topic Re: What scores do you need to get the best APR offers? in Auto Loans

What scores do you need to get the best APR offers?

kc12286 — Thu, 26 May 2011 23:50:07 GMT

I've been car shopping on and off for a few months now. Back in January I had a great offer from a local Honda dealer, 2011 Civic LX for 16k+ and possibly a 1.9 finance rate. Through circumstances out of my control, I had lost a lot of work hours (due to inclement weather) and didn't want to take on a car that I might have trouble paying for if the weather continued to be bad. So I undid all the hard work I had done and told them I would come back when I could make a purchase. Fast forward to now and I basically have no choice but to buy a car.Unfortunately, with the tragedy in Japan supply is down which means the prices have skyrocketed. I know Honda's offering good APR rates for Memorial Day and I'm hopeful I can get a decent one along with a good price on the 2011 Civic.

My EQ is 704 and hasn't changed in the last few weeks, despite high CC usage, I don't know what my TU is as I haven't pulled that score yet. Is there any chance I can get a finance rate under 5-6%? That's just too high. If that's the case , I might as well do a loan from my bank for the full amount and pay them.

Re: What scores do you need to get the best APR offers?

Noctilum — Fri, 27 May 2011 12:45:08 GMT

I don't know what the tiers are for financing, but I will say when my wife bought a new CR-V in May 2010 they pulled EQ and it was the auto formula. She had an 802 EQ from myFico but a 740 from the auto formula and qalitifed for the 2.9% 60mo rate.

Re: What scores do you need to get the best APR offers?

kc12286 — Fri, 27 May 2011 13:15:12 GMT

@Corvidae wrote:
I don't know what the tiers are for financing, but I will say when my wife bought a new CR-V in May 2010 they pulled EQ and it was the auto formula. She had an 802 EQ from myFico but a 740 from the auto formula and qalitifed for the 2.9% 60mo rate.

I'm hopeful that I could get that. I'm considering buying used because Toyota's offering 2.9 on used cars too. And there's local Honda dealer offering 0.9 on all new cars.

I was told by a Honda rep yesterday that the banks look for 730 and above for any top tier rate like 0.9 and if you don't qualify for that than the bank kicks you out of the system and they have to go to another bank.

Re: What scores do you need to get the best APR offers?

cdtotten — Fri, 27 May 2011 14:04:06 GMT

Tiers for car financing can change daily, but historically Honda has wanted a 720+ auto-enhanced FICO for their top/advertised rate. In my region (kentucky), TU is exclusively pulled. Good luck!

Re: What scores do you need to get the best APR offers?

kc12286 — Fri, 27 May 2011 14:16:07 GMT

@cdtotten wrote:
Tiers for car financing can change daily, but historically Honda has wanted a 720+ auto-enhanced FICO for their top/advertised rate. In my region (kentucky), TU is exclusively pulled. Good luck!

Thanks. I'm still debating, negotiating.

Re: What scores do you need to get the best APR offers?

twinRN — Sun, 29 May 2011 13:01:23 GMT

My non auto enhanced EQ Fico is 724. I qualified for Capital One's top tier with the lowest rate. 3.24 percent.

Re: What scores do you need to get the best APR offers?

kc12286 — Sun, 29 May 2011 20:45:39 GMT

I went to a Nissan dealership yesterday. Head of the finance department told me my TU was 724 and EQ was 703. I wound up with NMAC financing because al lthe major banks rejected me, despite the scores. I didn't have the 'experience' they wanted. But I got a great deal on 2011 Versa and because I financed through Nissan I got $500 rebate. I'm pretty happy.

Re: What scores do you need to get the best APR offers?

twinRN — Thu, 02 Jun 2011 18:33:17 GMT

Congrats on your new car!

Re: What scores do you need to get the best APR offers?

John060675 — Thu, 02 Jun 2011 22:45:46 GMT

Just out of curiousity, how do you get an auto FICO score (the one dealerships use)?

Re: What scores do you need to get the best APR offers?

John060675 — Thu, 02 Jun 2011 23:02:22 GMT

Ah, just found the answer on the forum. That sucks that I cannot access my auto enhanced FICO score. I suppose the only good thing I have going is that I was perfect on my auto loan for my Honda. I just wish I knew how much that helped my score.

Re: What scores do you need to get the best APR offers?

kc12286 — Fri, 03 Jun 2011 12:28:08 GMT

@John060675 wrote:
Ah, just found the answer on the forum. That sucks that I cannot access my auto enhanced FICO score. I suppose the only good thing I have going is that I was perfect on my auto loan for my Honda. I just wish I knew how much that helped my score.

John, as far as I know of there's no way to find out your auto enhanced FICO score and I believe the one told to me by the dealer was my regular FICO. I had alraedy told her my regular EQ and the one she listed (although a point lower) closely matched what I was seeing in the score watch section.

As a few have said, sometimes they' auto enchanced scores are lower or higher than their regular scores, so that also makes it hard to determine.

Re: What scores do you need to get the best APR offers?

NeedinHelp42 — Tue, 07 Jun 2011 20:07:00 GMT

If it helps, on Saturday I qualified for Toyota's 2.9% promotional APR over 60 months on a new Highlander with an Equifax score of 663. I don't know if they even pulled an auto-enhanced score, as the finance manager came to me with the different options for buying and leasing and said, "your Equifax score is 663"-which was the same as it was when I pulled it a couple hours before when I left the house. So as far as I know the merely pulled EQ and that along with my income was enought to get it done.

Re: What scores do you need to get the best APR offers?

kc12286 — Wed, 08 Jun 2011 13:21:55 GMT

I "qualified" for the rate but the banks didn't like my profile, they wanted a cosigner. But I was approved with NMAC which made me happy.