Hello All! Need your expertise again. Still in the market for a vehicle, and I want to shop around for lenders. Credit score is still pretty poopy - hanging around the 620 range. Question is, just how much of a dent would it make to my credit score if I were to apply for a loan and get declined? From reading other posts and getting responses to my last post, I learned that there are lenders out there who would consider giving me a loan but it all comes with the price of HIGHER INTEREST RATES (they just LOVE to kick you when you are down and at their mercy don't they? 
I want to get going on this, but I am TERRIFIED that if I do bite the bullet and apply for a loan, only to have it declined, I am going to be even more bruised than I was before. Then I will have the pleasure (laying on the sarcasm) of having to wait it out a few more months so that my credit score will slowly work its way back up. Don't have that kind of time either....my little car is begging me to park it in the garage - for good!
I am frustrated, confused, and to be honest, really scared! I am never late on my bills and I try to keep my utilities as low as possible. One of the biggest factors helping my score is the fact that I am NOT trying to apply for more credit (Shhh! I am really am though! Hehehehehe!)
Thing is, I can afford a car payment right now, but just don't have the credit to back it up.
Any advice would be more than appreciated! Know any good lenders to consider? What kind of interest rates do you think I will be looking at for a $22000 used auto-loan (my fingers are crossed).
Man, I need a drink!
This is so sad! Not even one taker on this? 
Anyone? I'll be your best friend!
@Anonymous wrote:This is so sad! Not even one taker on this?Anyone? I'll be your best friend!
I need a best friend.......
Simply applying for a loan will not hurt your score in and of itself. What is going to hurt your score will be if over the span of a few weeks your credit is pulled and pulled and pulled and pulled again. It WILL cause your FICOs to go down. Now you state a 620 score. Is this your average FICO or just on 1 CRA? Can you list some things like baddies, cc utilization, inquiries on ea CRA and such so we can evaluate the best way for you to go about getting the loan you want....
You can get an auto loan with a score of 620. Interest could be a bit high though. Do you have any paid auto loans on your CRs? If yes, are these TL(s) derog free? Have you read MOD Tuscani's auto-enhanced FICO scoring thread?
Chattachick wrote:
Hello All! Need your expertise again. Still in the market for a vehicle, and I want to shop around for lenders. Credit score is still pretty poopy - hanging around the 620 range. Question is, just how much of a dent would it make to my credit score if I were to apply for a loan and get declined? From reading other posts and getting responses to my last post, I learned that there are lenders out there who would consider giving me a loan but it all comes with the price of HIGHER INTEREST RATES (they just LOVE to kick you when you are down and at their mercy don't they?I want to get going on this, but I am TERRIFIED that if I do bite the bullet and apply for a loan, only to have it declined, I am going to be even more bruised than I was before. Then I will have the pleasure (laying on the sarcasm) of having to wait it out a few more months so that my credit score will slowly work its way back up. Don't have that kind of time either....my little car is begging me to park it in the garage - for good!I am frustrated, confused, and to be honest, really scared! I am never late on my bills and I try to keep my utilities as low as possible. One of the biggest factors helping my score is the fact that I am NOT trying to apply for more credit (Shhh! I am really am though! Hehehehehe!)Thing is, I can afford a car payment right now, but just don't have the credit to back it up.Any advice would be more than appreciated! Know any good lenders to consider? What kind of interest rates do you think I will be looking at for a $22000 used auto-loan (my fingers are crossed).Man, I need a drink!
@Anonymous wrote:Oh yeah...good points bamf70 and thanks for the response!Yes - I suffer from a couple of charge offs - most being paid settlements.
- Bank of America credit card - DOFD: August 2002 - Paid Settlement - Still shows on current status as "Pays 91-120 Days" - Hmmm..Should it still show that if it's been settled?
- Capital One CC - Showing one 30 late back in October 2005. Never been late prior to or after. I am going to send them a GW letter to get that wiped off, but by reading from other members in this forum, these guys are too willing to do it!
