Paying off auto loan early

[Anonymous]

I am able and would like to pay off my car loan, especially if it will improve my credit score.  Will it?  Or will it hurt my score?

[Anonymous]

It actually lowers your score when you pay off and close a loan. You will have to ask yourself the following questions: How much would you save in interest if you paid it off now (assuming that there is no penalty in paying it off early, check with your lender). Would the savings be worth the hit to your FICO score? These are just some of the questions to ask yourself but all of our situations are different. If you are looking to help your score, the thing to do would be to pay the loan down, but not off, that would be the best action to see a point gain.

[EW800]

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@Anonymous wrote:

I am able and would like to pay off my car loan, especially if it will improve my credit score.  Will it?  Or will it hurt my score?

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I would suspect that it can depend on a number of factors, as all profiles are different, however I can share that my wife and I paid off her auto loan about nine months  early.  It appeared she had a ding of just a few points initially, but after 3 or maybe 4 months the points were right back.  We were not concerned about it, as we had no plans to apply for anything.  As mentioned above, we much preferred saving the interest vs. the temporary loss of some points.