matter in your case.