Car note upside down

[Anonymous]

I have been going back and forth with what to do with my car.

I owe around 12,500 on it. I have interest at 6.99%. It has around 97/98k miles on it. 2013 Malibu. Been in minor accident that got fixed. It's worth around 8k give or take.

My payment is $334. I have about 4 years left on it.

My credit scores are 687 Experian, 685 TU, 650 equifax. According to CCT.

Would I be able to get any credit union to give me a unsecured loan to pay off car and get lower payment?

[Anonymous]

If it's only worth $8k they may not refinance all of it. If you can't afford to pay off the difference now your only alternative would be to get a personal loan to cover the difference and that would very likely be higher than 6.99% with your scores.

[Anonymous]

When you have an asset that is upside down and the payment is causing you trouble, you need to look at the big picture more carefully.

This is an unfortunate circumstance for most because the usual solution is to refinance but that rarely works.

Time to redo your budget, line by line. If it isn't necessary for basic needs and survival you should consider cutting it out until the car loan is manageable in balance.

You're $4000 upside down. How much luxury spending can you chop completely each month to put towards your principal balance?

Once you've accomplished that, stay on the minimal budget plan until you can put away 20% towards your next car. Once that's done you won't worry about car loans in the future.

Your FICO Scores are in that weird middle ground between prime and subprime so I assume you have high utilization on one or many credit cards? Fixing that will raise your scores and qualify you for a lower interest rate loan next car.

[Anonymous]

Yeah I kindly figured I could not get 100% refinance is why I figured on trying to get a unsecured loan......

[Anonymous]

I definitely learned my lesson on not putting down a down payment on a car when purchasing. I will for sure in future make a down payment.

Really don't have any luxury spending. I have straight talk cell service at $52, charter communication is out of 2 year contract, now paying the full amount of $150. That's internet, TV and phone bundle. They say I'd I get rid of phone then my bill would actually go up. I get the basic channels on TV package.

And I have been guilty of having 45% cc UT. I have 4 cc at zero balance and 4 that have UT anywhere between 20%-80% on each ones. I can detail that better later.... I am getting ready eat.

[Anonymous]

What else is going on with your reports?  Collections or chargeoffs?  Any cards reporting a balance, if so what balance against what credit limit?

[Anonymous]

Yep list every card limit and balance individually including cards at $0 with their limit.

Might be able to find you a refi deal if we can help guide you to better scores! Would take some time to get the balance down to where you can refi and also reduce CC utilization.

[Anonymous]

---

@Anonymous wrote:

Really don't have any luxury spending. I have straight talk cell service at $52, charter communication is out of 2 year contract, now paying the full amount of $150. That's internet, TV and phone bundle. They say I'd I get rid of phone then my bill would actually go up. I get the basic channels on TV package.

---

I pay a quarter of that for the same services. T-Mobile is $3/mo for phone (Prepaid, no data but I use Google Voice which is free over WiFi so rarely am I using any airtime, feel free to PM me with any questions on that) and Comcast gets $50/mo for internet. I do have my own modem and router as well (About $200 up front for me, but you could keep under $100 for lower-end equipment), which is much less than leasing theirs. If you're near or in a major city you can buy an antenna for $20 to get all your basic channels, that's what I did a while ago. (There are sites that tell you what channels you'll get.) The moral of the story is that there are always places to cut, it's just a matter of finding them. 

[Anonymous]

Get on a budget, bring in some additional income and just throw $$ at the car loan and get it paid off.

A 2013 with 97k is nearly a new car in my book. Haha. You can drive it for years to come if you take care of it.

$150 to your cable company is pricey. I had internet only and was paying $60. I took it a step further and got rid of it and now tether from my phone (T-mobile unlimited family plan, $40 for my portion of the bill.)  You'd be surprised what you can pick up nowadays with an HD antenna for free. Better quality than cable, in fact.

[Anonymous]

Double check your situation.

I plugged in your car using the highest trim option, color white, 98k miles,  and my zip code. Excellent condition.

Private party value is 10,600. 120% of 10600 is 12,720. Digital Federal would refinance that. Assuming you do have the highest trim package. They can verify the trim by VIN obviously. 

Anyway, make sure you're pricing at excellent condition and private party.