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Once your mortgage is paid off, the loan will continue to appear on your credit reports for up to 10 years from the date it was closed as paid in full.
How Long Paid Mortgages Stay on Your Credit Report
When you make the final payment on an installment loan such as a mortgage—assuming there are no other outstanding payments or other irregularities—the lender reports the account to the national credit bureaus as closed and paid as agreed. The account remains on your credit reports up to 10 years from the account closure date.
If you never missed a payment or made a late payment, the account's positive payment history tends to benefit your credit scores for as long as it's on your credit report. Nevertheless, it's not unusual to experience a slight, temporary drop in credit scores upon paying off a mortgage.
If you made any late payments in the last seven years of your mortgage term, those will be noted in the closed account's payment history for seven years from the original delinquency date—that is, the date of the initial missed payment. Late payments have a negative effect on your credit scores, but their impact diminishes over time. Closed mortgage accounts can remain on your credit reports even after late payments have been removed.
What to Do if Your Mortgage Doesn't Appear as Paid on Your Credit Report
It can take 30 to 60 days for a lender to report a loan account closure to the credit bureaus, so there may be a few months' lag between when you make your last payment and when your credit reports are updated to reflect it.
If several months have passed and your paid mortgage account is still marked open on your credit reports at all three national credit bureaus (Experian, TransUnion and Equifax), consider contacting the lender to remind them to notify the bureaus.
If the account is marked closed at one or more credit bureaus but not the others, consider filing a dispute with the relevant bureaus, so they'll verify the account's paid status with your lender.
The Bottom Line
Paying off a mortgage is one of the most satisfying credit-related experiences anyone can have. The pride of owning your home outright likely outweighs any concerns over impact on your credit, but it's still helpful to understand how a paid mortgage affects your scores over time. You can view your credit score and credit report for free through Experian.