Paying off a loan early and credit score impact

EstellaH

Hello all and apologies for the long message but any advice will be much appreciated. I recently took out a £4k loan. A little bit about me... I'm 34 and I've  never had a credit card in my life. I've never been in debt either. I want to build up my credit score as my husband and I would like to get a mortgage this year to buy a property. I tried applying for an interest free credit card mid last year but was decline although I have a good saving. When I got decline, I made the mistake of applying for another one from a different lender the next day, instead of waiting it out before attempting another application. Anyway I think it was due to having no credit history. Also I'm sure it doesn't help that bills, rent, council tax ect comes out of my husband's account. I am on the electoral roll though and my name is on the council tax.
I took at the £4k loan with barclays whom I've banked with for the last 17 years. Due to the rejection of the credit cards (which was NOT from barclays,) I was a bit worried I would be deny the loan but it got approved in a matter of minutes after doing a short application form online. The purpose of the loan was for me to have some extra cash for my parents to come and see me as I didn't  want to use up my savings. The plan has now changed and I realised there is no point holding on to that money. The  repayment was for 18 months and I've only made 3 repayments so far. Now the real question and reason for my post is I would like to know:
1) will paying the loan off early affect my credit?
2) is it worthwhile to keep doing the repayments for another couple of months just to build up my credit?

By the way I'm paying an extra £400 in interest spread over the 18month period.
Thank you. 
Estella  

[Deleted User]

Clearing a debt will normally drop your score but lenders will view you much more positively as they don't see it.  They only see that you carry less debt and are therefore lower risk. It will also save you money 

To build more history, use a credit card and clear in full each month.

Nebulous2

If you have very limited credit history you are unlikely to get a 0% credit card. Try for a credit builder card.

There is no point in paying interest if you don't need to, pay off the loan if you dont need it.

DCFC79

Dont worry about your score since lenders only see your history.

foxy-stoat

Settle the loan. 
Get yourself an iphone 11 on a contract and sell it, put your sim card in your current phone and use the £700-£800 for the contract payments.
Get a credit card and buy fuel or shopping once a month and settle it when the statement comes in.

That should be enough to build your credit history up without it costing you hundreds.

As above, ignore the score as noone apart from you sees it, mine is 618, gone up by 3 in a month....woop woop.