I want to app next fall. The loan has no pre-payment penalty. When I filed my BK ch 7, it was with the "understanding" that a car loan is the easiest to get after bankruptcy. The only thing I could quality for was an 86 Monte Carlo, where I put $1500 down and make 21 months of $250 a piece. I was going to (against every fiber of my being saying no), but then I found a Chevy Lumina for sale for $700 cash. I bought it and put the $1500 in a local credit union, got a secured loan based on it and used the proceeds to fund my Capital One secured card. I found out about PNC, but didn't have enough for that card too, so I took a cash advance from Cap1 and funded PNC. I paid down balances and after losing job and returning to Florida, suffered but managed to keep the cards from going late (pay one, cash advance for other, etc.... and Grandma :-) )
The Lumina died this January 2012, and I thought having some months of timely payment and so forth would make it easier to quality for a car. Not so, so Platinum Auto Finance was the only company to approve me. I bought a 2003 Dodge Intrepid for $7995. Working as an IT contractor, I didn't want to use DriveTime or the like because if you move, they force you to voluntary repo the car. I wanted to be free to move for another job without question. In April I moved up here to work for Coca-Cola. My plan was to pay off the credit cards, raise my limits to allow the proper bandwidth for my life, save a 10k emergency fund in CD and then if I couldn't refi that car note, send 1K per paycheck until the note was satisfied. But I was advised it is better to pay a note until maturity when trying to rebuild credit because it hurts you to pay the note off early. Coke wont refi the note because they only refi car notes for cars younger than seven years old and NFCU denied me outright. So 30% APR it is whether I like it or not.
The side of the coin is while I do not plan to start my business until 2014, I want to establish a credit profile for it. Cap1 used to have a secured business card, but all they have now is unsecured (DAMN!) With a current score of 492, that ain't happening.
For Christmas 2013, I want to buy a property. I will start looking next fall.
Starting scores: EQ 420, EX 421, TU 405 (Jan 2011)
Bk Ch 7 Discharged Mar 2011
Current scores: Julty 2019: TU - 655, EX - 619, EQ - 640
FICO Dream Scores: EQ 700+, EX 700+, TU 700+
Credit accounts: 22% APR auto loan (Mar 2017), Secured [Coke (4000), Discover (1000)], Unsecured [CreditOne $1500, Walmart $150, Target $200], World Finance: $1500, Courtesy Finance: $700, Speedy Finance: $1200 (charged-off)
