First Time Car Buyer Seeking Advice

[Anonymous]

Long time lurker here (first on the rebuild boards and now auto loans)! I think I'm finally almost ready to take the steps to get the car I've been wanting for ten years. LOL I've wanted an Accord Coupe for the longest and I think I'm finally ready to treat myself. It will be my first time getting a car loan and I've done way too much research I think (my friend says I'm slightly obsessed). I just don't want to make a mistake with such a large purchase. That being said, I've been in contact via email with a few dealerships in the Houston area to ask a few questions, specifically which bureau Honda Financial pulls and whether or not they use the auto-enhanced scores. I was told Equifax by both. I was very excited to hear that as my Equifax report is the cleanest out of the three. My TU and EX have a pesky paid collection on them that isn't due to fall off until 2018. I plan on sending GW letters and crossing my fingers. The collection has yet to show up on my EQ and I hope it never does. It didn't even show up after I paid it! *fingers crossed*

Long story short, I just wanted to get some advice on whether or not I should do pre-approval through Honda or go through a CU that is EQ friendly. From what I've seen on the boards, DCU is EQ friendly at the moment. My scores are as follows:

FICO Score 8 - 718
FICO Auto Score 8 - 683
FICO Auto Score 5 - 791 (I'd LOVE them to use this one lol)
DTI - around 10%
CC Utilization - very high but I plan on making a large payment soon but it doesn't seem to be a real problem for EQ according to my scores.

I got my scores here on myFICO and current as of yesterday if that makes any difference.

Any suggestions would be welcome! TIA!

[Anonymous]

Having been recently car shopping in Houston (although I passed up the Hondas for my "dream" Mazda ) - Honda has some pretty sweet financeing available right now.  If you're able to do a 36-month or shorter note, it's 0.9%, while longer notes up to 72 months are 1.9%.

With your scores, you'd qualify.  And you're probably not going to beat that rate with any credit union.

[Cellice]

Honda Financial is very strict. You should be fine with those auto enhanced scores. You will only run into issues if your negatives are associated with your auto loan history.

[Anonymous]

Nope, the negative that's on my TU and EX is a medical debt. I'm surprised my auto enhanced scores are as high as they are. I've never had an auto loan. Ill just look at my EQ being squeaky clean as a sign I'll be rolling in what will feel like a Rolls Royce to me lol

[Cellice]

Your rate will be high if its your first loan. You shouldnt have any issues getting approved. Good luck and enjoy your new Accord.

[Anonymous]

My advice to you is have a pre approval from dcu in hand, I think you would qualify for their lowest rate which is about 1.74% with relationship requirements.  This might also be great if dealer offers financing or cash back type deals, I would wait for a sale if you can wait till end of the model year to get a better deal, read the stickies here and start researching and emailing dealers like crazy, use tools like truecar as a benchmark, but know you can get lower than that if you are willing to work for it.  On a side note I been driving a honda accord coupe for the last 16 years and I love my car, very happy with the purchase I made 16 years ago(even though I wish I had the wisdom I do now).  I am looking to replace my honda in 2-3 years whenever my tesla model 3 gets shipped to me.

[Anonymous]

Congrats on the Tesla! I'd be like a little kid waiting on that delivery. I've been researching a wee bit obsessively. It helps that I've got a really good friend that works at Edmunds! I figured it'd be a good idea to have some pre-approvals in hand before going so I'm glad you mentioned it. I learned I can also apply through my jobs credit union but they use Experian so I'll need to wait on that a bit. Either way, I'm excited. These boards are AWESOME!