Embarking on a mission to fix my credit

[Dj4Money]

 Update - 5/29/15

 Purchased my TU and EX scores from here -

 EX 656 overall, FICO Banking 658 and FICO Auto 08 of 654 

 TU 593 overall, FICO Banking 601 and FICO Auto 08 of 592

 On Experian.com score is the same overall, so it's legit. Capital One TU is off by 9 points, still not bad though its FAKO.

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 I just applied and was approved for a Capital One QuickSilver. It's the standard card which has a $39 annual fee, on Cap One's website it said the QS1 requires excellent credit.

 That gives me three cards total now and $1005 overall credit line. I may try for a store card, likely a Sears store card.

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 The unpaid taxes and registration is coming to a crisis point and could derail everything I have gained. There's only one person I know with the funds to help me but he's reluctant and that's just as well. It's been nearly impossible to save that much money ($1,848) so I have turned to plan B; trade-in. Lucky/Fortunate for me I am not as upside-down like other members of this forum are and it can be easily wiped out with current rebates and incentives.

  I believe I found a way out of this, stay tuned.

[Dj4Money]

 Update -

 My QS was sent out on June 2nd, it should be here by the weekend. 

 I just logged into my Capital One account and found sometime between now (2 am) and yesterday I gotmy steps line increase! So now my limit is $529. As many predicted, I got a $300 line increase; with continued heavy usage and on-time payments, I should see another line increase before the end of the year if not sooner.

  Back in Oct of 2014 I made a decision to fix and develop my credit.

  I've almost hit my medium term goal which was to hit Good Credit by the Summertime, currently @ 656 EX.

 Once the scores update from the added CL and the addition of QS put me at total credit of $1,304 when I had NONE this time last year.

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  I haven't talked to DMV yet but when I do I will have a better idea of what's going on. I have been turned down by Ford Credit, Capital One and Chase Prime. I believe a propsal is on the table from Santander but I have no details. I had a conversation with Westlake Finacial and they are a joke, I highly recommend NOT USING THEM if you have credit problems. Even if Santander/Road Loans saddles you with high interest, it's more likely you'll get the car you want without having to put a massive amount down like Westlake requires you too.

 Once I found I was denied by Ford and Capital One, I went to Auto Credit Express. I still have to talk to their rep at the dealership; the same Sunrise Ford I talked about in the Auto Loan section of this forum. It will be interesting to go back into that dealership for the 3rd time in six months...

 Another dealer is interested in pairing me up with lenders that the public doesn't have access too. The problem with that is my income has been reduced from where it was when I got the Accent; even then I wasn't required to provide proof of income. The unearned income has all but completely disappeared and one of my companies has gotten less work so there's less money to be made.

 If I have to show proof of income that will limit how much money I can borrow and even if taken up to max 25% of income; I have two choices.

 Fiesta ST with one/two options. Most likely either; sunroof and rado wheels (just painted a dark color) or navigation and rado wheels. There's more wiggle room the more optioned out it is, I might be able to get all three options, leaving only the Recaro seats out.

 Focus ST: ST1 maybe with one of the less expensive options which would be the premium wheel upgrade as it only cost $495.

 Now if I wait until everything updates including my WFDS Repo dropping from my Experian, I can get much more car since the interest rates will be low, low, low.

 For example, @ 6.90% I am paying over $6,000 in interest charges, while 1.9% which is the lowest rate Ford offers out to 72 months; only cost about $1,700 in interest  charges. I can actually get a more expensive version of the car without increasing the payment much if at all over getting it at 6.9%.

  I will still be limited because I have the negative in the Accent and unless incentives increase dramatically over 4th of July like they did over Memorial Day, I have fairly tough decision to make.

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 Next task is to pay my 90 same as cash loan off, the full amount is due July 17th. But I think I got it under control it won't be a problem. I may apply for a Barclay's card and finally a Sears or Amazon card in the next few days.

