About to apply for a new car and could use some advice.

[kskajohnson]

Hello!

I'm about to be in the market for a new car (I'm considering it a graduation present to myself as I'm graduating from college this Sunday!).  At any rate, my last "new" car was a 2002 Jeep Liberty was in 2006 and I was basically taken to the cleaners as naive 21 year old kid coming back from a one year deployment and despertely wanting a vehicle.  Not to mention at that point, my credit was in shambles due to some piss poor decision making I made when I first entered the service at 18 years old.  So essentially, I haven't purchased in quite some time and am in a much better position now than I was then.  

A little bit of info on myself. 

My freecreditreport scores are all in the 710-715 range.  However my two FICOs that I pulled here in the last month are around 685.  I'm looking to buy in the first few weeks of July. 

My income right now is $26,850/yr as a GS-03 in the civil service sector.  I will be in line for a raise in August-September to a GS-05 and will then be hoovering around $34K/yr.  I also have roughly $8000/yr in permanent disability from the military so lets say $35-40K yearly income. 

My DTI is 22/23.

I also have a USAA full member account and was thinking about going through them to finance.  My initial question is how tough is it to get financed through USAA?  Would I be better served to go through the dealer given my info above?

The car that I'm really into and am looking to get is a new Hyndai Elantra with all the bells & whistles.  Online quote is around 23K so I would think I can talk that down a bit.  I also have about $2,000 that I could put down if it came down to it.  

I'm just doing my research on the vehicle and I'm trying to get some assistance with financing options in terms of whats best for me as far as that goes and whether or not I'd have any problem getting financed through USAA which is my first preference (I think??) rather than the dealer.  

Any help/advice would be much appreciated as I prepare myself to get this done in the first few weeks of July.  

Thanks in advance!

[Creditaddict]

If you are down to the next 30 days you would like to buy then go ahead and apply all around!

Apply for USAA

Join Navy and apply with them

Then go to the dealership and apply with them and see if they can beat your rate that you have... unless you don't have a better rate than Hyndai best advertised rate, then I would just go apply and hold your rate back until they get you approved and then use it as a card if you need them to compete.

Keep in mind that the car delearships will pull an auto-enhanced fico so might be different then what you have seen so far and might be higher.

[PBAJ]

I would try both USAA and Navy fed. To see who gives a better rate. Navy fed tends to be better from what I have heard. I had USAA before through insurance and they tried to charge us a ridiculous amount of 1000 bucks to get our insurance reinstated even though we had them for years. Navy fed just approved me for my first car. They are extremely nice and very helpful plus 24 hours a day.

[kskajohnson]

Thanks for the advice but here is the other concern that I have...

I'm trying to avoid too many pulls.  I currently have zero pulls on my credit in the last two years so thats good.  But I'm also getting married and preparing to buy a new home in the next six months or so.  I just didn't want to rack up a ton of pulls so that when I go to try and get preapproved for our home, that'll send up red flags, you know?

[Creditaddict]

auto pulls and mortgage pulls within a certain period all count as 1 when being scored... 

[Hoya08]

If you plan on purchasing a home in "the next six months or so", and if it's not a necessity at this moment, I would hold off on buying the car.

Depending on where you plan to purchase your home (low or high cost of living area), your car payment may affect the purchase of your home since the payment will increase your monthly DTI ratio.   As a result, an increase to DTI will reduce the amount of mortgage you may otherwise qualify for.

[jetsfan2013]

If buying a home within the next 6 months - hold off

If not, NFCU might be your best bet.