I haven't had a car since I was 18. I bought a used car, my parents cosigned on the loan, it was paid off with no issues. I'm not even certain it was an auto loan. It may just have been a personal loan. In any event, it is no longer on my report because it has been more than 10 years since I paid it off.
Next year we are buying a larger house. After the house, we are most likely going to need a second vehicle. My only debt is student loans and my current mortgage. I have a good job. DTI is currently 14%. With the new house, DTI will rise to about 21.5%.
I have just always assumed that once my credit scores got back into the 700 range, I should be fine buying a car. I never thought about how not having history with car loans would affect me. Since the I have no auto loans on my current report, does that mean I'm considered a first-time car buyer and will have a lower auto-enhanced FICO or whatever. Assuming the previous loan was a car loan, I can try to look to see if I have records, is there any way for that to be considered if it isn't on my reports? Am I going to have any issues getting an auto loan?
Thanks in advance.
Starting Score: ~500 (12/01/2008)
It is my understanding that when a person has no auto history included in their credit report, it has no effect either way (positive or negative) towards your auto-enhanced FICO. Theoretically your auto-enhanced score should match your traditional FICO score.
@cdtotten wrote:It is my understanding that when a person has no auto history included in their credit report, it has no effect either way (positive or negative) towards your auto-enhanced FICO. Theoretically your auto-enhanced score should match your traditional FICO score.
Ok. Thanks. I didn't know if I would be expected to pay a higher interest rate because of not having any auto history. I have a mortgage payment and I have multiple student loan payments, so I do have history with making payments on larger obligations, just no auto history.
@GregB wrote:IF the lender is using an Auto Enhanced FICO then it would help to understand a bit about how the score is generated.
1. First, the data goes through the Scorecards to generate the Classic FICO.
2. Then there are additional Scorecards to Enhance the score. These can raise or lower your score. It looks like the maximum amount any of the versions can raise your score is about 50 points and the maximum amount your score can be hurt is about 90 points. For example the TU Classic 04 range is 309-839 but the Auto version is 253-893
If there is no Auto related data, the assumption is that it doesn't help or hurt. The assumption SEEMS to be accurate.
Don't forget there are many Auto Scores that don't use FICO. TU's Auto model, for example, is way different since it only uses 3 Scorecards instead of 10-12 for the various Classic FICO version.
Are these other models used by lenders, or are they Auto FAKOs?
Thanks.