<prompt> Human: My final student loan payments are finally in sight less than 6 months away, if all goes according to plan! Now my question is: should I make them? Or should I maintain a student loan balance--and pay interest I wouldnt have to if I paid the loans off in full--to protect my credit score? My FICO credit score is currently 790. My other sources of credit are two credit cards that I use and pay in full regularly, and one additional credit card that I havent used in over a year. I dont plan to make any major purchases 10K for at least the next two years.Heres some background on the loans:I started with 14 loans totaling about 68k. They are with three separate providers and were all taken out between 2008 and 2012. I believe repayment officially started in 2013 I graduated in May 2012.I cant find the details on the repayment terms for all the loans, but I think my estimates are pretty close:PROVIDER 1: Repayment Length: 10 years Starting Balance: 26K Closed Accounts Loans Paid in Full: 6 Open Accounts: 4 1. 4,600 at 4.25 2. 4,600 at 3.15 3. 230 at 3.15 4. 230 at 3.15 PROVIDER 2: Repayment Length: 20 years Starting Balance: 32K Closed Accounts Loans Paid in Full: 2 Open Accounts: 1 1. 12,000 at 2.91PROVIDER 3: Repayment Length: 8 years Starting Balance: 10K Closed Accounts Loans Paid in Full: 0 Open Accounts: 1 1. 4,000 at 5So...what should I do? Pay off those balances in full? Or leave a small balances?  <response>: If you have the money to pay them off, pay them off. You dont need to continue to pay interest just to build your credit.If you want to continue to maintainbuild your credit, just use one of your credit cards a little bit each month, wait for the statement to arrive, then pay the full statement amount before the due date. 