Chance of approval?

Anonymous · ‎05-30-2010

Hi everyone,really glad I found this board.

I am looking for a car loan in the 18-20k range. Here is my situation: I'm a permanent resident in the USA. I originally came here as an exchange student, but my wife (who is American) and I like it here in the NW and have no plans to move anywhere else soon.

I have a job and make a little more than $50,000 a year. I've been in this job for a few months; before that I was a graduate student first and then had a job for about 2 years (which paid about half the money I make now). I've never had any late payments or other trouble with my finances. My credit score is around 720. It was significantly lower a short while ago, apparently because my revolving credit card balance was too close to the max. Besides the credit card, I don't have much else going on, so I assume the debt/max ration plays a big role.

Here is my dilemma: My credit history is only about 3 years old since I opened my credit card in 2007. I have been turned down for a loan by Bank of America, and now I'm a little discouraged. Will anyone take me with my okay credit and short history? Should I maybe try a credit union or smaller bank?

I could go a different rout and co-sign with my wife. But I really want to "own" this auto loan so as to establish a better credit history in preparation for a mortgage some day.

I appreciate your help, thanks in advance!

Anonymous · ‎06-02-2010

suprised no response yet but the worst thing you can do if u have little or no credit is apply for the loan yourself. You are so much better off going into the dealership and have the dealer do it for you.

MarineVietVet · ‎06-02-2010

@Anonymous wrote:
Hi everyone,really glad I found this board.

I am looking for a car loan in the 18-20k range. Here is my situation: I'm a permanent resident in the USA. I originally came here as an exchange student, but my wife (who is American) and I like it here in the NW and have no plans to move anywhere else soon.

I have a job and make a little more than $50,000 a year. I've been in this job for a few months; before that I was a graduate student first and then had a job for about 2 years (which paid about half the money I make now). I've never had any late payments or other trouble with my finances. My credit score is around 720. It was significantly lower a short while ago, apparently because my revolving credit card balance was too close to the max. Besides the credit card, I don't have much else going on, so I assume the debt/max ration plays a big role.

Here is my dilemma: My credit history is only about 3 years old since I opened my credit card in 2007. I have been turned down for a loan by Bank of America, and now I'm a little discouraged. Will anyone take me with my okay credit and short history? Should I maybe try a credit union or smaller bank?

I could go a different rout and co-sign with my wife. But I really want to "own" this auto loan so as to establish a better credit history in preparation for a mortgage some day.

I appreciate your help, thanks in advance!

Hello and welcome to the forums.

I understand what you are saying about owning this car outright but the benefits to your credit will be the same whether you go on your own or apply with your wife.

From a BK years ago to:
9/09 EX pulled by lender 802
3/10 EQ- 800
4/10 TU -772

You can do the same thing with hard work

Credit Scoring 101
Common Abbreviations
Frequently Requested Threads
Whats In Your FICO Score

m3v8 · ‎06-02-2010

There are banks that would be thrilled to give you a car loan up to $30k. Try Capital One Bank for starters... As someone said here before to try to obtain a loan through a dealer,- be very caucious when you do that. Dealers don't really care what APR you would get, or how much down payment you would have to give up-front to be able to finance the car. What car are you thinking of financing? Used or New? What brand? Capital One does auto loans of $30k for USED, and $40k for new. I know for a fact, that BMW Fanancial Services has great financing rates for their new cars, and good rates for Certified Pre-Owned (slightly used) "CPO". These are high quality performance cars that last a lifetime and hold their value very well... BMWFS requires credit score of 700 or more. If you go with BMW CPO,- they are great cars with full warranty of up 100k miles and full maintanace included for 6 or 7 years,- you pay $0 for any maintenance (oil, breaks, etc,...) and you pay $0 for any repairs. You can brouse their CPO inventory on their website www.bmwusa.com with CPO you save many thousands of $$$ but the car is as good as new.

