[hyperbovine]

Unbelievable. I have never bothered to check my credit score, as I can't bear the thought of forking over even more money to that crooked industry. If what you say is true though, mine must be terrible as well. And here I thought acting responsibly and paying off my debts in a timely manner would be looked on favorably.

[younata]

the entire point of a credit score is to measure how likely the lender is to get a lot of money from you.

It makes sense that deadbeats have low credit score, however, it also makes sense to lower the rating of someone who pays it off fast, thereby causing you to not gain as much money as if they had waited 10 years to pay you off.

I hate that industry so much.

[Goladus]

The "credit score" is important but when a good lender is evaluating the risk of a potential borrower, they won't rely on a mere score they'll consult the actual credit history.

A credit history is basically a record of loans and payments. If you're late on a payment, long enough for your lender to report it to a credit agency, then they will show up on that history.

In this case: paying back a $20,000 loan in 2 years is impressive but doesn't really say much about your ability to pay back $300,000 over 30. So yes, it might have been marginally better to pay back the $20,000 over 10 years. If you're going to loan someone $300,000 to buy a house, you want to see data that the person is capable, organized, and diligent enough to pay it back. People paying back mortgages in 2 years is probably not a serious problem for most banks.

You can see your credit history at https://www.annualcreditreport.com/cra/index.jsp

[nkassis]

exactly, they want people who get tons of credit debt, and pay the minimum every month for 30 years.