Car Loans After BK

[Anonymous]

Hey all,

Glad to finally report that the BK7 petition I filed back in December has been officially discharged. My FICO8 from all three major bureaus are in the mid-600s and I've already gotten a couple of cards (OppFi/1k, Jasper/1K, Credit One/300) and am an AU on my wife's CapOne QS card. I'm going to hold off on any more CC's for the next 6-8 months. Giving some context to my situation, but here's my question:

I've been working remote since before COVID began. We had a child since then, and my wife still commutes to work. We've been relying on one vehicle this entire time, under my name. It was IIB, but I re-affirmed the loan with Ford Motor Credit (sucks, I know) but I like my truck and am not upside down on it. Thing is, wife works part time and from what I remember being in the car sales industry is that the main breadwinner will always be the the primary on a loan, even if she joint applied, she'd be the "co." With a baby in the picture, we're uncovering a need to get a second vehicle, for groceries, errands, doctor visits, emergencies, and whatnot. At the same time, I really want to refinance my current loan to bring my installments down.

Should I re-fi and purchase at the same time? Should I re-fi first, then purchase a second car down the road? If so, how long down that road? Anyone have any input or similar experiences? I should also add a couple notes:

1. My wife did not file BK with me. She has a few accounts in collections, we're paying these off. No balance is over 1k, and there are three in total.

2. She currently has a loan on a car that her brother drives. Dad is a "co-signer" so we're looking to move the loan over to his name solely.

Any input is appreciated - happy Friday!

[sihmud]

@Anonymous congrats on the DC! and good job on the cards you have obtained. so a couple things on the auto loan. dealers will typically put the breadwinner as primary on their own typically the loan needs to be approved as it was appplied. if you put your self as primary then if approved you should remain primary regardless of income. now what the dealer does in the finances office is up to them. i was a finance manager at a dealer for many years. if you fear that issue arising then simply go get your own lending from a local credit union or bank where you can decide who is primary and secondary. typically the credit union or bank will do risk based pricing based on the higehest FICO score. i am an auto lending manager at a local credit union in CA and can tell you that  if approved we will base your approval, rate and term with the strongest score if your scores are mid - low with recent BK but your spouse is rock solid the loan, if approved, will recieve A tier pricing. now as far as when to apply that is up to you however, if you refinance and lower your payment then wait for the new loan to appear on credit that will help your DTI (debt to income) which will boost the chances of approval. now if your income is strong and debts are low then when to apply and when to re-finance is up to you. you mentioned that your wife has a few collections. all under 1k is good. that is normally the thresh hold for CU. anything higher will at times result in Cu requestion proof of payment or settlement. i would check some pre-approvals that do not pull hard inquiry to get an idea of what to expect as far as rateand payment before applying. below are the links to PenFed and Capital One auto. both can do pre-approvals with out hard pull on credit. if you decide to pursure one of the pre-approvals they will then perform hardpull. 

hope this helped and best of luck to you!

https://www.penfed.org/auto/refinance

https://www.capitalone.com/auto-financing/

[righthererightnow]

I don't have the answer to this... but wanted to say CONGRATS on Discharge, and baby too!