Probably too late to worry, but...

[Anonymous]

A few months ago, my wife leased a car and I also signed on it. Neither of our scores moved by more than 5 points down initially, and then shot back up. I just traded in my 2 year old car to a new one to downsize, using the trade equity as part of a down payment on a new car with a lower monthly payment. I suppose I will see the effect next month. The new account drops my average age to 10 years 1 month from 10 years 3 months, and my scores are 759/768/791 (I think those are FICO 9). In the midst of this, we received our mortgage adjustment notice, and have decided it is time to refianance to a fixed rate. If anyone has had any experience with his, once the new car hits, will this pretty much doom our refi chances for the near term?

[Revelate]

Nah, the only thing it'll affect is the DTI calculation your lender does... and if it winds up being a total smaller payment it'll be a non-event.

Have to explain inquiries typically in the last 4 months but it's not a big deal.

[Anonymous]

Thanks for the quick response. Yeah, total DTI with current mortgage is still 23% with both cars. I was more concerned about the bottom dropping out of the scores.

[pipeguy]

I did a refi in March of this year through NFCU and it was very easy - our credit is good (mid to high 700's) - but I didn't have to explain anything as far as debts, inquiries or utilization. The appraisal was key and it even came in lower than it should have been but not too low for the refi (we took $40k cash out too) - of course, we do not have any missed payments or lates at all which I'm sure helped. 

Based on my recent experience, you should not have any problem as long as the appraisal justifies the new loan/mortgage.  

[Anonymous]

In terms of scoring, moving from 10 years 3 months to 10 years 1 month on AAoA is a non-event and wouldn't impact score even 1 point.  The AoYA drop to 0 months could be impactful, depending on when you last opened an account.  If it was 12+ months ago, you may see a 15 point drop or so.  If it was < 12 months, perhaps just a slight drop related to AoYA. 

You'd have to calculate your before/after aggregate installment loan utilization to see if that would matter at all.  Since you've got an open mortgage, chances are that the auto loan relative to the mortgage was quite small, meaning that going from a paid-down percentage on the first auto loan to 100% utilization on the new one may be diluted in terms of aggregate utilization based on the presence of the mortgage.

[Anonymous]

I hadn't thought of that angle. Among just installment loans, it would increase utilization by 4%. As a whole, it has a minimal effect.