So i have been apart of the community for almost a year now and have really learned allot.
Most the time i go into places and ask about their lending just to see what they might offer me.
When i produce my 3b fico and all my auto scores along with the information that i have gleaned from so many of you out there, most people are left just staring at me or asking me how to learn what i know.
So this process started back in june of last year.
I have been rebuilding my credit from the lurky depths of sub 500 scores over the last 6 years. I did not decalre bankrupcy but instead let all the bad debt soil my name for that period of time. I finally got tired of the situaiton and started to do research on how to get items removed from the credit reports and be able to work with the credit agencies to start and gain som ground on my dying situation.
Fast forward to june last year, i asked on here if i would qualify for anything and posted my small scores of 620 somethings across the board and the layout of may profile.
It was reccomennded that i go and check out CAP1 so i did. I got approved for the QS1 and i used it heavily for about a month and thought why not try with chase since i have a relationship with them and I wold like to have a part in their rewards structure (ultimate rewards) as i like to travel hack where i am able.
Got approved with a starting limit of 500 for a freedom with only 2 years of secure card histroy at 300 a piece and my cap1 for 1 month at 500.
Now i am not suggesting that a person is going to gain favor with various credit lenders for having small card limits like that and for having slighlty larger accounts for only a few months, but what i have seen and will demonstrate here shortly, is that when you do find folks that look at your situation from a risk baased lending but also as a person, you will find that the more things that are in your favor ( payment history, reasons for credit, reasons for balances) the more people are going to want to push it to the Risky side of lending instead of the conservative side.
So i got the CSP (Chase Sapphire Reserve) from chase in november and have loved it, I also was able to get my freedom to 2k limit after 2 months of use and a hard pull. (many of you know but i will stress it again for anyone reading these types of things for the first time, CHASE WILL PULL EVERY TIME) Just know that if you want a CLI, a new product (not a product change but a net new line of credit) they will pull your report.
I also managed to pickup barclay rewards card (garbage card at 500 limit but it does do 2% at utilities and groceries if you dont have anything else), overstock 2k SL and then just maanged to eek out 300 CLI with them 5 days ago SP, and i was able to get a point decrease on Barclay just for asking .
Side tip for Barclay, you may have offers on your account but they WILL NOT AUTO APPLY them for wahtever reason. You must call in and ask if there are any offers on your account. There is no special order in asking that i have seen as some suggest here, Just call and ask if there are offers, if the person says know just reiterate that you would like to double check with a specialist to make sure there isnt any pending offers that they might now see for APR reduction. If you have SP CLI and a Rate reduction they will give you both, but again you must ask.
So yesterday, was talking with the Wife and let her know that i was pre-approved through cap1 autonav for a 3.24-7.25% loan up to 40k . and we started looking at vehicles.
Found one we really liked and a great price however we are 6k upside down in our current vehicle that we refi'd throguh RBFCU (660 TU FICO8 qualified me for 5.1 for 24 months on a 2010 with 145k miles on it) that was amazing coming from the cap1 land of the dead at 17.99%. Any way went into Austin Infiniti and let them know i was pre-approved with cap1 and that i would like to talk numbers on the car.
asking was 27900 i needed them to come off it by at least 1k as they accept CC for a DP.
This is were things get crazy. I checked my fico8's and they were all low because i am in the process of using promo offers on 0% on a few cards and others are reporting to show usage i just didnt time it right and i had 6 reporting which most of the lenders mentioned in this post tend to scowel at.
I knew i was going to put 3k down with my CSP but i needed to have a BT offer so that i could eseentially offload that DP to a 0% BT (manufactured DP assistance)
They ran my credit against Chase,A+ credit union,and cap 1 but because i had negative equity my best rate was 7.25% which is yuck in my opinion.
I had specifically told them to run chase RBFCU and cap 1 so when they said my best rate was 7.25 i thought something isnt right here.
They showed me the chase one first at 9% then the A+ credit denial, then they heralded in the 7.25 ,
Asking about the pulls i said how come RBFCU didnt want to at least finiance at the 5.1 that i was at already. Then from the wood work they let me know that they didnt run it as they knew that rbfcu wouldnt like the negative equity even though i told them i had the original loan through them and had specifcally told them to send it over to them.
