<prompt> Human: I just graduated in May and my loan payments began this month. I have a Stafford loan that I took out with Great Lakes services. Recently, my grandfather told me he would give me all that I owe in a separate account that we would be making in June. Im not sure what details you would need so please, ask if you want I just dont want to get super specific for the time being. I cant go to any family members that I have that would be able to help because no one is really supposed to know, I have siblings who are also in college and for some reason theyve deemed me the one that deserves this help. as long as I go to graduate school. I didnt ask, I didnt need help, but they wont accept no and not accepting something that would be this much help would be foolish...My question is what would be the best way to go about paying the loan off? I can either pay off the whole balance at once, or set the account up for auto-payment which is what I have now. Will one way save money over the other, interest-wise? Will paying it off monthly over the next ten years like I was originally supposed to build up more credit? Ive scoured around google for the past hour and havent been able to figure it out, Im relatively clueless, and extremely lucky.EDIT: I just want to thank everyone for the advice and help youre giving, I came to the right place. Its stopping my head from spinning and Ive been pointed in a few good directions. Ive learned quite a bit as well. I really, really appreciate itAssistant: I personally would pay it off in one lump sum and avoid any interest payments. There are better ways to build credit than to have a loan. Human: Understood, but just for clarification it would build up more better credit if I did the monthly payments correct?  <response>: It would contribute to your credit history. Credit history only looks at the last 2 years seriously. I would personally anyone correct me if Im wrong think that a responsibly used credit card would do better for your credit than a student loan. 