20% APR Really worth it?

[dougnukem]

I'm new around here, and have been reading through hundreds of threads to help get me going in the right direction.  

Here is a brief synopsis of where I stand with credit and money down.

TU is currently at 596 and EQ at 505 with a public record for a ticket that was supposed to be removed and I spoke with them on Friday to find out why.  I have a few late payments on another car note with one being recent, as I was moving and, like a fool, let it slip past the 30 day mark.  (it is current now of course)  My house was in foresclosure, but I was able to short sale it before it went to auction.  Unfortunately, they have until March 10th to remove the foreclosure status and I'm hoping that will help things.  There is also an education loan I co-signed for with my ex wife that was recently charged off as bad debt.  The only other thing I have is a doctors bill on EQ that is listed as collections.

I spent over 5k in repairs last year on my old car, and am still running out of time.  It is just on its last leg.  So I went and looked at getting a slightly used or new car in

the past month and ended up with just over 20% APR offers for both new and used.  My jaw hit the floor when I heard this, as I didn't even know auto loans went that high.

I have about a grand to put as down payment and my car as trade in was offered as another grand.  My DTI is great, as the car note is the only thing I have right now, with 11 months left on it.  (it is the ex's car, but we were unable to refinance it under her name during the divorce, hence why it is still under my name)  I started a new job right at the New Year, so I know that can complicate things also.  

My biggest question is should I take the loan and look at the refinance option down the road, or wait until the foreclosure status changes, the ticket is removed and the doctor bill collection as well?

Any and all advice is greatly appreciated, as I've never been that great with this type of stuff and hope to get better as I become more educated.

Sorry for the lengthy post, I can be long winded.  

[SamsungHDTV]

Welcome to the forums. I'd wait as long as possible for things to fall off your reports, but you also have to consider how long your car will last. And that's a question best answered by you. If you do decide for the car now, I would rate shop for sure. But if you need a car, you  need a car.. what can you do? Don't forget to visit the rebuilding credit section here;

http://ficoforums.myfico.com/t5/Rebuilding-Your-Credit/bd-p/rebuildingcredit

[Robertwd82]

It sounds like you need a car now.  I dont think you'll get much better rates until your scores go up to 620-630ish which could take several months. I would get the car now and just refinance later.  The positive payment history on the auto loan will help while you are waiting for stuff to fall off your report, and also at the same time you are not throwing money into another car that you are planning on trading for 1k anyways.  

I would send double payments on the new car loan if possible to reduce the amount of interest paid asap.   When your score goes up to 640-650 ish you can refi at around 5.9 and when you hit 675 fico you can refi for 1.9(going by my recent DCU approval rates)

[dougnukem]

Thank you for the quick replies.  Having such a bad history with my current car, I have been extremely worried about the other shoe dropping and stranding me again.  I have a 30 mile trek to work, on night shift, so that isn't something I would want or need.  

I was mostly concerned with the ability to refinance, as I had issues trying to do something similar about ten years ago.  Granted, the circumstances were different, but I worry about getting stuck with a high interest loan long term like I did back then.  Based on what I've read on here, that if I get some of the issues I've mentioned resolved, refinance should be possible within the year.  

I think the biggest thing that startled me was the fact that this financing involved paying just under 500 a month for a 20k car at 72 months.  Quit unnerving when you think about it.  

[starry1]

20% is insane. I financed a car through Prestige Financial two weeks after I filed for Chapter 7 and my interest rate is lower than yours at 17% and it goes down 1/2% every quarter of on time payments. 17% sucks, but its still better than 20.  Try gopfs.com and see if you can do better.