topic Re: Rate shoppers beware! in Auto Loans

Rate shoppers beware!

SwarthyOgre — Sat, 25 Aug 2018 21:01:58 GMT

So I found myself in the market for a new vehicle this month and decided to do some rate shopping with various traditional banks as well as credit unions...my own and prospective institutions. This begins my story.

The first of the month I checked my Discover prequals, as I am approaching the one year mark on my IT, and a full month early I see them. Woohoo! I head over to the Amex site and check pre approvals (there were some) but hold off on both as my 181 day amex cli is coming up in 3 weeks.

Off I go looking for the best rate and terms I can for my new auto purchase. Navy and Penfed treat me well, Suntrust tells me to kick rocks and a handful of other institutions I don't have relationships with give me decent offers.

So after 2 weeks I have 2 checks in hand and 4 offers that can be had after a sales contract is generated. Great! So I go check Discover again...prequals are gone. Amex pre approvals...gone. I try for my 181 day cli...nope. All of them because too many inquiries. Nooooooo. I even had a prospective lender deny an auto loan because too many inquiries...after they pulled me twice. Ugh.

So be aware, while rate shopping may not affect your FICO score it may affect how your current lenders view you. Of course YMMV.

Re: Rate shoppers beware!

Gmood1 — Sat, 25 Aug 2018 23:59:49 GMT

Depending on the lenders, you can rate shop without having your credit pulled. I call them and asked what score is needed for the best rate.
From there, I already know who I'm going to use.

Re: Rate shoppers beware!

shoegal — Sun, 26 Aug 2018 22:57:02 GMT

@Gmood1 wrote:
Depending on the lenders, you can rate shop without having your credit pulled. I call them and asked what score is needed for the best rate.
From there, I already know who I'm going to use.

I would add that it also depends on the person’s profile. We just got a car loan using my DH’s credit (he has never had a baddie and scores are all 780+) and rate shopped before requesting CLIs, and everything was approved. He got a really low rate for the car loan. As usual YMMV!