Paid off my last car loan in full

I paid mine off yesterday after 4 years. I didn't even think about the credit score dropping.

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paying off a car early and your credit dropping is freakin stupid. This world i wonder about sometimes.

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It only really happens if it drops the average age of your open accounts.

It can boost your credit worthiness as it reduces your LTI ratio - however, the net effect of it dropping a credit score - objectively, is silly to me for a lot of reasons.

I don't have many accounts which have been opened longer than 5 years. In fact I only have 1 now, which is my Discover Card. My mortgage is 3 years old now, so the length of my credit was negatively impacted by paying off the loan. Obviously it impacted my score much more than my debt ratio which was relatively low already.

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This is why I don't play the credit score games. I just try to handle my obligations and try to avoid new credit unless I have a good reason for it.

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Same. I'm almost 40 and have found that your score doesn't matter all that much for most credit needs, as long as it is over 700 or so. Even when my credit score was in the 600's, I didn't have much problem getting credit, just not the best interest rates. People get too hung up on the actual score. Sure it matters, but showing you can handle your debts timely matters more.

I have a mortgage, 2 student loans, a HELOC, 2 car loans, and 1 credit card on mine and can't seem to get it over 750 even after 10 years of consistently paying on time on each, though I rarely use the credit card or HELOC. I quit worrying about it 5 or 6 years ago.

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Even when my credit score was in the 600's, I didn't have much problem getting credit, just not the best interest rates.

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This is why it is most significant for home financing - because of the length of the loan, small blips in the APR results in major expenses.

As Dave Ramsey says - a good credit score is the result of good money practices, not the goal.

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Having an installment loan close out, because you paid it off, should not hurt your credit score.

Again, absolutely insane. This is why I don't play the credit score games. I just try to handle my obligations and try to avoid new credit unless I have a good reason for it.

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Yep me too. House is paid off, vehicle is paid off. Fawk the credit game.

Think about it - the goal of the credit system is to encourage people to take out loans/consume. That's how they make money. Frugality, for them, is bad for business.

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So to keep the average age of my open accounts from dropping, should I leave like $1 in my student loan account and let it just accumulate interest and keep the account open?

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Eventually the minimum payment will force a payoff.

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I have about $1300 left to pay off, well ahead of schedule, and the age of the loan is about 10 years since I first took out a loan in 2004.

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That could be an issue if that is your oldest credit line. This is why people need to be careful about paying off an canceling all their credit cards - while I'm not saying never do this - the consequence of doing it to your oldest account can be detrimental to a credit score and a future mortgage payment.