Navy SSL

[Ilinferno]

I am going to be getting an SSL from Navy later this month as part of my credit rebuild. From what I have been able to find on the forums 5k @60 months is the sweet spot but am curious if there is any benefit or boost to doing a longer term past 60 months. Is it just a longer amount of time that it will be active on my credit report at that point or is there another benefit? I do plan on having an auto loan or mortgage at somepoint down the line in the next few years but nothing set in stone.

[morethan20yaks]

You will need $25,000 minimum for 61 to 84 months, and $30,000 minimum for 85 to 180 months. So significantly more than $5000.

I think you pretty much hit the nail on the head. If you don't plan on having any installment loans for the next 10-15 years, and want to keep your FICOs optimized, a 30K SSL would be a great option. But a 15 year term does nothing for you if you plan on paying it off in 2 or 3.

[SouthJamaica]

---

@Ilinferno wrote:

I am going to be getting an SSL from Navy later this month as part of my credit rebuild. From what I have been able to find on the forums 5k @Anonymous months is the sweet spot but am curious if there is any benefit or boost to doing a longer term past 60 months. Is it just a longer amount of time that it will be active on my credit report at that point or is there another benefit? I do plan on having an auto loan or mortgage at somepoint down the line in the next few years but nothing set in stone.

---

The longer the better.

[Anonymalous]

The minimum for a 60 month SSL at NFCU is $3001, though there a number of reports of UWers reducing the length of the loan when it's just over $3K, so padding it to the $5K you mentioned isn't a bad idea.

[Ilinferno]

@Anonymalous @SouthJamaica @morethan20yaks 

Thanks for the replies! So, full disclosure I am looking at doing it for 30k so am just weighing the benefits of score vs the additional 10 years of interest (if I were going to do the longest term) of the 8.9% I pay it down to when I get it.

[Anonymalous]

The interest is probably going to run you at least 20 times as much, so it would be cheaper to take out 3 subsequent 60 month loans. Since the size of the loan doesn't affect your score, the only way I can think of where it might have an impact is average age (three subsequent 5 year old accounts instead of one 15 year account), but that's a long way down the line, all your other accounts will be aging in the meantime, and it won't affect the average age of your revolving credit, so it's probably not even worth considering.

[Ilinferno]

@Anonymalous 

Ok perfect that makes sense. Thanks!