{"id":19925,"date":"2026-03-03T07:00:00","date_gmt":"2026-03-03T07:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/umang.pk\/2026\/03\/03\/i-paid-off-my-mortgage-but-why-did-my-credit-rating-drop-money\/"},"modified":"2026-03-03T07:00:00","modified_gmt":"2026-03-03T07:00:00","slug":"i-paid-off-my-mortgage-but-why-did-my-credit-rating-drop-money","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/umang.pk\/en_us\/2026\/03\/03\/i-paid-off-my-mortgage-but-why-did-my-credit-rating-drop-money\/","title":{"rendered":"I paid off my mortgage, but why did my credit rating drop? | money"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\"><strong>After paying off my mortgage, my credit score went from well above average to below average. In addition to being bizarre, this is yet another example of how arbitrary decisions made by faceless giant corporations affect our lives.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\"><strong>P.B. <\/strong><em><strong>London<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">It&#8217;s strange, but it&#8217;s true that paying off a loan can scare the algorithms that calculate our creditworthiness.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">Financial companies like to have a variety of credit accounts in their customers&#8217; names to show them that they can manage different types of debt, from credit cards to loans. They also like a long and reliable credit history. So if your 25-year mortgage is your oldest open credit account, that history will suddenly be shortened upon termination. But those moments are likely to be brief and inconsequential.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">\u201cWhen someone applies for credit, it doesn\u2019t really matter if their \u2018score\u2019 goes down,\u201d says John Webb of credit reference agency Experian. \u201cLenders make their own calculations based on affordability, and having no more monthly mortgage payments means having more disposable income is considered a positive.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\"><em>We welcome your letters, but we cannot respond individually. Email consumer.champions@theguardian.com or write to Consumer Champions, Money, the Guardian, 90 York Way, London N1 9GU. Please include your daytime phone number. Submission and publication of all letters are subject to our Terms and Conditions.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>After paying off my mortgage, my credit score went from well above average to below average. In addition to being bizarre, this is yet another example of how arbitrary decisions made by faceless giant corporations affect our lives. P.B. London It&#8217;s strange, but it&#8217;s true that paying off a loan can scare the algorithms that [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[3093,3094,10573,10581,16433],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-19925","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-consumer-affairs","category-consumer-rights","category-money","category-mortgages","category-uk-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/umang.pk\/en_us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19925","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/umang.pk\/en_us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/umang.pk\/en_us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/umang.pk\/en_us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/umang.pk\/en_us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19925"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/umang.pk\/en_us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19925\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/umang.pk\/en_us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19925"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/umang.pk\/en_us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19925"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/umang.pk\/en_us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19925"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}