Hello everyone! I'm new to this whole credit thing and have a question I'm hoping you all can help me with. I ordered a new lincoln nav L and need to arrange financing as it will be delivered in about 10 days or so. I have two vehicles that I'm trading in that I paid cash for when they were new (2015&2016). Dealer is giving me a total of $80k combined trade value plus tax credits. That leaves me with about a 25k balance, normally I'd pay out right but I've become pretty obsessed with building my credit as of lately and want to finance to help my credit mix. I currently have a US Bank card with a 17k limit with a balance of $523 that is 9 years old, no missed payments ever. Issue im having is over the last year I've added a few cards thinking it would help my overall file only to realize it dropped my average credit age down to 1year 4 months. I recently tried a couple pre approvals and was declined stating short credit history.
I have never missed a payment, utilization is down at 8%, income is $326,500 per year, and I've had same employer just over 15 years (self employed LLC S-corp so I count myself as an employee and collect a paycheck).
Am I better off calling to apply with Penfed or will online be the same result as speaking to a real person? Will they have an issue with average age of credit or will they see the 9yo card and consider that? From what I've read on here, penfed pulls EQ score 9. If so my eq-9 is at 717. Thanks in advance for your help!
