I still have problem credit (1 active collection, other deleted, WFDS Repo/Charge-off, 2010 Late Pays). Right now as I have said in other threads my utilization was high (97%) currently it's around 20% but I have another paycheck coming plus I didn't have time to deposit the extra cash I have here over the weekend.
I will do that tomorrow and finish paying down the Capital One which the statement doesn't come out until May 21st. The SDFC is paid off to zero and will stay that way for the time being. I will use the Capital One as needed and put it down to 9% or below a few days before the statment comes out.
I am expecting a fairly sizable increase but not sure how much.
EX via Experian is 632, TU via Capital One is 595 (555 on CK) and EQ via CK is 535
With the utilization down, the TU and EQ should rebound quite nicely as I think Vantage 3.0 is quite a bit more harsh with things like this. The same info on my TU is on my EX yet it's 37 points behind.
The credit simulator on TU said if I pay down the balances my score would jump to the 620's. So Capital One will be under consideration; I am going to see what rate I will get with a re-fi and how much I can borrow overall if I decide to trade-in.
I may pay for my real EQ score but I don't think DCU will approve an auto loan with two charge-offs and one repo/charge-off.
I have considered other lenders -
Auto Credit Express/Funding Way, but based on rudimentray information they seem to only want to approve me for 10% of income ($1900 gross = $19,000). I have to use a different website of theirs for a refi.
MyAutoLoan I heard is a clearing house like Lending Tree. Speaking of which I may check into Lending Tree, any downsides to that?
I've also considered Santander because as long as you make payments directly from your bank account like I am doing with my current loan from Gateway One you won't have any problems. But I hear dealers have to pay a fee to take Santander loans, not sure if this is still valid or not. There was another lender I found that makes dealers pay a fee to take but I forgot who they were.
I tried my CU's, with my current scores and negatives they won't play. The one dealer I tried to buy a Ford from said Ford wouldn't take me. Not sure how true that was but with better scores things might be different.
Pre-Approval is key because it will tell me if I have to stay with my current car and refi it or I can upgrade, get a lower rate to make carrying the balance of the current car more tolerable and still be affordable.
That way I can focus (no pun) on getting the price down and max for my current car to cusion the negative equity blow.
