@Boxermom1 wrote:I recently paid off a personal loan and my scores dropped 6 points. I have 3 credit cards and 3 car loans now. I'm guessing my range of credit is no longer a good mix. Should I consider making a purchase using installments? I'm trying to raise my score in the next 6 months to a year to purchase a home
You're panicking for no reason! 
If I worried every time my score dropped by 6 points--or 26, or 46, or...--I'd have a heart attack! It's perfectly normal for your score to fluctuate. The only thing *I* would do right now is: nothing. Just go on about your business, make your payments as you usually do, and in a month or two watch your score go back up.
Just FYI, my score can easily drop by 80 points (it's usually in the high 820s) simply by actually making use of a card. In other words, say that I buy a new appliance and charge it on one of my cards--I EXPECT my score to take a hit. It does, I do nothing, just ride it out, knowing that after I pay that balance down again my score will go back up. And FWIW, I have no loans of any kind on my credit reports, and haven't for many years, so they're NOT critical when it comes to high scores.
@Boxermom1 wrote:I recently paid off a personal loan and my scores dropped 6 points. I have 3 credit cards and 3 car loans now. I'm guessing my range of credit is no longer a good mix. Should I consider making a purchase using installments? I'm trying to raise my score in the next 6 months to a year to purchase a home
1. No you shouldn't. Your credit mix is already fine. It will not be improved by adding a loan.
2. You should make no applications whatsoever until after you've closed on your mortgage and home purchase.
3. Changes in installment loan utilization usually have little or no effect on your mortgage scores; so the change you detected is probably only in your FICO 8's and 9's, not in your mortgage scores.
4. The score change may have occurred because of a change in aggregate installment utilization. In order to figure that out, I would need to know the original loan amounts of all 4 loans, and the balances of the remaining 3. But I don't think it's worth concerning yourself about.
@RSX wrote:a car loan counts as an Installment loan - so you dont need any extra loans
best guess, is that loan was giving you points because it was below 9%, and so you lost those points - they will come back when your next loan drops below 9
That's not accurate; the installment loan utilization is based on aggregate loans, not individual loans.
If you have the resources. Pay off 2 of the car loans and leave just 1. Now that would move the needle. You only need 1 loan to keep FICO happy. Cards do more for a score than a loan. But @SouthJamaica nailed it. No more moves till you got the keys in your hands for your house.
