Solo or Joint loan application?

[Anonymous]

My current lease is coming to an end and I have my eye on a new Audi or BMW. My credit is pretty decent, 700-750 but my wife's is not so great, 580-600. If I apply for financing jointly with my wife, will they take into consideration her credit score or only mine since it's higher? Our combined income is over $110k but mine alone is $55k. The cars we are looking at are in the $45-50k range and I don't know if her bad credit / higher income with help or hurt us.

Thanks,

Justin

[Anonymous]

Depending on what your auto loan history looks like (aside from the lease that's ending - may I ask what kind of car?) and if there are no quirks with your FICO... I think you'd qualify for the loan single-handedly at a relatively low APR.  DTI definitely may be an issue - I assume you've already broken down all your revenue/expenses and know you can afford the monthly payments.  Wouldn't hurt to try applying - except for the hard pulls, of course.

Your wife's scores would be taken into consideration if applied jointly.  I think you would still qualify jointly (depending on what's in her credit report), just at a higher APR.  You'll have to eventually let her know that you're planning on buying an Audi or BMW since her approval would be needed; on the other hand, you can tell her that this is an opportunity to help boost her score.  I'm kidding - please don't be mad at me.

You could also refi the loan later on.

That's my two cents.  This is based on research - I'm single. Lol.

Hopefully someone with first-hand, marriage experience can chime in 

[Anonymous]

I'm in the market for a Audi S4 or BMW M235i. My current lease payment is $750 and ether of these cars leased or financed at a good rate would fall below that and I have no finacal troubles paying the current lease and all my other bills and have plenty of money left over. This has always been goal of mine to own a car like this and I'm in a point of my life where I can actually afford it. My wife already knows and she's more than willing to sign a joint application. It will be our only car so she would be using it half the time. Only having one car was a deliberate decision we made when we moved into our current house 4 years ago. We just don't need two and doing the car dance in the mornings to get the "good" car out of the single car garage got old fast.

I'm not really worried about getting approved I'm almost certain I will be, I just want the lowest interest rate with the lowest down payment. I'm worried that with my income versus the price of the car they will want a higher downpayment than with both our incomes versus the price of the car. As you mentioned, it would in fact boost her score in the long run aswell, which is something we are working on.

[Anonymous]

Whatever you do- DO NOT buy a motorcycle and hide it at your office without telling your wife.

Also never ask me why I know not to ever-ever do that.

[Anonymous]

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@Anonymous wrote:

Whatever you do- DO NOT buy a motorcycle and hide it at your office without telling your wife.

Also never ask me why I know not to ever-ever do that.

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@Anonymous @Anonymous are very funny

[ds3]

Went through something similar with Audi Financial a couple of years ago. We bought an A4 for my wife...my income is twice what her's is, but she wanted the loan on her CR. My fico score was about 30 points higher than her's, and they ended up only using my scores to determine the loan rate. This was 6 weeks after buying a VW Passat TDI by myself, and I could have qualified for the Audi alone also. My income at the time was about $85k, and the total cost of both cars was around $75k. I'd apply alone first, then if they need more income, you can always add her to your application.

[Noctilum]

I would apply solo. When I got my last vehicle the F&I guy said 1.5x my annual income is what they like to cap loans at since any higher would be hard to convince lenders. I had 755 auto enhanced scores at the time and made $40k. They got me a $35k loan on a new Silverado at 3.41 for 72 mo.

[Anonymous]

Thanks for the advice. I spoke with the BMW dealership and he pretty much said the same thing. Apply solo and if more income is needed add my wife on later. On a side note I test drove the BMW M235i and man, what a fun car. I can't wait to own one.

@Corvidae, Did you have to put a downpayment? If so, how much did they want?

Thanks again!

[Noctilum]

They gave me $500 for my car that died on their lot but thats it ha ha.