@Anonymous wrote:I am 36 years old and as of March of this year (2017 at the time of this post), I started my very first credit card. I have no prior credit history. The reason why I took so long is because I feared credit cards. I was afraid that by owning one, I wouldn't be able to control myself and I would end up being thousands of dollars in debt. I decided to bite the bullet and get a credit card. I ended up getting a Secured Card through Capital One with a $200 limit. I've been keeping under the 30% threshold, and paying off the balance fully the moment it shows up. I currently have 4 months of credit history reported to Credit Karma. At the time of this post my credit score (according to Credit Karma and CreditWise) is 672.
As of this past June, my car broke down (After 17 years of use) and I am in need of a vehicle. (Currently borrowing my Roomates car to get to work for the time being) So far I've been to two dealerships, but was turned down for an auto loan in both ocassions, because I do not have a credit history. I also noticed that on this site, that I do not have a FICO score generated, and I am assuming that this is the reason why I cannot get a loan. How would it take for me to get a FICO score generated, so I can actually get an auto loan to finance a car? Is there any advice you can give me, considering my current situation?
1. It usually takes 6 months from when you got on their radar (March 2017 in your case) for a FICO score to generate.
2. Your Vantage 3.0 score from Credit Karma doesn't tell you anything about what your FICO score will be; totally different scoring model.
3. If you want to be proactive about building your score, you could get a second secured card, from a different lender, and maintain your 2 cards so that 1 reports a small balance each month and the other reports a zero balance. And/or you might want to try a $500 share secured loan with a credit union, and pay it down right away to a 9% balance. Alliant Credit Union is a good choice for that.
