Did you recently take on (or consider) a loan of 84 months or longer on a car purchase?
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It's not the Fico score that predicates the rate, it's the credit history and the type of vehicle .....
Terry.
Car_man
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Smart Shopper Forum
Anyway, you can get credit reports directly from the credit bureaus for something like $9 each, or if you must you can buy whatsherface's kit as long as it's not too much more than that. You can also get a free report if you've been denied credit in the last 60 days. Here's the Equifax page to get you started - I'm pretty sure the other bureaus have similar programs. http://www.equifax.com/corp/free-credit-report.htm
The free reports don't include the credit score but you can find any errors and get them resolved. The score is nice to have if you're applying for loans, but you don't need it to fix your credit.
Bottom line, to improve your credit you need to pay your bills on time and improve your debt to income ratio. Get the free reports, fix any errors, and cut up your credit cards. Total cost: $0. Then in a few months your score may have improved to the point that you can buy an inexpensive, boring, reliable car. Good luck!
-Jason
That whole thing is going to be a mess. I found a $200 charge from a city and state that neither me or my wife were in at the time!
Check your monthly statements CAREFULY everyone. I'm thinking of putting my "record" on "fraud alert" on all 3 CBs. We use our cards too much for this hack to start messing us up, especially with me going away again soon.
Sad, what things have come to...
A conventional lender probably won't touch you which leaves the sharks.
I think I would set my sights a bit lower than that Scion and shop around a bit for the best rate you can get. Good luck.
Thanks,
Chevy Girl
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2015 Kia Soul, 2021 Subaru Forester (kirstie_h), 2024 GMC Sierra 1500 (mr. kirstie_h)
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GM offers $500 rebate,thanks.
Or were you referring to another post with a dirty little acronym???
MODERATOR /ADMINISTRATOR
Find me at kirstie_h@edmunds.com - or send a private message by clicking on my name.
2015 Kia Soul, 2021 Subaru Forester (kirstie_h), 2024 GMC Sierra 1500 (mr. kirstie_h)
Review your vehicle
Chevy Girl
Dang.! ... I miss all the good stuff ....
Terry.
Thanks for any insight ... credit is a mystery to me.
It could take 4 weeks, or it could take 4 months - no guarantee's ..... you need to have your receipts and the copy of the paid check if you really feel it will make a difference on the loan and it's become a debt ratio thing ..... but like Dan1 said, if it was a $14,000 credit card balance then it would make a BIG difference .....
Terry.
It might make more sense to spend the 2K on the car as a down payment. It might affect the interest rate enough to be worth it. Or, as in my case, Navy Federal Credit Union would only loan me 17.5K (without adding my wife to the loan) so I needed to write a check for the remaining 4k on my Mazda3 (20k + 8% sales tax. ewww. Makes me wish I was back in Montana with NO sales tax).
I was actually in your exact situation - 4k balance on a 15k card. But I was at less than 30% of the card maximum. If I was at 14k I shudder to think how it would have affected my credit score.
Last year we got a new credit card - 1/2 the interest rate. The old card had 4k on a 5k limit. We transfered the entire balance to the new 15k limit card and our credit scores went UP.
Wish me luck!
Hugs,
Chevy Girl
PS I am also on an allowance. That new Wrangler had better be worth it!
You will be so much better off when you get those paid off. Congratulations on making an excellent money decision. When we paid off all our consumer debt, the rewards are tremendous - better FICO, better rate on home mortgage, better cash flow each month....
Good luck!
https://www.annualcreditreport.com/cra/index.jsp
In order to upgrade my oldest credit card from "standard" ($25 annual fee) to "gold" (no annual fee) they will have to close my old CC-account and open a new one. Will that have an effect on my credit history, as the card in question is my oldest credit card or will a closing of an account for an upgrade not be noticed? I wonder whether it might be better to keep paying the $25 per year and have an older credit history...
Thanks for your advice, folks,
PM
https://www.annualcreditreport.com/cra/index.jsp "
This is the government sponsored link for the once per year free report - which is supposed to (at least as far as the LAW was written) to provide the score too. But it only provides the report. So much for the CBs complying with the law. You can get all 3 reports here. Despite what CR said was a hard to use site (yet another reason for me to distrust them) it was easy and quick.
If you live in "zone 4" (northeast) you have to wait until Sept 1.
They offer to SELL you your score for 6-8 bucks!
What DOES affect your score is applying for credit.
My credit union is offering 5.9% on a 60 month used car loan. With your credit I would think 7-8% would be a good deal - but it depends on where you are getting the loan from.
Don't let anyone fool ya, with $10 big ones down on a $20,000 purchase you "should" be able to get almost a preferred rate (or close to) --- unless you saved all that money by not paying your bills .l.o.l....
Get with your local bank or try visiting your local Credit Union ...
Good luck .........
Terry.
The car loan rates I can get through my CU don't take the amount down into consideration. Which loan agencies do? The manufacturer captive credit agencies?
Many of my fellow sailors have non-existent credit. It's not bad, it's just not there. Many come to me for free financial advice because I received a finance degree in my pre-Navy life. And if money down makes that much of a difference, it might be good advice on what to do with their bonus (aside from saving it which they wouldn't do anyway)
Do you get better rates on retail purchases than private purchases? One last question to all you financial experts - is one entitled to a free credit report after fraudulent charges (merchant database hacked, not my fault) are made on a CC? I used my free pass for the year already.
Well kinda .. mortgage rates are a little different and so are the lenders .. plus, mortgage rates are very regional .. a guy in Columbus Oh is going to pay a little more than perhaps the guy Columbia SC ....
