What are my options?

[Anonymous]

I've been rebuilding credit for awhile now, but we have started really having some serious issues with my wife's car. Its actually our only car for the family, all I have is a motorcycle as dd. Still owe a little over 7k on her mini cooper and the total cost to get the car running reliable is actually over what we owe on it. My current scores are: Fico8 TU:685 Eq: 674 Ex:647 Fico Au5,4 and 2 Tu:682 Eq:600 Ex:631 Fico Auto9: Tu:655 Eq:669 Ex:645 Fico Auto8: Tu:675 Eq:652 Ex:602 I have some COs but all are reporting a $0 balance and all are over 3 years old I believe. I had to let a truck go back right after I got out of the military. Shows paid/settled for less than owed. Not exactly sure when it will fall off. Acr says 12/21 is the date to be removed. Im positive thats the reason my auto scores are so.low and vary as much as they do. I'm looking to buy a new car at no more than 35k financed. And would really like to get the best rate that I can qualify for. I'm 100% disabled through the VA and that is around 42k a year income of which I can honestly say about $1600 is available to do what I want with. This year that has gone to paying down cc to get rid of high utilization. When my new report is available it should report at or below 20% agg and 2 cc reporting balances. One at 40% uti and the other at 50% uti. The only other monthly payment I have is my motorcycle loan thats 315 a month. Still owe just over 9k and ive paid roughly 25% of the original loan balance. 1 missed payment back in 2018 (harley financial returned a payment to my bank after I made it and didn't notify me). Should I wait for that repo to fall off hopefully in December before trying to secure a loan or at 6 years old, is it effecting my scores and chances of a loan? At the same time throwing my "extra" money every month at that loan to pay the balance down? Or finally get to azeo on my cc and then see where my scores are at? Or finally...attempt financing now as my scores stand? I'd ideally like to get as close to 0% financing as I can on the deal, but if I can get low single digits that would be fine. I'm just sick of throwing money at this car every single time there's an issue, it costs me tons of money to have it repaired and at least 3 days in the shop. All for a little car that my DW thought was super cute. Lol Are there any other DPs that I'm overlooking that could help my situation? Thanks so.much for any advice offered!

[Anonymous]

Forgot to add that the loan on the current vehicle will be pif no later than April. Also, sorry for the formatting of my post. I hit return on my phone to begin new paragraphs, but it doesn't look like it worked. Double thanks to anyone who reads that long mess!

[Anonymous]

Posted this a minute ago and then tried to edit and now the whole post is deleted. Posting again, hopefully more concise and better formatted. We are in need of a new car. Currently only have one for the family (plus my motorcycle) and the total of repairs that will keep it reliable are more than what's owed on the loan. Fico8 scores: Tu:685 Eq:674 Ex:647 Fico au8: Tu:675 Eq:652 Ex:602 Fico au9: Tu:655 Eq:669 Ex:645 Fico au 5, 4, 2 Tu:682 Eq:600 Ex:631 There is a loan for a truck that I had to let go showing $0 balance that is scheduled to fall off 12/2021. A few other COs all reporting at 0 balance and all 3 years old and older. I'd like to get as close to 0% apr as possible on a loan no more than 35k. DTI is probably around 10%. I have 9 CCs and 2 reporting balances of 50% and 30% uti. Plus my motorcycle payment of 315 a month on a loan that is 25% paid. Probably $1500 in "disposable income" every month. Should I wait for the truck CO to fall off and hopefully have that raise my auto scores and then apply? Should I get all my CCs to azeo, which is what I've been working on this year and see if that helps my auto scores any? Should I leave the balances on my 2 cards where they are and only make minimum payments while throwing extra money at my motorcycle loan to get the balance down more hoping THAT will raise my auto scores? Any other things that I'm missing that could help? Also as an added issue, wife is stationed in Hawaii until spring of 2022. None of the dealers ive called will tell me which scores they pull. I'd really like to avoid getting my credit shotgunned. The best answer ive gotten is from ford who has said they use whatever score gets me the best deal. Im inclined to believe them as ford has always been wonderful to me. But I absolutely hate all their sedans and really don't want or need the big expedition that start out at like 58k here. Thanks a lot guys!

[Anonymous]

Forgot to ask... can I lock down the bureau with the lowest score in order to help with approval and best rate? Or would they simply tell me to unlock it? Ofcourse this may not help at all if they aren't telling me which scoring model they use. Additionally I apologize.for the formatting making my op one huge paragraph. I tried to space and even double space to break it up and nothing is working.

