@Anonymous wrote:
My hubby currently has a credit score of 671 with a handful of paid collections. We have been paying off collections for the last year in order to build up enough credit to get an auto loan. I am currently disputing a few things, and once that comes back we will go try for the loan, hopefully within the next 1-2 months. He only has 1 revolving credit line which he is only an AU on (mine). I'm wondering if he should apply for another revolving line before we go in for the AL, in order to increase approval chances? Or if it's too close to put a hard inquiry on his account, since we plan to apply for the AL within the next month or 2? What do ya'll think? I obviously don't want to lower his score any right before we go apply, but the 1 revolving kind of worries me. He had an auto loan in 2011 that was paid in full in 2013, and never late, but that is his most recent positive account, all other positives (besides the 1 revolving AU account) are 7+ yrs old.
I'll take any advice I can get! We really need a new car!!!
Congrats on the progress your making on rebuilding and resolving collections. It will makes life much easier. Do you know his average age of accounts? My reccomendation to everyone is join a good credit union like Penfed, NFCU, DCU or a good local credit union and get preapproved with them before you shop for a car. This is especially important for folks with some dings in their credit because when we are in that situation we are kind of happy to get any loan and end up at the mercy of the auto dealer who jacks up the interest on us. What might be a good idea is to apply for a CC with one of these credit unions upon joining. Penfed for example will use the same pull for the membership and CC, in fact they use the same pull for 60-90 days. What is the timeframe for buying a new car? Most likely a single HP isn't going to hurt at all you just don't want a bunch but remember from the time you establish a new account until it starts reporting can take some time and you can either gain or lose points for adding that account.
Personally I would join Penfed and take advantage of that membership pull to apply for the car loan so you get two for one. If you can wait till some of the baddies fall off you will be better off but if the actual fico score is 671 and you have the income your likely good to go. Even though he doesn't have a current installment loan he will still get credit for the loan paid 4 years ago.