As far as car loans, you should be able to find a local bank or the Navy Fed CU to take up the slack, also a captive lender like Chrysler, GMAC, Fomoco is buying deep ... that said, you need to make sure you get a fair rate and that doesn't mean paying 9% for a loan that can be had for 6.5% or less, so you really need to shop around because dealers can load up the point spread (just like mortgages) and your paying for the "right" of having a big downstroke, so be careful .......
Terry. :shades:
I need to replace my wife Ford Focus. We've narrowed it down to either a new Focus or Chevy Cobalt.
After re financing the house, we ran our credit reports and got our FICO scores.
Mine is 632 and hers is 591. Does anybody know the qualifying FICO scores for Ford and GMAC? We're interested in the GMAC SmartBuy.
Thank ya'll
We're really wanting to do the GMAC Smartbuy.
Again thanks.
Thanks for oyur help and support!
Chevygirl
May you continue on your way to fiscal soundness and get an even better rate on your next car.
My first car (that I didn't buy from my Mom) was at 7.5% purchased with my girlfriend (now wife). The loan was $5500 and total interest was $650. After improving my credit my current loan is for $17500 and at 2.9% for the same time period (3 years). Total interest is only $150 more!!
You will be saving a bundle in interest that you can use to pay down the car even faster and save even more money.
It's also great that you like your car. A well liked car is a well cared for car and that means you will keep it longer and it will stay in better shape.
Car_man
Host
Smart Shopper Forum
You can give them $5.00 bucks or so for your FICO.
example.....The rebate on a Mazda6 is $2000 but it becomes $3000 if you finance thru Mazda credit....
22 year old, responsible college student, bounced around with a bunch of jobs like everyone her age, but has been at her current place of employment for 5 months. Her credit report shows her with a 525 score (no idea what her FICO is) primarily because of debts she doesn't owe.
She's got two deferred student loans totalling less than $3K and four collections:
1) A $100 Gas Co. bill that her sister opened in her name
2) A mystery $50 bill she's never been contacted about
3) A medical bill that was sent to collections that should have been easily paid by her insurance company (either way dealerships are supposed to consider medical bills)
4) A phone bill which is actually a legitimate bill, but she was never informed it was going to collections.
In the past, I spent about 2 months cleaning up inaccuracies on my credit report, so I know how to negotiate with these collection agencies. But in my research I found out that the big secret is that the collection agencies are very willing to erase a negative credit history as long as you pay off the account.
Nonethless, our only barrier right now is time - she wants to be rolling by the end of this week, and the last month of August is the second best time of the year to negotiate car deals. So the best I'm hoping for is filing disputes and letters from the collection agencies with updates on the status of the accounts.
A word about 19-24% rates: they are crap. If they're given to you by a dealer they could be marked up all to high heaven. If your score is a 540 the absolute worst your rate should be is 15%. These dealers know you know your credit is bad so they feed on that to tell you how difficult it was for them to find a bank yada yada yada, when really the bank is financing you at 12.9 or 13.9 and they're getting the rest. If a dealer came back at me and said 19% is the best rate I could find. I would look them dead in the eye, tell them I'll give him anohter half an hour to find a significantly better rate and then I'll go to a finance manager who has that "rapport with the banks" or at worst wait 2-6 weeks when 2 or 3 of the collections will have been removed. At which point we won't be coming back to your dealership since he has no bargaining power.
It's really this simple: if you're such a high risk, why are they willing to loan you $15K+, at 19% at that?
What other business in this country operates that way?
My point is be firm with these guys. And if you really want to shock 'em ask them how much they marked up the rate.
1) **A $100 Gas Co. bill that her sister opened in her name**
.... if it's from her sister and she had permission and it ended up in collection .. then your g/f needs pay it and get a receipt, then take it up with the sister via family ties or court .... this ain't a dealer thing.
2) **A mystery $50 bill she's never been contacted about**
...... thats why God made "Free credit reports.com" and a host of other very fine sites that will show whats there and whats not supposed to be there, it's her responsibility ....... again, this isn't a dealer thing, it's a girlfriend thing.
3) **A medical bill that was sent to collections that should have been easily paid by her insurance company (either way dealerships are supposed to consider medical bills)**
...... here we go again .. I'm sure she received multiple notices from the medical billing department .. because this is what they do best, send oodles of bills and it was your g/f's responsibility to respond -or- to take 20/25 minutes to get on the horn with the insurance company and get it straightened out .. she's a student, not a brain surgeon at the Mayo Clinic, so she had time ........ this is a g/f problem not a dealer problem.
4) **A phone bill which is actually a legitimate bill, but she was never informed it was going to collections**
.......... if this was a legitimate bill, then why didn't she pay it ..? it's called responsibility ......... this is how all this bill paying stuff works, you don't pay (after the 50th notice) then they charge it off to collections - simple.! ..... again, this a g/f problem, not a dealer thing.
**But in my research I found out that the big secret is that the collection agencies are very willing to erase a negative credit history as long as you pay off the account**
......... this isn't true, collection agencies do what they do best -collect- .. all they can do is show the account *paid* -- and there is no such thing as "erase" ..........
Dealers don't approve deals, lenders do .. so this ends up being a very simple situation .. if you don't like the rate you're getting from the dealer, then use your Credit Union or the local lender .... have you thought about a new g/f ..l.o.l...??
Terry :shades:
It will be interesting to see what type of vehicle she is trying to buy.
Dude... don't finance her.. pay cash... You realize the loan terms on financing a girlfriend? You will be paying her off for the rest of your life... :surprise:
In this case, you might be better off leasing her..
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