Cap1 Prequal?

[Anonymous]

I just checked the Capital One prequalification and they gave me a number of $33,275 3.15-12.70 depending on new vs. used. I'm just beginning to think about purchasing a car in the next year. My '98 cherokee has 280k on it and is on its last leg. I would be comfortable with a purchase price of less 20k. How accurate is this prequalified offer? I know it was just  a soft pull. I've been paying off a CO from 2012 which will be 100% paid off in July. I've been planning on waiting until that has reported as paid by the CRA's to start looking. I'm a member at a local CU and would like to go through them if I can get a better rate. 

[Appleman]

You are doing everything right so far:

Checked the pre-qual site and they want to lend you money it look like. Rate range shows there is hope for a sub 5% loan.

Excellent idea to check with your CU. I would recommend going in and talking to a lender at the CU and let them know your concerns about being approved. My guess is that you would have a good chance of approval. The good thing about the CU is that they will give you a pretty good idea of what you can qualify for and not play games like some dealers are prone to do.

Your scores look decent for having an unpaid CO. 

The problem with going to some dealers is that they will sometime 'shotgun' your application to a bunch of lenders. Even though the inquiries are grouped for scoring purposes they will still be on the reports.

If the CU gives you a rate you can always see if the dealer can beat the rate. Again you still need to put restrictions (in writing) on what the dealer can pull to try to beat the CU.

Good luck and please check back in with what you ended up doing. It is very helpful to other board members in a similar situation.

[Anonymous]

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@Appleman wrote:

You are doing everything right so far:

Checked the pre-qual site and they want to lend you money it look like. Rate range shows there is hope for a sub 5% loan.

Excellent idea to check with your CU. I would recommend going in and talking to a lender at the CU and let them know your concerns about being approved. My guess is that you would have a good chance of approval. The good thing about the CU is that they will give you a pretty good idea of what you can qualify for and not play games like some dealers are prone to do.

Your scores look decent for having an unpaid CO. 

The problem with going to some dealers is that they will sometime 'shotgun' your application to a bunch of lenders. Even though the inquiries are grouped for scoring purposes they will still be on the reports.

If the CU gives you a rate you can always see if the dealer can beat the rate. Again you still need to put restrictions (in writing) on what the dealer can pull to try to beat the CU.

Good luck and please check back in with what you ended up doing. It is very helpful to other board members in a similar situation.

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Thank you! Before I started my credit repair journey I called a dealer about buying a new car. They did in fact 'shotgun' my sub-600's credit profile to seemingly every lender in the city. I got hit with 13 INQ, and 0 approvals. That is what made me realize I needed to learn about and take control over my credit profile. I am going to hold off as long as possible and get this CO paid off and reporting as paid before I act. In the mean time, I will continue to read and soak up as much info as I can. 

[Countrygirl]

When I did my Capital One pre-qual, I it told me I'd get rates anywhere from 12-23%, depending on the car. I have bad scores (in the 580s), so I wasn't surprised. When I bought my (used) car at CarMax, I didn't get approved through many companies, but got a few offers. The best one was Capital One with a 10.9% interest rate, so it ended up being better than they said. I did have a $4,000 down payment, so that may have impacted it some.

[Anonymous]

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@Countrygirl wrote:

When I did my Capital One pre-qual, I it told me I'd get rates anywhere from 12-23%, depending on the car. I have bad scores (in the 580s), so I wasn't surprised. When I bought my (used) car at CarMax, I didn't get approved through many companies, but got a few offers. The best one was Capital One with a 10.9% interest rate, so it ended up being better than they said. I did have a $4,000 down payment, so that may have impacted it some.

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Where can I find the auto loan prequal?

[Anonymous]

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@Anonymous wrote:

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@Countrygirl wrote:

When I did my Capital One pre-qual, I it told me I'd get rates anywhere from 12-23%, depending on the car. I have bad scores (in the 580s), so I wasn't surprised. When I bought my (used) car at CarMax, I didn't get approved through many companies, but got a few offers. The best one was Capital One with a 10.9% interest rate, so it ended up being better than they said. I did have a $4,000 down payment, so that may have impacted it some.

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Where can I find the auto loan prequal?

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https://www.capitalone.com/auto-financing/

[Anonymous]

I just purchased a car using Cap One auto prequalifier about 2 weeks ago. Easiest process I have ever used! I simply went on prequalification site and filled out the app. They requested additional information the next day via email. I called and it was basic verification questions and was approved for $40000 for 2.19 to 5.9%. I went on their site and located the car we wanted and used the slide rule estimator to find out exact rate which was 2.53%. When I went into dealer I negotiated the lowest price and then when they asked about financing I gave them the prequalification letter and told the to only run Cap One for fininacing. I also told them if they ran other lenders I would not purchase the vehicle so this limited the hp's on my account. Cap One did pull all 3 bureaus but that was to be expected. Singed the final paperwork and the amount exactly matched what the slide rule stated. Highly reccommend Cap One for this process to anyone.

[Anonymous]

 I did the prequal and I got 1.99% financing. The dealer sent my application to other lenders and tried to tell me that the Cap 1 rate was not a hard approval and tried to get me to go with another lender for 5.9%. Luckily, I called Cap 1 and they confirmed that it was in fact 1.99%. I demanded to speak with the finance manager and he tried to tell me that his finance guy misunderstood the approval from Cap 1.