[Dj4Money]

 Bump

[Dj4Money]

 Another Update -

 EX Score is 653

 Total CLI is now $1304

 Three cards 

 (2) Secured, (1) Unsecured 

 My utilization is now 60% or about just over $700 out of $1304

 I've had to horde cash to pay DMV. Over the past three weeks I have paid them $1450 and still have $398 left to pay and I should be doing that by week's end. That 30th of June date wasn't hard and I still have plenty of time to pay, however...

 I have just enough left to make my car payment which was due on the 28th of June, but I have a 10 day grace period, so I have to pay it by July 8th or it's officially 30 days late.

 One of three things will happen -

 I will pay my payment before the 8th

 Re-finance the car before the 8th

 Trade In before the 8th

 By paying all the fees on the car I get that much more car.  I was told by the sales manager at Galpin is that we needed to find a car for $19,400 in order for Ford to take it.

 My new amount (so I believe) is $21,248 and I still believe max amount of the loan needs to be under $26,000, likely closer to $25,000.

 Since finding out that info from Galpin, I have been on a mission to find the most car for the around that price.

 Thus far, I have a few offers -

 Two local dealers = Invoice and below + incentives 

 Another Washington dealer = $18.499 for 2015 Focus ST (base, no options)

 What I am going try to do is get a base 2015 with moon roof for that or a little more or a Fiesta ST with Moon roof and Navigation for around that amount, which is around $23,300 MSRP.

 I could just wait a year but here's the problem with that -

 1) Dealers would try to say my car is worth even LESS. It's been a battle just to get $11,000 out of one dealer, I need it to be $12,200 to keep the negative balance in-line with the rebates/incentives.

 2) I still likely won't be putting any money down, at least not more than $500-$1,000. If my credit cards have jumped up to $5,000 by them (which I doubt) I might be able too, but I don't see it.

 3) Waiting until Juy 2015 would get me a clean credit file accept for the Midland collection and would result in low rates if not the lowest rates. If Midland proves to be a problem I will just pay them. To get a loan from my credit unions I will likely have to pay it.

 So 2016's will start getting incentives by then but my Accent will be worth less and I won't be putting much down, so while I would get low interest rates and higher loan limit, I likely can't buy much more car because the payment would be too high (DTI).

 That said I can likely get the middle option package with low, low interest rates and little/zero down.

 I will know more by this weekend....

[Dj4Money]

 Update -

 All DMV fees have been paid and I got tags and plates the same day. I would recommend buying a car out of state if they will give you a deal no local dealers would. The taxes you pay upfront like most people, it's rolled into the loan or you can pay them when you register the car in your state.

 Even with all that and having to smog the car again, I came out ahead.

 Current EX score - 646

 Credit Card Utilization is 92%

 As I said I needed to pay DMV so that mean paying the minimum on the cards. This month I will pay all three cards down to 8-9% Utilization. I will then push for a line increase on the QuickSilver as some have suggested in Sept (90 Days).

 I still have some negatives and have considered paying the active collection, since it's over $100.

 Trade In or Re-Fi -

 That is where I am at now. I wanted to take advantage of Ford's recent incentives but I get loans constructed strangely and they get turned down because dealers are asking for too much money or I can't get the deal I want.

 I figure if I pay down the cards to 8-9% it will push me over 660. I say that based on the fact that when I paid them down to 20% in May my score went up to 657 overall and 654 on FICO Auto 8 (Experian). I would also report higher credit card limits so my score should benefit from that as well.

 I would finally be in the prime credit zone. If I re-fi'ed the car it would save about $90-$100 for the same term or I can shorten the term. It looks like I will finally hit 670 by year's end.

 The repo won't be off my report until July 2016, I am contemplating waiting to trade-in until then. Ford's deals are pretty aggressive now, I expect them to be very aggressive near year's end on the out going models. Hell it's August and they still have some 2014's on lots.

 Will the repo matter less if the FiCO score was in prime territory?