Dilemma!
I just graduated from college with a BS. I now work for my school in a full time position making $23K a year. Before that I worked at my school all four years and two summers and was an RA for my last two years. There goes my first question. Will creditors count this as continuous employment or only use my 3 months full time employment? Secondly my scores are around 660-690. I had had one credit card for 29 months which is current and has a clean history except for a high balance ($450 on a $500 limit) which i'm paying down by March to about 75 dollars just to have some effect on my credit score. Anyways I went to a Ford dealership this Saturday and was looking for a used car in the $6-7K range. Well I found one but when they ran my credit they said they could only offer me a loan at 19% interest for 36 months. Of course I do not consider that fair or doable so I turned down the offer. They said I qualified for their FTB program and sent me to the new car salesman and transferred my documents over to him. I test drove an 09 Ford Focus S which they "whittled down" to around $13,500 inclusive of TTT after a $1K downpayment. Well, it's Monday and the callback which should have taken an hour has not come as yet so I'm assuming they denied me credit or found another buyer. I have been thinking about two other franchised dealerships (Chevy and Saturn) and a local dealership as well as Capital One Auto but I'm just really hesitant and don't know what to do. I do not want to overload myself in debt and I can have $1200 to put down before my 14 day window is up so I can meet the 20% suggested to reduce negative equity. Plus I want to pay no more than $215/mth in car payment. Any suggestions? And do you guys think that I should apply for two more credit cards with higher limits to help build credit history? Thanks in advance!!!
Disgruntled 22 YO 
So I applied to Capital One and was denied just now. Please can anyone help me? 
I would go to your local credit union in person. I'm a believer that most things are more effective in person. My local CU is the only one that would give me a loan and my scores are lower than yours. As far as your employment, they should ask you 1) how long you've been at your current employment and 2) what do you make a year.
The larger the down payment, the better you will be. Also, as you know, paying down that credit card to under 9% will help too.
Let us know what happens!
Starting Score: 648
Just to give an update on my auto situation. After almost two weeks of leaving messages for my Ford salesman, I called the used car salesman I had initially dealt with to ask what was up with me not getting a callback from the guy he referred me to. To cut a long story short my used salesman no longer works with them and transferred to another Ford dealership. He called and found out that I could only be approved with a cosigner and offered to work with me at this new dealership. I gave him to go ahead to have my stuff faxed over (going to call today and tell him to cancel that...I'm over it) but when I called him on Friday he still hadn't received my docs. I was also denied by Bank of America (my bank...and waiting to see what the denial letter says) and Up2Drive.com (still waiting on that letter as well). Right now I've decided to put off buying a car until at around May or June (what do you guys think? how long should I wait?). I paid off my credit card bill in full yesterday (feels so good to be debt free) and I'm going to put some of the money in my savings account and use to rest to open an account at a credit union. I'm also going to apply for two credit cards in March. I'm not as bummed as I think I should be...I feel relieved that this two week ordeal is over. At least I have a zero balance to show for it right? Thanks to everyone who chimed in. As always ANY advice is appreciated. 