How Long Should You Keep a Loan to Establish Good Credit History?

A credit history is something that will make or break a company or an individual. A good history will mean access to credit at a good rate of interest. A bad history will mean limited access to credit, if at all, or at a high rate of interest. Anything you can do to improve your credit rating is to be encouraged.

The Loan

If the purpose of the loan was to establish a credit history then the loan serves that purpose for a limited time. You may want to assess it after at least six months of a good payment record to see what effect it has on your credit report and credit score. A credit report is available from the three major credit reporting bureaus (Equifax, Experian and TransUnion) and can be ordered from their websites.

Reviewing Your Report

Review the reports from the credit bureaus to see which one has the loan on it. Not every company reports to each credit bureau and you may have to look at a report from each bureau to find the loan company reporting on you. Once you have you should see that they have been reporting for six months and that you are a good payer (always on time). As long as you are always on time and never late then you are working to establish a good credit history. If you have done this then you may want to pay off the loan. To do this you will just need to contact the loan company and request a "payoff " amount.

Pay Off Loan

A "payoff" amount is the amount of the loan remaining plus any early pay off fees or charges. If the purpose of the loan was purely to establish a good report then you may want to negotiate a low pay off fee at the beginning when applying for the loan.
You may not get it but you will certainly not get it if you do not ask for it. If the loan company agrees then this might save you a considerable amount when you do seek to close out the loan with a pay off.

If you have paid off the loan and the loan was with a bank or credit union, you might then want to ask if you can apply for a credit card or line of credit with them. You have just shown that you are a good risk and they may well be inclined to grant this request.