About to pay off car loan, how to maintain credit score?

Congratulations on paying off your car loan. Reducing your debt is good for your finances, no matter what happens to your score.

It is important to remember that a credit score is just a number, and part of the purpose of the score is to scare you into taking out more debt than you need.

A high credit score can be useful for some things, but there is a point at which you don't get any additional benefit for raising your score.

You haven't told us your score, but you describe it as excellent. Luckily, since you aren't in immediate need of a good credit score, you can wait and see what happens. Pay off your loan, and see if your score drops. If it does drop a little, ask yourself if you will actually see any benefit by taking on additional debt in an attempt to raise it. Remember that simply paying off the credit card that you currently have each month will nudge your score up as time goes on.

If at that point, however, you feel that you must continue to play the game and go for the high score, you can follow the conventional wisdom and add additional credit cards to your life, lowering your utilization number and increasing your total available credit. If you are going to do this, I would encourage you to ensure that you aren't paying any interest or fees just to try to raise your score.

Just remember, even if you attain the high score, it is the credit card companies that win, not necessarily you. There is nothing inherently wrong with having a high credit score, but in my opinion, it is not a great measure of financial health.