<prompt> Human: I have just reached the end of my lease and my credit score dropped 40 points from 826 to 786 as reported on American Express credit cards website. I did a google search on this and understood that this is the case whenever a loan of any kind closes. This is very counter-intuitive that it would hurt your credit score to pay off your loans responsibly.Anyway, I am planning to buy out my car at the lease end with cash, but since I have learnt that having a mix of loans will help increase the credit score, is it better to take a loan instead of paying cash? I have no other loans, I always pay my credit cards in full each month and have never been late on payments. I generally do not like the idea of paying interest when I have cash around and prefer to be loan free.Are there any other cheaper alternatives to boost my credit score? The buyout price is 22,000 plus tax, title, registration. Is it wise to pay that much cash for a car purchase?  <response>: Your score is above the number needed to get any Tier 1 offer from creditors. Dont worry about it. 