Rejected! Where to apply?

[DuoJet]

Well, after being rejected by both Bank of America (my bank) and Capital One today, I am wondering where to go next for an auto loan, if I can get one at all.

My credit history is quite thin; I have three CCs, 2 from Capital One (both with a $500 CL) and 1 from Orchard Bank ($300 CL). The oldest CC account on my file is from February 2011.

I have no repos, "public records", late pays or bankruptcies. I have two derogs; 1 account in collections set to fall off on in January 2012, and a good many hard pulls from various applications I've made for CCs and auto loans.

I've been employed with the same company for nearly 5 years, had the same residence (a rental) for nearly six years. My current salary is $43,500 a year.

In January of this year, before aquiring the three credit cards listed above, I was rejected by Capital One, Bank of America, Nissan, PenFed, a local credit union, and one or two others before I gave up.

Any ideas as to what I can try?

Many thanks in advance!

[DuoJet]

No one will take a crack at this? Please?

[Creditaddict]

Can you go buy a TU Myfico score.

Without knowing what score you have I have really no suggestions.

[DuoJet]

What about the Zendough TU score? It's my understanding that it's more relevant than the "TU98" or whatever score I can get here. As of today, it's 568 ("F, ranks in the lowest 2 percentile"), which they're attributing to the number of inquiries and high credit utilization.

Infuriating. Apparently, they're counting EVERY SINGLE auto loan inquiry as a separate hard pull, contrary to what I've been told. There are currently sixteen of them. One dealership seems to have dinged me twice in one day.

Also, I pay my all three of my credit cards in full each month. Instead of this working in my favor as common sense would dictate, the CC companies seem to choose a random day during each month to report my balance. These are subprime cards, and easy to max. It's a simple matter to zero these balances (which I sometimes do twice a month), but on what day can I expect them to post the low balances so I can shop again?

Nonetheless, the question remains; what can I try? Will I have better luck visiting a dealership, as opposed to applying online?

[tooleman694]

With that score, you could get an auto loan if you went to the dealer but your gonna get a rate around 18 to 21 percent..

I had a lower score then that this year and I improved my scores to about 600 and for finanace with only 500 down thru cap one..

[IOBA]

The rejection stings, I am sure.

1.  Do you NEED to purchase a new car now?   Can it wait?

2.   Do you NEED to finance a car purchase?   Can you pay cash, get a beater, baby your current car longer?

If your oldest card is 02/11, you don't have much of a credit file.

And if you have been turned down by all of those financial institutions in the last year, your have many inquires on your credit file.

BOTH of those are hurting your chances to get a loan. 

If it were me, and I know this sucks, I would consider waiting at least a year before trying again and saving up a nice down payment.  Don't apply for anymore credit, in any form.   Use what credit you have responsibly and let time be your friend.

After one year, most of the older inquiries will not count against your credit score.   You will have an AAoA of 1 year.

Be patient.  Good luck.

[DuoJet]

Thanks guys.

Yep, not a big fan of the rejection but I'm getting used to it.  I know I'm looking at steep interest rates, but I was hoping to refinance at a later date. My current problem is actually securing the loan. I'm wondering how people with 515 credit scores, reposessions, foreclosures, bankruptcies, and tens of thousands of dollars in debt are getting 5.9% with no money down on a $35,000 loan. I'm seeing many examples of this in the Auto Loan Approvals! thread. Everywhere I've gone, the answer has been "No". And I'm willing to accept 20% on fifteen grand.

I do not have enpugh cash to buy something reasonable. My current car is a 1996 Civic with 175K. It'll need a ton of work (new bumper, rear brakes, electrical issues remedied) and cash to pass my state's safety inspection this year, and a ton more in maintenance (timing belt is on borrowed time, needs full tuneup). This is money I'd rather not be spending on it.

I guess I will try showing up at the dealer, huh?

[GregB]

You state that you have two CCs from CapOne. Those report the statement balance a day or two later to the CRAs, which take a few days to update. Not sure about Orchard but I think I recall that to be one of the wierd ones that report at the end of the month.

I think a good first step is to KNOW exactly what amount will be reported and about when it will be reported. Zendough is useless for a score but bottom 2% doesn't sound encouraging even if it is not very accurate. The TU FICO from here is not ideal but still MUCH more valuable than Zendough. Why are you only looking at TU?

What are the scores from your previous rejections? What score, what specifics about the score, and what CRA?. Are they all TU for you?

[DuoJet]

Greg- I'm looking at TU because upthread, Creditaddict advised me to post my TU score so he could get a better idea of my situation. I did not sign up as he directed however, and posted Zendough instead.

I actually have scores from all over- CreditKarma, Credit Sesame, Quizzle, etc. I've been hesitant to pay for scores as I've seen their usefulness in question all over the Internet. I'm not sure why we're all being asked to pay for a score that's NOT used to evaluate our risk by creditors. Not only are these scores not used, but they may or may not be a vague reflection of the actual scores used. Sometimes they are, somethimes they aren't. I was under the impression that the CAs were bound by law to provide us with the actual data that's used, but they persist in dodging this responsibility.  It all seems to be a gigantic scam, but what do I know?

As far as real scores from rejections are concerned, I've yet to see one. All my applications have been online. I was utterly unable to find a real human to talk to me from CapOne or B of A after being declined.

To my knowledge, I've been declined based on data from all three reporting agencies, the free-version scores of which have ranged from 568 (the lowest I've seen) to 665.

I'm still wondering if my best chances are to be had by visiting a dealer in-person. I don't want to do this if it's only going to result in in-person embarrassment and yet another declined app.

[DuoJet]

P.S. I've seen my credit reports from all three CRAs, and they are just as desscribed in my initial post. I'm wondering if there's a lesser-known fourth agency (Innovis?) that's reporting additional data (what color socks I'm wearing today, how often I shower, what I look at on the Internet, etc) that is scaring these creditors away.

Yes I realize that sounds paranoid.