If I pay off my auto loan, how long will that account still positively affect me?

[Anonymous]

For having an installment loan in my mix of credit? Or will my score drop right away?

[Anonymous]

I dunno, but I'm sure someone else does ...

But I do know that the loan (if it was in the "satisfactory" category) will drop off your reports 10 years after the date you paid it off.  Kinda looks like FICO is forcing us credit watchers to buy a new car at least every 10 years so that we can keep the car finance industry profitable.  What, me cynical?

[Anonymous]

Yea I know it will stay around in my history for a while. I'm just wondering how good it will look once it's paid off. After I finish paying my car the next stop is a house!

[Anonymous]

My FICO score at end of July, 2007 was 681(TU).

I paid off 2 auto loans in first week of August. I then pulled my TU CR in the last week of August, to find my FICO score had plunged to 649. Ugghhhh.

The ONLY other thing that could have effected my score was that I applied for and received a Chevron/Texaco gas card.

Hope that helps.

[RobertEG]

Part of FICO is credit mix.  Paying off an installment loan my help in %itil, but hurt in the credit mix category.  Its not a single category impact.