cancel
Showing results for 
Search instead for 
Did you mean: 

Will I be approved?

tag
nathanmac
Member

Will I be approved?

Income

Monthly Pre Tax $2946.67

 

Employment

I’ve been employed full time for only about a month since 5/28/14. I graduated college in December of 2013 and was employed at a part time job till March of 2014. I was unemployed March – May of 2014 while I moved to a new City and got a job in my field. I see employment as being the most likely thing to interfere with a potential auto loan. Do leaders look at my application any different since I’m a recent graduate? Does it matter that there was a 3 month gap in employment or that I switched from a service industry job to a professional job?

 

Auto Loan Experience

None

 

Rent

$333 (Roommates)

 

Other Monthly Payments

Soon I will be paying $260 a month on student loans.

 

FICO

Recently my credit utilization has been as high as 25% and this has lowered my scores slightly. When I apply I plan on having a single card reporting a small balance thus I suspect my scores will be in the low 700’s across the board.

 

EX 704 (June 2014 Amex application)

EQ ?

TU 692 I very recently successfully disputed an old charge off that was illegally re-aged on my TU report. This score was from my last month’s Discover bill and I expect next month it will be in low 700’s.    

Credit Karma 680

Should I not bother applying till my scores are at least 720?

 

Inquiries

TU 4

EQ 5

EX 2-4

 

AAoA

3 Years 11 Months

 

Negative Credit Items

I have a single 90 day late from December 2007 on a now paid off student loan showing on my credit reports.

 

Car

I haven’t decided yet but I’m leaning towards a couple year old tiny hatchback (Toyota Yaris / Honda Fit / Mazda2.) Most likely I’m looking at a 2012-13 Mazda2 with a purchase price around 12K.

 

Down payment / LTV

Like most people I would like to keep the down payment as small as reasonable possible. Based on what I have read usually most people in order to get the best rate have to keep the LTV at no more the 95%.  Thus I would assume a loan amount of 11.4K with 600 down. After Taxes and dealer fees etc I would expect to bring about 2K to get out the door. Are these realistic expectations?

 

This is my first attempt at car financing I would greatly appreciate any Lender recommendation or other advice. Thanks

Message 1 of 8
7 REPLIES 7
Remember0
Valued Contributor

Re: Will I be approved?

You'll be approved without issue. Do you have 2 paychecks with your employer at this point? If you do, a dealer should definitely get you a rate < 5%. Because you're a college grad, if you were buying a new car, you could look into college grad programs run by manufacturers that are very lenient with the job requirements. But it doesn't work as well for used, no need to worry though, you're still in fine shape.

 

If you want a recommendation on lender, I'm going to say DCU to start out with. But before you apply to DCU, what is the age of your EQ INQs...how many are under 6 months old and how many of the 5 are under 1 year old? Finally does your EQ have any baddies on it?

 

As long as your EQ is relatively clean and DCU pulls a 675+ FICO, I think you'd get their 1.24% with direct deposit for 65 months loan without an issue. When applying at DCU, you need to make sure car purchase price has enough room and includes taxes + fees. So if car is 12k and you approximate fees and taxes to be 2k, you need to enter 14k as the price of the car in essence.

Message 2 of 8
nathanmac
Member

Re: Will I be approved?


@Remember0 wrote:

You'll be approved without issue. Do you have 2 paychecks with your employer at this point? If you do, a dealer should definitely get you a rate < 5%. Because you're a college grad, if you were buying a new car, you could look into college grad programs run by manufacturers that are very lenient with the job requirements. But it doesn't work as well for used, no need to worry though, you're still in fine shape.

 

If you want a recommendation on lender, I'm going to say DCU to start out with. But before you apply to DCU, what is the age of your EQ INQs...how many are under 6 months old and how many of the 5 are under 1 year old? Finally does your EQ have any baddies on it?

 

As long as your EQ is relatively clean and DCU pulls a 675+ FICO, I think you'd get their 1.24% with direct deposit for 65 months loan without an issue. When applying at DCU, you need to make sure car purchase price has enough room and includes taxes + fees. So if car is 12k and you approximate fees and taxes to be 2k, you need to enter 14k as the price of the car in essence.