Also, when buying a car, you have to negotiate like there is no tomorrow,- save thousands on the spot, and that will affect your monthly payment, and you would have less to finance, which makes it easier to qualify for loan. Never, ever negotiate monthly payment with dealer,- only negotiate and discuss total price of car out the door. You can learn more about that here www.bimmerpost.com You can also find out the real price of car you want,- price that dealer gets it for. It is perfectly fine for dealer to sell you car "at cost" which is dealers invoice...dealer will still make money off the sale through factory incentives, etc,. and you can save thousands $$$ right there! Never buy car at "sticker price" or "MSRP",- it is usually overly inflated and many thousand $$$ added to "real price". Before going into dealership, find out the real price of car here www.truecar.com and here www.kbb.com Tell the dealer you want car "at invoice" or tell him what price you want, and if you don't get it, tell him you are going to another dealership. I did it once... I was at a BMW dealership in Manhattan New York and was trying to negotiate the price, and the dealer would not lower the price, so I just left... and drove 8 miles to another, smaller dealership in Brooklyn and there, I just gave the dealer a print out from www.truecar.com with optiones and price I wanted for a car, and said this is what I want to get right now, or I'm going elsewhere... and dealer just gave it to me,- it was about $3000 savings in just 30 minutes of work! With $3k discount, it was less taxes, and therefore even less interest and less to finance,- and it was significantly less for monthly payment! It was awesome!

Good luck!

05/09 EX-573, EQ-578, TU-587
05/10 EX-606, EQ-636, TU-715

Anonymous · ‎06-14-2010

@m3v8 wrote:
There are banks that would be thrilled to give you a car loan up to $30k. Try Capital One Bank for starters... As someone said here before to try to obtain a loan through a dealer,- be very caucious when you do that. Dealers don't really care what APR you would get, or how much down payment you would have to give up-front to be able to finance the car. What car are you thinking of financing? Used or New? What brand? Capital One does auto loans of $30k for USED, and $40k for new. I know for a fact, that BMW Fanancial Services has great financing rates for their new cars, and good rates for Certified Pre-Owned (slightly used) "CPO". These are high quality performance cars that last a lifetime and hold their value very well... BMWFS requires credit score of 700 or more. If you go with BMW CPO,- they are great cars with full warranty of up 100k miles and full maintanace included for 6 or 7 years,- you pay $0 for any maintenance (oil, breaks, etc,...) and you pay $0 for any repairs. You can brouse their CPO inventory on their website www.bmwusa.com with CPO you save many thousands of $$$ but the car is as good as new.
Also, when buying a car, you have to negotiate like there is no tomorrow,- save thousands on the spot, and that will affect your monthly payment, and you would have less to finance, which makes it easier to qualify for loan. Never, ever negotiate monthly payment with dealer,- only negotiate and discuss total price of car out the door. You can learn more about that here www.bimmerpost.com You can also find out the real price of car you want,- price that dealer gets it for. It is perfectly fine for dealer to sell you car "at cost" which is dealers invoice...dealer will still make money off the sale through factory incentives, etc,. and you can save thousands $$$ right there! Never buy car at "sticker price" or "MSRP",- it is usually overly inflated and many thousand $$$ added to "real price". Before going into dealership, find out the real price of car here www.truecar.com and here www.kbb.com Tell the dealer you want car "at invoice" or tell him what price you want, and if you don't get it, tell him you are going to another dealership. I did it once... I was at a BMW dealership in Manhattan New York and was trying to negotiate the price, and the dealer would not lower the price, so I just left... and drove 8 miles to another, smaller dealership in Brooklyn and there, I just gave the dealer a print out from www.truecar.com with optiones and price I wanted for a car, and said this is what I want to get right now, or I'm going elsewhere... and dealer just gave it to me,- it was about $3000 savings in just 30 minutes of work! With $3k discount, it was less taxes, and therefore even less interest and less to finance,- and it was significantly less for monthly payment! It was awesome!
Good luck!

There's some good advice in this post. I have spent a great deal of time working on the car purchase I am about to make. I am pretty confident that being forearmed with knowledge will make as much as 20-30% or more difference in the amount that you pay for a new car. Unbelievably, Mr. Alpha can walk in and buy a car for $40K and walk out happy, not realizing they just got took to the cleaners. Ms. Beta can buy the same car the same day for $30K because she had researched it.

Consumer Reports is a good site. So is Edmunds. Anything that increases your knowledge.

I started with some books "Car Buying Revealed", and "Don't Get Taken Every Time".

Anonymous · ‎06-14-2010

Thank you very much, guys, and apologies for the late reply. I did get approved by a local credit union for 3.9% but ended up signing with Mazda at 0% for 5 years. The car we bought is a 2010 Mazda 3.