@calyx wrote:
I have a loan I'm aggressively paying off, and I noticed that my next due date is also moving out (right now in 2020), so I was thinking of keeping the loan open until its final scheduled date once I have it down to ~200 or so since it's at such a low interest rate.
Great idea. Not all lenders extend due dates as a result of prepayment, so you have a nice situation there. Definitely pay it down and keep it open.
Note, however, that the effective interest rate of all loans becomes negligible once you pay the loan down far enough. I.e. a loan at 2% and a loan at 10% both involve paying a few dollars a year in interest once the current balance becomes (say) $50.
I would avoid paying the balance down to an ultratiny amount, however, since lenders will sometimes close such a loan prematurely. Good rule of thumb is to keep the balance > $30 and also greater than the original monthly payment (defined at the beginning of the loan). Thus if the original monthly payment was $33, I'd keep the balance above $35.
