So within the next 2-3 months I will be needing to purchase a new vehicle and apply for an auto loan. This is something I've never had to do, so I'm kind of freaking out anxiety wise about not being approved and being left without a vehicle for work.
My biggest worry is my credit age. I never used any sort of credit until about 1.6 years ago, so my oldest line of credit is that one card. I have a recent card that I've had for about 4 months. Both in good standing, and 100% payment history.
My credit score has stayed around 692-705ish.
I plan on going through carmax, with $2,000 down.
Any advice is totally welcome. Thanks so much!
Sorry I know I wrote a lot, I'm not even sure if I gave appropriate information. I'm new to this. 
Edit:
My annual income is around 36,000.
I've only been at my current employer for a little over a year.
No previous loan history.
The car I am wanting to purchase is a 2014 Ford C-max for $13,999 with 50k miles.
I do have a co-signer availible, but I would rather not.
@Anonymous wrote:So within the next 2-3 months I will be needing to purchase a new vehicle and apply for an auto loan. This is something I've never had to do, so I'm kind of freaking out anxiety wise about not being approved and being left without a vehicle for work.
My biggest worry is my credit age. I never used any sort of credit until about 1.6 years ago, so my oldest line of credit is that one card. I have a recent card that I've had for about 4 months. Both in good standing, and 100% payment history.
My credit score has stayed around 692-705ish.
I plan on going through carmax, with $2,000 down.
Any advice is totally welcome. Thanks so much!
Sorry I know I wrote a lot, I'm not even sure if I gave appropriate information. I'm new to this.
Edit:
My annual income is around 36,000.
I've only been at my current employer for a little over a year.
No previous loan history
The car I am wanting to purchase is a 2014 Ford C-max for $13,999 with 50k miles.
I do have a co-signer availible, but I would rather not.
No reason to worry here. The age of your credit will be a weakness but people get approved all the time with less than what you have. I strongly suggest joining a credit union like Penfed, DCU or NFCU and apply with them for the car loan when your ready. As a new buyer with a thin credit file dealers love to take advantage of you so having a preapproval will come in handy. Sounds like you don't have any negative credit history so work hard to keep it that way and keep your utilization low. Don't panic if you don't get a great rate, you probably will pay a point or two higher because of your thin credit history but if you buy smart you can always refinance to a better rate when you have 6-12 months of payment history. Sounds like you have a good sense of what you want to buy and have set a realistic budget so I think you will be fine.
Thanks so much for replying! I've posted this in multiple threads and you're the the only one that has replied. haha
Do you mind if I ask a few more questions? I'm really pretty dumb when it comes to this whole process, my family had always done most of this for me.
How does Penfed work?
Also when going to buy the actual car, are the taxes and fees due in cash at signing? Along with the downpayment? (I meant it when I said I'm new to all this, hahah)
Thank you in advance again. I really appreciate the advice a whole lot, you've taken a load off of my mind.
@Anonymous wrote:Thanks so much for replying! I've posted this in multiple threads and you're the the only one that has replied. haha
Do you mind if I ask a few more questions? I'm really pretty dumb when it comes to this whole process, my family had always done most of this for me.
How does Penfed work?
Also when going to buy the actual car, are the taxes and fees due in cash at signing? Along with the downpayment? (I meant it when I said I'm new to all this, hahah)
Thank you in advance again. I really appreciate the advice a whole lot, you've taken a load off of my mind.
You can join Penfed anytime, if your not a military or DOD member you can join for a small donation to a charity (10-20 bucks I think). When you apply for the loan and are approved they will just send you a blank check that you bring to the dealer, fill it out and your done. Super easy. They will finance the taxes and licensing also if you choose not to go with a downpayment. The key with any car loan is paying close attention to the loan to value ratio, check the cars value on Edmunds.com or KBB.com to make sure your not overpaying, if you overpay you could get yourself in a pinch on the lenders loan to value ratio. These days car prices are pretty transparent and Carmax (if you go with them) tends to be very fair about pricing. All dealerships will try to get you to buy a bunch of add on's, warranties, protection plans etc. These can add thousands to the cost of your car and consumer reports has studied them closely and the data shows they rarely pay off so you will want to have that in mind when you are doing your transaction. They try to get you to believe the car is going to blow up when you drive it off the lot so you need to buy a warranty, in my experience its best to keep your money in your pocket and if you have a repair such is life, better to pay out of pocket if needed then spend thousands on the possibility you will need a repair in the future. If you decide to go with an extended warranty Penfed and most other credit unions offer low cost options that are a great compromise and are less than half the cost a dealer will charge you.