Should I Wait or ?

[Dj4Money]

 I talked to Experian on Weds about excluding my repo from 2009. They said I have to wait until July 31st and that it was moved up from Oct 31st already. I am going to try and get them to exclude it tomorrow morning as it's still within 90 days.

 That said, if I am unable too here's what I had in mind.

  My Credit Card utilzation is near 54% and will go down more as soon as my Logix card reports as I paid it off earlier this month. I can pull my Auto 8 score here but history tells me there is only 1 point different between it and my regular 08 score.

 My EX score is now 671, my Auto 8 is likely 670.

 My score will change (for the better) in the next 60 days if I am unable to get them to exclude it. Also my utilzation will fall down to around 6% by the end of June.

  However Ford's current incentives run through July 4th. 

 My score is high enough to qualify for the special APR, but I think the repo will prevent that unless somebody believes it won't have an impact anymore.

 However to keep my payment down I wanted to lease. The lease rebate is $3,000. A purchase rebate is $1,500 which now includes down to 1.9% for 72 month or 0% for 60 months or 2.9% for 84 months.

 To get 0% for 72 months, you can't take any incentives other than First Responder and Military.

 I can try to get a local dealer to match Koon's Ford but they are selling the cars for $3K below invoice and all I've heard from local dealers is whining.

 Using their prices, the car I want easily falls into my budget. The best I've gotten thus far from a dealer closer is $1K below invoice. Given that holdback is $733 and that they would get $3,000 in RCL rebate, that isn't much of a deal at all, it also jacks up my calucations and on top of all of that, they are $351 short of Truecar of all things.

 I am thinking about cutting the BS and jumping on a plane to B-More.

 I guess I want to know how much of a risk is there is coming back empty handed? My current drive off fees if I lease is about $1,700. I was going to offer to pay $1,000 of my fees an roll the rest of it.

 I have read that Ford will refinance it's loans. So whatever happens can be re-visited at a later date, like when the repo is off and my scores have hit 700 for the first time in my life.

  This time last year, the incentives from Memorial Day through July 4th changed drastically after that, I didn't want to do that again. 

  Thoughts?

[Anonymous]

The first question in my mind that pops up is what do you want to buy? Is there any other company that can offer a similar product with better pricing etc. 

One thing that I have learnt (in a short time, I must admit) is there are almost always some sort of sale, right now there is memorial day sales, in July there will be 4th of July sales and late summer sales etc. It will keep on coming until a new model year comes in at which point the 2016 will drop a bunch load more at any company. 

If I were in the situation I would wait (if there was no emergency), make sure everything is set in order, try doing some calculations where you would save more mobey incentives and x.xx% APR vs 0 APR and litlle/no incentives. Its tricky but sometimes a longer pay back period with 0 APR works better than incentives. 

Also if you can wait and throw in a bigger downpayment that might increase your chances of securing a lower APR no matter what route you take, maybe a shorter term and def a lower montly payment.

[Dj4Money]

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@Anonymous wrote:

The first question in my mind that pops up is what do you want to buy? Is there any other company that can offer a similar product with better pricing etc. 

One thing that I have learnt (in a short time, I must admit) is there are almost always some sort of sale, right now there is memorial day sales, in July there will be 4th of July sales and late summer sales etc. It will keep on coming until a new model year comes in at which point the 2016 will drop a bunch load more at any company. 

If I were in the situation I would wait (if there was no emergency), make sure everything is set in order, try doing some calculations where you would save more mobey incentives and x.xx% APR vs 0 APR and litlle/no incentives. Its tricky but sometimes a longer pay back period with 0 APR works better than incentives. 

Also if you can wait and throw in a bigger downpayment that might increase your chances of securing a lower APR no matter what route you take, maybe a shorter term and def a lower montly payment.

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 Thanks -

  I can afford to wait, but the incentives might not be more favorable later.

 I did all the calculations -

 $1,700 -/+ drive-off for lease, assuming Ford's best money factor = $331 

 That's taking the dealers price,no negotiation. ($26,866 before incentives, $4649 off)

 Low APR with $3,200 down to cover taxes assuming if bought locally but they match the price elsewhere would b $375 (0% for 72 months no rebates)

 2.9% for 84 months would be $350

 If I rolled in all the fees on a lease it would be about $375-$380

 I wanted a lower payment but I want more car than a lower payment will give me. I'm not sure I like the GTI enough to own one and the Fiesta ST is smaller than my Accent and has less cargo space, despite being much faster.

 The only other reason I might delay is to put it under a business name, especially the lease so I can write-off all payments and expenses.

[Dj4Money]

 Bump, my score has updated again - 679 Experian

 Is my FICO score mean getting the lowest rates/money factor despite the repo being seven years old; even after 15 months of on-time payments on my current car?

 Utl is 54%  (From 94% in April) 

 One juicy incentive does end on the 31st, most carryover to July 5th.

[Anonymous]

Yup most of the incentives will carry over so I wouldn't worry about those too much. A 50% utilization is pretty high, if you can bring that down you will see a major bump in your score and perhaps even a tier increase in your leasing program. This equates to a lower payment or an equal payment on a better car. 

I for sure know that a friend leased a Honda Accord EXL, brand spanking new, barely 700 scores and 1 year credit history, low utilization but no negatives though and was able to do a 0 down for 320 per month (I think that includes all taxes) for 36 mo. Leased the car in June/July last year

Hope this helps!

[RonM21]

If you can afford to wait, then there is nothing wrong with that. It sounds like you have most of the possibilities well thought out though, so more than likely, whatever decision you make will not be a bad one.

