<prompt> Human: I am on track to have the last of my student loans by the end of the yeah well ahead of schedule and am wondering if I should actually completely pay off and close the account. Ive read a lot of stories about credit scores dropping once the student loan accounts are closed.Currently, I have a 800 credit score with great revolving card data aged accounts, high limit, low util, etc.. but my student loan is the only active installment loan on my report, and it is one of my oldest accounts. How much will this closing it hurt my credit? Should I instead pay it almost all the way down and leave just a tiny balance for the sake of keeping it open, at least until I have a car loan probably early next year or mortgage heh, right...?Edit: Thanks for the replies. A lot of comments are about not keeping debt or accruing interest. To be clarify, my question is should I close the account or pay down to where I owe some negligible amount say 1.00 so that it stays open?  <response>: Never sacrifice continuing paying interest for credit. Pay it off. 