HELP/RECOMMEDATIONS

[Anonymous]

Hello all. Looking to try and get out of my crappy santander loan and into a newer car. My question is: how much damage to my credit report would apply for a loan now(to see what I can even qualify for) vs when I've got my down payment saved up(I'm thinking May/Jun/Jul)? Can I do both? Or should I just wait till I have my full down payment goal(I've got about $4k now, lookin to save about $7)? My thought process about seeing now vs waiting is in case on some off chance I can get some decent terms with the down payment I've got now. My scores are mid 500s.

Thanks

[Remember0]

To answer your question, you can "check" where you are right now with no credit impact if you use Capital One's Auto Navigator. 550s maybe too low for them but worth the try and no hard inquiry if you do just the prequal.

Usually going from 4k to 7k down won't help rate all that much. Can you give us a sense for why your score is 550? And are there any auto or installment baddies? That would help give us a better sense fir benefits to waiting and if something like util is driving the poor score at least partially could be useful to use some of what you will save between now and June attacking that as an example.