<prompt> Human: EDIT: Thank you people, but uApatheticAbsurdist mentioned a 401k and I have decided to not pay off my loan right away due to THAT and not anything to do with my credit scorehistory. The extra money I could afford to put towards that loan are approximately what I will be able to invest in my 401k starting July 1st 210-- which my company matches 7 of my income. Paying the minimum 50 payment, I will finish paying Loan 1 in 3.5 years and pay 120 in interest. I could either pay the loan off in 8 months with that money, or make 1680 from my company -120 of for a total of 1560 for free. It is a clear choice. I will finish paying off Loan 2 between now and when I qualify to start getting my 401k contributions matched in July.___Basically I have a credit card with Discover that has been open for 3 years now coming up in two weeks. I have never carried any debt on this card and use it as my debit card month to month. I always pay on time.Other than that, I have two small student loans which I have only been paying on since January 2014, though I took them out in 2011 I am not sure which date matters?:Loan 1: 1914.41 3.8Loan 2: 641.39 6.8Now, I dont have very much variety of accounts on my credit history, or anything that has been open for very long though 3 years is starting to look respectable. I was thinking I would pay off Loan 2 in the next 2-3 months and just pay the minimum payment on Loan 1 so I could build my credit by having a older account-- but when I used a debt calculator I saw that I would pay it off in 3.5 years because the minimum payment required is 50. So maybe I should just pay it all off now?I am just confused on if having multiple types of credit OPEN on my credit report helps my credit score, or just having had multiple types in my HISTORY matters. Also, if the account is tracked from the time I borrowed and not the time I started paying back, then it becomes a difference of 3.5 years to 67 years, which is pretty big. Due to the small principle, I would not see a significant change in peace of mind if I pay it off now or just continue to pay the minimum, so I really just want to know if I can use it to help build my credit score or not. If not I think I will have to maybe look at opening another card to beef up my credit report a little, but I will have to research this more.Thank you!  <response>: This should be added to the FAQ:If your question is Should I pay off X or should I keep it to help me build credit?, the answer is always to pay it off. 