Next move? More cards or car loan?

[Anonymous]

First time poster, longtime reader, gained much more insight from here than my banker was able to offer.

Long story short I started rebuilding in Nov 2014. I had 2 collections and some serious student loan late payments but no ch7. Started rebuilding after applying for a car loan and being offered 25% interest rate (of course I didn't take it I bought a cheaper car cash).

Started with a partially secured cap 1 in Dec w $200 limit, always paid on time and sometimes several PIFs before statement date.

Paid off 5 parking tickets which removed 7 collections completely. Since the cap1 and the pay offs my score went up from 560 to 633.

3 weeks ago I sent GW letters and will be disputing the ACS portion since they rejected GW. I applied for QuickSilver one 3 weeks ago and approved for $500 - I'm talking to the facebook team about raising this prematurely. Same night I got declined for Walmart (thought it would be an easy win - I'm almost offended they turned me down).

I had 2 car loans in past both paid off and never had a credit card before because I didn't like the idea but I was an AU on an account for 5 years.

My current Aaoa is 5 years. Ultimate goal is to buy house near end of year.

So should I app for another car loan in 3 months? (Small loan less than 8k) Also I was thinking of app for Barclay in 2 months, and then maybe a citi or chase 3 months after that? I want some good cards with good limits not that I want to borrow money but I want to have the option and eventually have prime cards to get some miles. (Currently have 6 inquiries)

Current scores: eq 622 tu 633 ex 605

[Anonymous]

Don't finance a car just for the sake of FICO points. Instead just open an account with SDFCU, put 500 bucks in it and get a secured loan. You'll get just as much FICO mileage from it, that you would get from an auto loan, for a lot less out of pocket, and your DTI will be better on the mortgage app.

[Anonymous]

@Anonymous wrote:

Don't finance a car just for the sake of FICO points. Instead just open an account with SDFCU, put 500 bucks in it and get a secured loan. You'll get just as much FICO mileage from it, that you would get from an auto loan, for a lot less out of pocket, and your DTI will be better on the mortgage app.

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Thanks Norman, I just now noticed your reply I'm still figuring out how this site works. I wasn't planning on buying the car just for the points, I need to buy a car regardless but the plan was to either buy a cheaper one cash up front or a slightly nicer one with a small loan, something more reliable. Ultimately I want to buy a house so if this new loan imporves my credit then I hit two birds with one stone having a better car and better score but if it will harm or not do my credit any good then i'll just buy the cheaper car for now... Do you think a small loan would have a good or a bad impact over the next 6-12 months on my score?

[gdale6]

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@Anonymous wrote:

@Anonymous wrote:

Don't finance a car just for the sake of FICO points. Instead just open an account with SDFCU, put 500 bucks in it and get a secured loan. You'll get just as much FICO mileage from it, that you would get from an auto loan, for a lot less out of pocket, and your DTI will be better on the mortgage app.

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Thanks Norman, I just now noticed your reply I'm still figuring out how this site works. I wasn't planning on buying the car just for the points, I need to buy a car regardless but the plan was to either buy a cheaper one cash up front or a slightly nicer one with a small loan, something more reliable. Ultimately I want to buy a house so if this new loan imporves my credit then I hit two birds with one stone having a better car and better score but if it will harm or not do my credit any good then i'll just buy the cheaper car for now... Do you think a small loan would have a good or a bad impact over the next 6-12 months on my score?

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if you need another car then by all means buy one, installment loans initially cause a Fico score decrease for the new account, as they age they result in a few point gains, towards the end of the loan they can add even more points but once your last instalment closes there will be a Fico decrease (as much as 30 pts as seen in Fico 8 model). You only want to get installment loans if you actually need them to purchase something and you dont want any new credit 6 months prior to a mortgage pull.

The best way to help yourself is to open 3 revolving bankcards and 1 store card in your name to boost your Fico. You want to use these cards and let only one of them report a balance of no more than 9% of its individual CL to the CRAs to help maximize your Fico, the exact percentage between 1 and 9 you will have to experiment with to find the sweet spot, its different for everyone. Welcome to My Fico