Should I risk a hard inquiry?

[shecky4185]

Hi all,
I currently have 4 months left on a lease and am 6 months pregnant with my 2nd child. I really want to try and deal with the car situation now vs 9 months pregnant or with a newborn. My credit isn't great, the myfico auto scores were between 657-667 which I know is on the edge there. If I can get into a new car now I would want to but I just don't know what I'd be approved for. I also don't know if waiting a couple months would have much impact on my score. So long story short, should I risk applying for new leases now? If they are not good deals I would then want to wait a few months and try again, but will my score be too negatively impact for the next few months because of hard inquiries now?

I hope that made sense. Thanks in advance for the help!

[Anonymous]

Congrats on your pregnancy! A hard inquiry should only drop your score by a few points, so I wouldn't worry too much about that. Your lease-end options might get a little better if you wait another month. You can often get loyalty discounts if you bring your leased vehicle back to the same dealership - e.g., they might pay off your final payments or waive your lease disposition fee. Even if you switch to a different brand, they might be willing to pay off your final lease payments to get a car that has a high trade-in value. Ancedotally, it seems like three months is the best time to look at new options, but I don't have any data to back that up.