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06/02/2007
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Okay all of you far more wise than I credit gurus... these are my 21-near 22 year old daughter's credit scores. She totaled her car yesterday, and has to replace it. Insurance is giving her $3000 on her car. Her cc utilization is high, but she's never paid late. She also has a few student loans that aren't due until whenever after she graduates, but which show up on her credit report. As I said previously, she attends FAU She's on the Dean's list. She's a senior this year, majoring in Elementary Education. She works as well, and makes a hair under $10,000 a year. Will she be able to finance on her own, or do you think she will need a cosigner? Thanks, y'all. (Thought I throw some Southern drawl in there for you mid-westerners. LOL)
me
Thanks, for responding -- and I hope Tuscani reads this as well, as I read his post/link a few weeks back, I just didn't remember reading it -- but remembered much of the great information therein. I went over it all with my daughter, this morning, in fact, as well as having checked on a few Credit Union options. One is of particular interest -- Bright Stars -- which is linked to the Broward Teacher's Union, I believe, and as she will be interning, as an elementary school teacher next fall, for Broward County, I think her chances of securing financing through them are ideal. Their interest rates start at 5.49%.
I also heard, today, that a couple of the larger car dealerships offer graduates and undergraduates special financing. I would rather see her try this through the credit union as she will be able to refinance the loan through the teacher's union, should she need to, once she does graduate, in June of '08, when her student loans come due -- but of course, she can defer them, I just hope she doesn't. She attends FAU on a tuition based scholarhip, but that doesn't cover books and everything else she has needed, so loans have been necessary for her.
She already has a full time teaching position available to her, should she decide to take it, upon graduation, and her starting salary should be around $34,000. She is already substitute teaching at this particular school. I didn't add that into her income. She makes $123 for "subbing" 1 time per week. It isn't every week, however, but as they need her. She's made around $700 doing that, since March. Otherwise, she's been with her regular employer for a little more than 3 years. She does still live at home; and will continue to do so. I wish I could say that we could share a car, but that isn't possible. She is just never home!
I thank you, sincerely, for your input. 
me
My guess is no co-signer will be required. Don't expect the rate on a first car loan to be great either.
Keep us updated!
What I might do is take the $3,000 and pay off 90% of her credit card debt, this could raise her to about 680-700 range and then I would recommend maybe looking at financing a new vehicle. Reason being, you could look at getting a much cheaper interest rate than any bank or credit union. Currently, Ford is offering 0.0% financing for up to 60 months!!! On say, a $20,000 car, that could keep her payments at about the $389 that she was paying previously. While a major pain in this whole thing would be not having a vehicle for 3-4 weeks waiting for those bill cycles on the credit cards to close and update with lower balances but frankly, putting $3,000 on a car is not as a good as scoring a bitchin interest rate and paying nothing (or hardly) in interest and getting a brand new ride :-) Good luck
Starting Score: 475