[Dj4Money]

 Actually I am concerned about the incentives, I want them. Why take more cash out of my own pocket when I don't have too?

 My UTL is actually 45% not 50%, Experian didn't quite report my UTL when it updated my score.

 It was 30% when I applied last year and was denied. But do you know why I was denied?

 Because dealers won't discount the cars as much as I needed them too. Some will do it, though most CA dealers won't because cars like the FIesta ST, Focus ST and VW GTI sell well enough they don't need to discount them. Many won't even match Truecar and lots of people accept that and just buy it anyway.

 Koons Ford, base Focus ST (ST1) $19,019 after rebate ($1,500) price before rebate $20,519

 MSRP - $25,300  = $4781 off 

 Sherwood of Salisbury Ford, Focus ST2 package (Recaro Seats, HID headlights/fog lights, Climate Control, Sync 3) $23,939 after rebate ($1,500) price before rebate  $25,439

 MSRP - $28,285 = $2,846 off

 Koon's Ford, Focus ST3 loaded minus moon roof (ST2 + Full Leather Recaros, Sync 3 with Navigation, Carbon Fiber trim, Heated seats and steering wheel) $24,395 after rebate ($1,500) price before rebate $25,895

 MSRP - $30,820 = $4925 off

 One of the reasons Galpin couldn't get me bought because of their tactics.  They would pay off the Hyundai by justifying keeping the Fiesta ST near MSRP.  I was told I needed the loan amount to be $20,000 to move back up a Tier and get better rates.

 Koon's Ford sells base Fiesta ST's every single day of the week for $18,000, from a Fiesta ST Forum  Share Your Deals Thread -

 As I learned from this thread, Koons Ford in Baltimore has Fiesta ST's at crazy low prices. Thanks for the heads up, guy's!

I contacted them about a base car they had in white. Their price (inc. Fords current $1K off) on the car was $19202!, inc. freight, fees, title, etc., everything but sales tax.

I  then gave several local dealers a shot at it, and the best offer I got was $2K north of Koons. Two thousand!, so I eagerly bought a $115 plane ticket and flew over to Koons.

  Lesson learned, I am going to give CA/WA/OR/AZ dealers a chance but I just don't think they will match the east coast Ford dealers.

 If had known about Koon's last year, I wouldn't be posting I'd be out driving my Fiesta ST likely with a turbo upgrade putting down over 330 whp

 Overall I am in a better position, I will change the dealers this time and I bet the outcome will be much different.  I will get bought and I will get a good interest rate.

 Because I feel a have a better chance I want to go for the car I really do want = Focus ST

 I even found a leftover 2015 Focus ST (actually a couple) but this base model is listed at $18,300 up in the Bay Area (Capital Ford) and there's a $3,000 rebate = $15,300

 My Hyundai Accent was $15,295...

[Dj4Money]

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@RM21 wrote:
If you can afford to wait, then there is nothing wrong with that. It sounds like you have most of the possibilities well thought out though, so more than likely, whatever decision you make will not be a bad one.

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 Yeah like I said, I can wait.  But the best incentives of the year in 2015 were around this time and I think history will repeat itself.  Ford will back off the incentives after July 4th.

 VW in the depths of DieselGate had fat incentives on all it's cars, so there was a mad dash to get GTI's. GTI-S's for $3-4K off before rebate. Those incentives stopped in May.

 You can still get the $500 below invoice SCCA incentive. Even then you can still get $3K-$4K from most dealers.

 I will do everything Tues (June 31st) and if a good deal doesn't happen, any pulls will count as ONE and I will wait.

[Dj4Money]

 Update -

 Logix - Pre-Approval confirmed however, they pulled a 639 EX FICO (Auto 8 likely) so my terms look like this - 9% for up to 72 months (8.99 for 60 months), max amount $20,000

 Capital One Auto Navigator - $15,630 with interest based on new or used and term. 3.16% for up to 48 months, all the way up to 8.16% for 72 months.

 Can I get what I want with these amounts? NO 

 Something similar is likely going on with Ford Credit, yet another denial for around $32,000 amount financed.

 I don't know what my TU score is since the number that Capital One provides you, along with Credit Karma are FAKO; both show 600 for TU.

 TIme to get serious -

 1) I have decided to not roll any of the negative balance. That might be problematic, but to cut down on possible problems, I will likely list my car on Beepi. Right now I owe $4849 ($12,849 10 Day), based on Car Max appraisal.

 2) I will enlist my credit cards to help me. I was initially reluctant to do this but it only took me about 70 days to pay off $4,004 in credit card balance. My balances maxed at 95% when I returned from Brazil, currently it's 45% and I just today paid off the Merrick card ($571 BL on a 700 CL). That leaves my QS1 which I now owe $1132 BL on CL of 2000.

 That will get paid off in the next ten days.  I will show 0,0,00 and about $200 on the SDFCU secured card.

 I talked to Merrick eariler to confirm the pay off amount and found my CLI is coming at the end of July. Speaking of CLI, I need to EO with Capital One because online they only want to give me a paltry $150 line increase.

 Both are welcome because they are soft pulls. Since I also allowed Logix to do a HP, I can ask for a line increase on their card.

 All these things will help.

 3) I don't want any more HP's since I have a larger goal in mind, my repo comes off at the end of July. I will call up all three agencies around July 23rd the final Monday of the month and ask if I can have it finally removed.

 4) Repo drop late July 2016

  I guess if I waited this long, I can wait just a bit longer. I don't want to compromise.

[Dj4Money]

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