- Chase - DOFD: August 2002 - Status: CHARGE-OFF - These guys are still reporting to the CB's each month. This is killing me!
- SBFCU - DOFD: October 2002 - This one is being reported incorrectly on my CR. It was only 60 days past due, and I paid the loan IN FULL. I don't understand why it is showing as a charge-off, since it was never sent to a collection's agency or was I notified that it was in this status. I want to dispute, but am not sure how or what to say about the discrepancies.
- HSBC Rhodes - DOFD: December 2002 - Status: Paid Collection, Charge
- SCANA Energy - DOFD: June 2002 - Status: Account closed by consumer, paid charge-off.
- VZW - DOFD: August 2005 - Status: CHARGE-OFF. Same goes for these guys. They are still reporting this one each month to the bureaus.
So, as you can see, I really went through a hard time from June to December 2002. That is when it all "hit the fan". Since then, I have been doing great: I have a WAMU Card w/ CL of $1000 / First Premier CL of $400 and a Cap One w/ CL of $500. Balances are low - no more than 20% / month - if that. My average FICO score is around 620 - EX: 610 (checked it today AFTER I sent the first post) - TU - 632 and EX - ???. Guess I am ballparking the 620 so I need to do more homework on that...
The Chase situation is weird. They sent the account to a CA, however, I continued to keep sending them (Chase) payments each month. I noticed that they were processing my checks but not applying it to the account (the balance was not being reduced against the payments I was sending)!!! So I just quit paying! Being young and stupid - I never asked them to prove to me that the funds were being applied to my account - for I had NO knowledge of credit. Of course I would have to try and order the bank statements for the posted checks, but you think it might be a good idea to bring this back up? I mean, they are still reporting to the CB's.
The Verizon Wireless was kind of one of those things where I apparently signed to a new contract while still having another plan with them. I didn't realize I was doing this at the time - I just thought I was upgrading my exisiting service. So, I happened to check my CR one day and saw that there was a collection against this account for $238! Really wasn't proactive in trying to fix it so I just let it go. It's killing me though in the long run and I still being a newbie to learning more about credit, I don't know if or how I could dispute something like that.
As for a best friend? I need one too! LOL! I got the "Bad Credit Blues" BIG TIME and never feel like I have anyone to talk to. Isn't it sad how something like having a bad credit score can make you feel like the biggest loser? But I wan't to beat this game SO BAD! I have never been a quitter and want to smell victory soon!!! Just need all the advice I can get in doing so!
I sure do live up to my name, don't I? Chattachick loves to chat!
Ok this clears some things up.
The reason your scores are low 600s now even though you have been pretty good with payments and such since your problems a few years ago is that you don't have many positive TLs since. It sounds like you have 3 TLs with one having a baddie on it making it a current bad TL.
My advice is to build your credit up so you can afford not only a car payment but anything else you want. You can do this by getting some more positive TLs to offset your old bad ones. I would suggest going for a Target card, maybe a Hooters card (if you don't mind hOOters
) and maybe a Valero or Chevron gas card. This will give you varied types of credit along with 3 new positive TLs. If you do these things I would think that you can raise your scores up to the mid 600s in 3-6 mos...Not AWESOME but by the time your baddies fall off in 2009 I would bet they help you get well over 700.All my baddies were in 2003-2004. I started in Jan with 550s across the board. Yes I felt horrible when I had those scores but that just helped motivate me to beat the game. Today I'm at 622, 660 and 679. They are still coming up as disputes and things make their way through. I should be close to 680s when everything is finished. I wanted to buy a new car and could afford it back in Jan. Today I can get a house if I want and have my credit back to almost average. I could walk into almost any car dealer and get what I want without paying double digit interest. You can do it too but step 1 is patience and learning restraint. If you tell yourself I know I could have this car I want but if I wait just a few months I can have it and have my credit back too it will make it easier to justify not impulse buying the car you want tomorrow.
Hell now I NEED a drink....