How Long to Wait before Apping for Auto Loan?

[ard991]

A bit of history first.  So this year is the first year I legitimately started building credit (22 y/o).  Got my first card, a BoA Cash Rewards, in January, with a limit of $1000.  In July I got a Discover, and last month I got an AmEx BCP, Chase Freedom, and a CLI on the BoA.  Total credit is now $11,500.  

So avg AAoA is about a year now, no baddies, about $18,000 in student loans (deferred until I graduate).  5 hard inquiries on both EX and TU, none on Equifax.  Utilization will be kept at 1-4%.  Score from Discover back in July was 728, and before apping for the Freedom and AmEx, Equifax and TU on myFico was 705/708ish.  The Chase Freedom came back with a EX based risk score of 678.  I did however get AmEx's best interest rate at 12.99% for the BCP so I dunno why AmEx got such a good score I guess and Chase didn't, though the AmEx limit was less.  

Income is from an engineering internship that equals roughly 56k/yr.  

So my score has likely taken a temporary ding from all the new accounts/inquiries I assume, but when could I potentially app for about a 20k auto loan?  How long should I wait?  I've never had an auto loan before, so no auto-enhanced score bonus there.  Thanks!

[Luscher]

Id say your good to go.

[ard991]

I mean you don't think I'd be better off waiting for the new account dings to go off, in order to get a better interest rate?  I went from one credit card with a $1000 interest rate to four with $11500 in a couple months.   I dunno how much my score might shoot up if I waited, or if it'd be enough to potentially get a much better rate.

[Dustink]

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@ard991 wrote:

I mean you don't think I'd be better off waiting for the new account dings to go off, in order to get a better interest rate?  I went from one credit card with a $1000 interest rate to four with $11500 in a couple months.   I dunno how much my score might shoot up if I waited, or if it'd be enough to potentially get a much better rate.

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I would give it at least 6 month's. Come up with a good down payment. You should be able to get a good rate.