Thanks for all the great info. I would be beyond thrilled if I could get 1.24% from DCU. The inquiries in my EQ report are all less than 1 year old but only 1 was in the last 6 months. The oldest will turn 1 year old at the end of July. The only negative item on my EQ is a 90 day late from 2007 on a student loan that is now paid off. In February in EQ fico was 719 but I added a INQ and a new credit card since then. Do you think this is too many inquires for DCU?

Message 3 of 8
Remember0
Valued Contributor

Re: Will I be approved?

Your INQs aren't too new -- only 1 was recent as you said. I think DCU would be a good place to start. I'm not going to say you'll get approved with 100% probability, but I think I'd say you'll get approved for 1.24% with let's say 80% probability, especially because you aren't asking them for a huge loan (ie it's under 15k loan principle).

Message 4 of 8
signaturecardmember
Frequent Contributor

Re: Will I be approved?

As others said I would go for a new Toyota or similar for not much more. They have great recent graduate programs and your income vs debt ratio would def support you getting into one. Id go for a Camry or similar, way more car for not much more money then those other boxes.

Started: 4/14 Bank of America Signature $6k, 85% Utilization, 745 Fako
Currently: 6/18 Bank of America Signature $99.9k, Chase Slate $0, Chase Freedom Signature $2.5k, American Express Gold NSL, American Express Everyday $6k, Lowes GE $0 (From $35k), Discover IT $38.5k, Capital One Quicksilver $5k, Barclays US Airways $24k, DCU Platinum $30k, PenFed Promise $47k, Chase Freedom Unlimited Signature (From CSP) $50k, Chase AARP Signature $7.5k, American Express Blue Cash $7.5k, Citi American Airlines Platinum $10.5k, Capital One Venture Signature $30k, Chase Sapphire Preferred (From Reserve) $12k, Chase Ink Business Preferred $10k, Barclays Aviator Business $14k. Total Available Credit: Over $350k, Utilization 4%, AAoA 7 Years, TU Fico 799, EX Fico 727
Message 5 of 8
nathanmac
Member

Re: Will I be approved?


@signaturecardmember wrote:

As others said I would go for a new Toyota or similar for not much more. They have great recent graduate programs and your income vs debt ratio would def support you getting into one. Id go for a Camry or similar, way more car for not much more money then those other boxes.


I used to have a Camry and I really agree with you that they are great cars.However I moved to a new city and I live in a very dense neighborhood (24,000 people per sq mile in my zip code.) A smaller car is much much more of a valuable tool here. Honestly, I would buy a smart car if the economics made sense and they didn't have that stupid automated manual transmission. I could totally see myself buying another Camry but not at this time in my life. 

Message 6 of 8
tonyjones
Valued Contributor

Re: Will I be approved?


@nathanmac wrote:

@signaturecardmember wrote:

As others said I would go for a new Toyota or similar for not much more. They have great recent graduate programs and your income vs debt ratio would def support you getting into one. Id go for a Camry or similar, way more car for not much more money then those other boxes.


I used to have a Camry and I really agree with you that they are great cars.However I moved to a new city and I live in a very dense neighborhood (24,000 people per sq mile in my zip code.) A smaller car is much much more of a valuable tool here. Honestly, I would buy a smart car if the economics made sense and they didn't have that stupid automated manual transmission. I could totally see myself buying another Camry but not at this time in my life. 


 

Have you considered getting a road bike? It's a win win situation, exercise + no gas/maintenance/insurance etc.

Current Fico Scores: (December 2023)
Message 7 of 8
nathanmac
Member

Re: Will I be approved?


@tonyjones wrote:

@nathanmac wrote:

@signaturecardmember wrote:

As others said I would go for a new Toyota or similar for not much more. They have great recent graduate programs and your income vs debt ratio would def support you getting into one. Id go for a Camry or similar, way more car for not much more money then those other boxes.


I used to have a Camry and I really agree with you that they are great cars.However I moved to a new city and I live in a very dense neighborhood (24,000 people per sq mile in my zip code.) A smaller car is much much more of a valuable tool here. Honestly, I would buy a smart car if the economics made sense and they didn't have that stupid automated manual transmission. I could totally see myself buying another Camry but not at this time in my life. 


 

Have you considered getting a road bike? It's a win win situation, exercise + no gas/maintenance/insurance etc.


I do have a bike and I usually bike to work 3 or so days a week depending on weather and laziness. I'm not nearly brave enough to bike in the winther though. 

Message 8 of 8
Advertiser Disclosure: The offers that appear on this site are from third party advertisers from whom FICO receives compensation.