They then said they could run it to RBFCU but it would take more time......
So . since i had the time i said go ahead and do it.
Then i thought to myslef i saw a few and i mean bread crumb levels of articles in here about ufcu (university credit union) and folks were really happy with their approvals for auto loans and the few i saw were simliar profiles.
So while sitting in the chair talking with the finance guy who seemed to be lost in a daze when i was explaining various credit union behaviors and that there are literally thousands of pages online at MYFICO that talk about most of the major lenders and what they are looking for. I thought i am going to app for UFCU auto loan since i am already taking the hits for the credit.
5 minuts on my phone and boom approvl with a 663EX pull for a 3,8 @60months for total of my loan. But i forgot to put in all the details so i had to call and set it right to see if they wouyld still honor that rate.
Well it was 6:30 mind you and i called and got someone on the line who was very eager to help and very friendly and let me know they would have to track down a credit specialist to get some assistance with the underwrite. 5 minutes and he was back with UFCU rep i will refer to as Deb (not her name). Deb let me know that they would love to help me with the loan and that i was approved for the 3.8 with my income and if i had any questions. I let her know that the loan amount shown on the approval was not hte walk out the door price but rather i needed an additional 6k from that point. She did the numbers and said it was 117% of what the valur of the car was and that they normally only underwrite 110% but ( and this is where good payment history, a solid understanding of what you are trying to accomplish with your credit comes in handy) she said she liked my profile and my payment history is solid she will submit for manual underwrite and feels very good about the situation.
So now i am at the Dealership and feeling great as I now have a 3.8% loan in sight now i need to determine the best method for DP.
What else comes to mind than the one and only PENFED.
I knew i already pinged my self in the face with all the inquires but thought why not give it a run, so i apped online for the auto loan and they approved me for 6.5 which i didnt want but i called in about my membership info cause i couldnt get it finished online as it wouldnt let me.
A rep picked up and got me all signed up and i asked to speak to a loan officer. 5 minutes and he sent me over to the LO who asked what i was trying to do (again i knew my strategy of balance transfers and points, and down payments and let her know all of it) said i needed 10k of BT options and would like a 20k line.
Keep in mind my cost of credit was pulled at 643 dont know what the nextgen is yet. But she came back and said done. I asked if i could open a promise card as well and she said she could open one for me but it would not be a groundbreaking limit and the apr would be the same so that wouldnt be what i was looking for.
So this morning i get a call UFCU approves my loan 3.8% @ 60 just needed POI and membership to the credit union.
Loan @ 3.8%, BT Card 0% for 12 months 20k SL
And i start thinking i have one more thing that i would like to accomplish before all this hits and casus damage to the report for the next 6-12 months. I want the slate @ 0% for 15months on purhcases and BT but i need at least 4k for it to be worth while.
I still had the offer in my online account so i pulled the trigger.
Approved.....wait for it....500 dollars!!!!
WHAT!
What am i going to do with 500 dollars...!!
So i call in and ask if we can recon the limit, of course....no not without a HP
So i HP
they still say no and i asked for a recon.
Got the lady on the phone wanted and she wanted to hear about why i had 6 new accounts in 6 months and some of them sitting at 80% their CL. Again explained my strategy of using promotional offers of 0% and various cash back as well as points situations and said look at my payment history. On the non promo accounts i dont roll a balance into interest territory always paying in full after statement cuts.
She agreed and let me know she would review, after about 15 minutes of some other questions about spending habits she said she could raise it to 2k and i could barrow 2k from my csp said lets do it.
SO all products that i was able to get are as follows
UFCU loan 32k@3.8% - score pulled EX - 663
PENFED PRV 20k 17.99% - 643 EQ NEXTGEN-?? dont know yet
CHASE SLATE . 4k 23.49% -eq 643 ex 663
RBFCU approved me but i didnt take it 32k 5.1 -659 TU
So yeah moral of the story is know what you are trying to do and Give thanks to the Lord in all things for He is worthy of Paise ( even if i didnt get any of this) .
. Well done, e joy the new ride