[sccredit]

They'll more than likely tell you to unlock it. Check out something like a new or CPO Edge. Even the new Escape isn't bad. Explorer is nice but on the expensive side.

[Girlzilla88]

@Anonymous     What you need to do is get your financing set up ahead of time so they don't send it like crazy or make sure if you are shooting for the 0% promotion the local dealer has offered that they submit it to the Bank/Lender that deal is Contingent to.       With Auto Scores in the 600's it's not as problamatic as you may think but honestly I would try your local bank/CU as well to see what rate they would offer you and see if the dealership can hit that apr or lower for the promotion.      Sometimes that 0% is floating deal not something they may have at all times so be sure you ask when they are offering that or 0.9% etc...And be sure to get in writing that they are only going to send it to that one said bank so they don't send your information to everyone and their grandma to get you approved.     If they come back and say that they can't make that specific deal work then go from there but that will help to keep your inquiries to a mininal.

[Anonymous]

Thanks for the reply!! I have 2 bank accounts. One is BofA and there are zero locations here on the island. Im also pretty much done with them as an institution. Just too lazy to redo direct deposit lol. The other is a small cu here. Im hesitant about asking them for a loan for 2 reasons. 1: I opened a savings only with them and deposited 4500 into it. Spent all that around Thanksgiving making repairs to the current car. And #2: they are like super tiny. I got a credit card through them, but its some wierd company I cant seem to find any info on "services credit union". So I'm worried about their actual lending on a car note. Or should I be? I tried cap1 auto finance and was pre approved up to 50k. But there aren't any dealers on Oahu that use that. I DO I have a USAA checking that has been just above $0 balance for a few years. They never liked me back when I attempted credit products before. Got the feeling it will be more of the same asking for a car loan. Had nfcu back around 2010. Long story short, I couldn't make payments and tried to set up payment plan and they wouldn't accept. They ended up having to pay me a settlement of $6k. They were using illegal collection practices on me so I highly doubt that they would be willing to do business with me ever again.

[Anonymous]

@sccredit yeah I figured that would be the outcome. I had a 2012 escape that I bought brand new. Was late a few payments over the course of the loan with ally, but never over 30 days and it was paid off back in 18 I believe. Wasn't a huge fan of the vehicle and to be honest I dont really like any of their smaller sub or sedans at all. The only thing that ford has that really interests me is the expedition. But even though they are way below msrp on a suburban, there's no way in the world ill ever believe those vehicles are worth the msrp. Lol Thinking of going with a cadillac. Ford has been great to me over the years, I just dont like any of their lineup. Always had great experiences with the caddys ive owned in the past, the downside to it is gm financial is a lot more stringent on their loans than ford. In my experience anyway. Thanks for the reply!

[Girlzilla88]

@Anonymous    If you have some history with that CU you can always ask here if anyone else has Vehicle history with them or any loan history with them to get points.     If Capital One is willing to offer an extended hand you could use them as your own financing just know that if you were looking for a specific promotion that it will likely you have to work with a specific bank/lender for that promotion (like 0% for example) So maybe Cap1 will offer a nice low apr for you but you won't nec. get that one specific promo but another thing too is to read up on Cap1 vehicle loans (I had them before but I never did a preapproval/prequal) so just make sure that it's a solid offer and not just a hey apply with us and we will let you know afterwards if we can even help type of deal.     If you are done with BoA then don't put yourself in a relationship with them for years to come with this vehicle.      So I would say if it is a SOLID preapproval/offer with Cap1 take that with you to the dealership and see if the promo they are using can beat that offer using the Bank/Lender that deal is contingent upon.     If the special says you can use any bank for 5k back or whatever and that's the deal you want to use then even better just read up on that special and again make sure that they are offering what specifically you are wanting and what rules/restrictions apply to that deal.   ^^    Good Luck and Keep us posted.

[Anonymous]

@Girlzilla88 the cap1 application kinda stopped dead after there didn't seem to be any dealer in hawaii that they work with. So I'm not sure if it was an actual qualified app or not. The local cu that I joined late last year is really awfully small. Ive searched them as much as I can here on the forums and elsewhere and there's hardly any info at all. Additionally, there is almost zero dp's that I can find for the state of Hawaii. All the posts that discuss which cra was pulled for which product by Bank completely skips over hawaii. Lol I'm just going to wait for my new report to cut and see where I stand then go from there. Worst case is we have to hold onto the car for another year until we move back to the mainland. I really appreciate the advice though!