@twinRN wrote:
Lel: Thank you for the suggestion. I have thought about joining a CU, but I don't want to start a new checking account or have to automatically pay the payment each month in order to get the best rate. I have looked a little into Wachovia, which is the bank my student loans and checking accounts are at, but am saving the inquiries that will happen when I apply until I get more of an idea of where I might get the best rate for my credit.
Joselito: Congratulation on your new vehicle purchase! That is indeed a wonderful deal. Unfortunately the vehicle I am most leaning towards purchasing is a 2011 Dodge Challenger...quite on the opposite end of the spectrum!
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Thank you again for your replies.
Without actually applying, you're probably only going to get a general, nonbinding estimate of what you might qualify for. Your scores could give you some guidance if you apply for financing at a dealership, if you are able to figure out the different financing tiers. But this may be complicated in your case, since your non-auto industry scores look like they might straddle a couple tiers. If the score pulled by the dealer falls below your myFICO-sourced scores, then you could be surprised with a higher-than-expected interest rate. Also, the interest rate isn't determined solely on your credit score. Depending on the content of your credit report, you could find yourself pushed in a higher or lower tier.
Furthermore, the tiers for different dealer finance companies - for example, Toyota vs Ford vs Volkswagen - can be different. Toyota's tier I might be 720+, but Ford's might be 740+ and VW's could be 700+. To complicate things more, I believe (someone correct me if I'm wrong) that these thresholds could theorertically change from week to week as buyer incentives change.
Keep in mind that even if you apply for a loan with Wachovia now, the inquiry won't affect your FICO score if you start shopping around at CUs or at dealers. Auto loan inquiries are suppressed from scoring for 30 days. So even though your credit report will indicate that an inquiry was made, it won't affect your score until 30 days have passed. This prevents a "first hit" effect from loan shopping. Also, auto loan inquiries that take place within a 14 to 45 day window (depends on the score model) are counted as a single inquiry. So even if a dealer shops your file out to 50 different finance companies, those 50 inquiries won't have any more effect that a single inquiry (and again, won't affect your score until 30 days are up).
One caveat about inquiries that might be out of your control, however, is that in order for the de-duplication and 30-day suppression to be in effect, the inquiries need to be properly coded as auto loan inquiries. In my very, very limited experience, when I applied with Toyota Financial, the inquiries were correctly coded as auto loan inquries. But when I applied with my bank, it appeared to a general inquiry that probably had an immediate effect on my score.
More about inquires: http://www.myfico.com/CreditEducation/CreditInquiries.aspx
Starting Score: Fico EQ 560 Jan 2008