How Does Having an Installment Loan Improve Credit Score?

[elim]

when i took out a share secured loan 2 years ago i jumped about 25 points each cr. mileage my vary

[Anonymous]

For me, a loan paid down to 9% is worth 33 points. That's how much both my TU and EX scores dropped when mine reported paid. Don't know about EQ since there was some other stuff going on with that file at the time.

[Grafton88]

All my scores jumped about 25 points when I paid down my loan to under 9%.  This includes from EQ which still has a baddie.  

I don't know if I lost any points when I took on the loan.  It did lower my AAoA but it was also lowered by getting 3 CC at the same time.

[Revelate]

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@Grafton88 wrote:

All my scores jumped about 25 points when I paid down my loan to under 9%.  This includes from EQ which still has a baddie.  

I don't know if I lost any points when I took on the loan.  It did lower my AAoA but it was also lowered by getting 3 CC at the same time.

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Same penalty for any new tradeline as near as anyone has been able to tell and for me that's just a change in AAOA but I've never been idle for 2 years at a stretch so haven't entirely ruled out the new credit theory; I think where the curious and currently known bit is whether credit mix is really even a factor anymore... namely, for someone with revolving tradelines, if they open up an installment loan when it first reports assuming the inquiry landed elsewhere and there was no material AAOA change, does the score stay flat or is there an increase as a result of credit mix?

[Grafton88]

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@Revelate wrote:

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@Grafton88 wrote:

All my scores jumped about 25 points when I paid down my loan to under 9%.  This includes from EQ which still has a baddie.  

I don't know if I lost any points when I took on the loan.  It did lower my AAoA but it was also lowered by getting 3 CC at the same time.

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Same penalty for any new tradeline as near as anyone has been able to tell and for me that's just a change in AAOA but I've never been idle for 2 years at a stretch so haven't entirely ruled out the new credit theory; I think where the curious and currently known bit is whether credit mix is really even a factor anymore... namely, for someone with revolving tradelines, if they open up an installment loan when it first reports assuming the inquiry landed elsewhere and there was no material AAOA change, does the score stay flat or is there an increase as a result of credit mix?

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Thanks for that info.  That is why I look at general trends rather than expect there to be an exact figure.  I finally have my scores where a 20 point hit won't put me in a funk.  I know I can get that 20 points back by plowing forward.