Be careful with closing an installment loan.
My DH and I just went through this. We are building a home and paid off one of our cars. My DH ended up losing 16 points with Experian (version 98)....he gained 15-20 pts with the other two bureaus (EQ beacon5 and TU 04)
WHen we first applied in September, EX was his mid score. When the lender refreshed our scores last month, EX was his lowest score and EQ became his mid.
When I pulled EX FICO score from here after the account reported closed, his score actually increased. But, the direct opposite happened with the mortgage version.
I'm guessing that EX 98 puts more weight on open vs closed accounts. That's the only logical explanation as to why the 04 scores (EQ and TU) were not negatively impacted but 98 (EX) was.
FYI...my husband has a second car, student loan, and mortgage still open on his reports.
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