student loans (paid off) and credit score

[cats]

I recently got a detailed credit report and I saw something that I'm now wondering about.  When I attended university, I took out some loans from two different providers.  Both loans were paid off in full, ahead of schedule.  One set of loans (the smaller set) shows up on my credit card, as paid off.  The other set does not show up at ALL.

My credit score is good (700+) but not amazing (750+).  Normally I do not really care about 740 vs 755 because hey, I'm debt free and have plenty of cash, butttttt....I am thinking of buying a house in the next few years and a mortgage probably will be required (though hopefully paid off in a 5-10 year timeframe).  Obviously I would like to get the best interest rate possible.  This "missing" loan is the largest amount of money I've ever borrowed in my life before (~$15k), and I keep hearing that ability to get and then repay loans is something that can positively impact your credit score. Basically I'm wondering: if that loan were to appear on my credit report, would it bump me up a bit?  Is it worth calling up my old loan provider and seeing if this is just an oversight on their part, or standard practice?

I do also still have the documentation showing I paid off the loan so I could definitely bring that into the credit union whenever I got down to actually applying for a mortgage.

[icefr]

Do you have a credit card aka revolving credit?

[Zaga]

I'm guessing you only pulled one of your three reports.  Often a creditor will only report to one or two of them, so I'm guessing they are there, just not where you looked.

[anastrophe]

I'm guessing you only pulled one of your three reports.  Often a creditor will only report to one or two of them, so I'm guessing they are there, just not where you looked.

+1. I check all three, spaced out through the year. They never have the same stuff on them.

[cats]

I'm guessing you only pulled one of your three reports.  Often a creditor will only report to one or two of them, so I'm guessing they are there, just not where you looked.

+1. I check all three, spaced out through the year. They never have the same stuff on them.

Interesting....I will definitely be curious to see what the other two turn up!

I do have a credit card (several, actually), which I use for most purchases, never carry a balance on, and have been using for 10+ years.  Based on that, I was expecting to have pretty awesome credit, but it turns out it's merely good. So, I'm trying to figure out if there might be some options for bumping it up a bit over the next year or two without turning into a big spender :) i.e., the most common advice I seem to hear from the "normal" world about building credit pre-mortgage is "take out a car loan" and I am most definitely not down with that approach!

[cosmie]

I do have a credit card (several, actually), which I use for most purchases, never carry a balance on, and have been using for 10+ years.  Based on that, I was expecting to have pretty awesome credit, but it turns out it's merely good. So, I'm trying to figure out if there might be some options for bumping it up a bit over the next year or two without turning into a big spender :) i.e., the most common advice I seem to hear from the "normal" world about building credit pre-mortgage is "take out a car loan" and I am most definitely not down with that approach!

Taking out a car loan may not be the worst way. One thing a lot of people don't realize is that you can take out a loan on your own car, similar to how a Title Loan company works (except less predatory and better rates).  You don't have to go out and buy a new one. PenFed is offering used car loans as low as 1.74% (link). Depending on the car you have right now (e.g. it's NADA valuation), that may work for you.