The auto loan itself would be considered the "debt." The payments toward it would be considered "debt payments." With regard to your credit report, if you are applying for another loan somewhere and they looked at your debt-to-income ratio, the monthly auto loan payments would be included on the debt side.
Auto Loans
Type of loan: Like a mortgage, an auto loan is a secured installment loan. It's paid in a set number of payments over an agreed-upon period of time (often three to six years). If you stop making payments, the lender can repossess your car and sell it to get back its money.
When looking at your outgoings to determine affordability for a mortgage, lenders will take into account your car finance repayments. Also, because car finance is a type of debt, any missed payments will affect your credit score and your eligibility for a mortgage.
Consumer debt consists of personal debts that are owed as a result of purchasing goods that are used for individual or household consumption. Credit card debt, student loans, auto loans, mortgages, and payday loans are all examples of consumer debt.
Personal debt is debt owed for which you personally are legally responsible. Personal debt may involve more than one party, such as if you and your spouse take out a loan together for a car, so in this sense, "personal" really just means "non-business." Personal debt also can be secured or unsecured.
If you have excellent credit and enough purchasing power to meet the lender's criteria, you should not have a problem buying a car and a home. You may want to wait at least six months between purchases to give your score enough time to increase.
First, it will increase your total debt load and change your credit utilization ratio, which may cause a slight drop in your score. If you've just established the loan, there's no payment history yet, but any slight decline in credit score should be remedied quickly if you make your first few payments on time.
As you make on-time loan payments, an auto loan will improve your credit score. Your score will increase as it satisfies all of the factors the contribute to a credit score, adding to your payment history, amounts owed, length of credit history, new credit, and credit mix.
Debt is anything owed by one party to another. Examples of debt include amounts owed on credit cards, car loans, and mortgages.
Debt often falls into four categories: secured, unsecured, revolving and installment.
Lenders like to see a healthy mix of revolving accounts, like credit cards, and installment accounts, like auto loans. If you pay off a car loan early and it's your only installment account, your credit score could take a hit. And if you have very few credit accounts, the hit to your score could be even greater.
Once you pay off a car loan, you may actually see a small drop in your credit score. However, it's normally temporary if your credit history is in decent shape – it bounces back eventually. The reason your credit score takes a temporary hit in points is that you ended an active credit account.
Your score dropped after buying a car due to hard inquiries. Each credit report the auto loan lender pull adds 1 new hard inquiry, and each hard inquiry lowers your score up to 10 FICO points. A single car loan application could lower your score up to 30 points.
Once your loan is fully paid, the lien on your car title is lifted, and the title can be released to you. At this point, the legal ownership of the car transfers from your lender to you.
If the loan you paid off was your only installment account, you might lose some points because you no longer have a mix of different types of open accounts. It was your only account with a low balance: The balances on your open accounts can also impact your credit scores.
Prepayment penalties
The lender makes money from the interest you pay on your loan each month. Repaying a loan early usually means you won't pay any more interest, but there could be an early prepayment fee. The cost of those fees may be more than the interest you'll pay over the rest of the loan.
A conventional loan requires a credit score of at least 620, but it's ideal to have a score of 740 or above, which could allow you to make a lower down payment, get a more attractive interest rate and save on private mortgage insurance.
A 45% debt ratio is about the highest ratio you can have and still qualify for a mortgage.
Although ranges vary depending on the credit scoring model, generally credit scores from 580 to 669 are considered fair; 670 to 739 are considered good; 740 to 799 are considered very good; and 800 and up are considered excellent.
Generally speaking, a good debt-to-income ratio is anything less than or equal to 36%. Meanwhile, any ratio above 43% is considered too high.
Mortgages are the most common and largest debt many consumers carry. Mortgages are loans made to purchase homes, with the subject real estate serving as collateral. A mortgage typically has the lowest interest rate of any consumer loan product, and the interest is often tax-deductible for those who itemize their taxes.
No, paying off your car doesn't reduce your insurance rates, but it does give you more control over the type and amount of coverage you have, which can help you save money on your insurance rates.