Alright well right now I drive a 1999 Ford Explorer XLT 4wd that I owe $6,100 dollars on, it books private sale for about $6,500. I am in school however at the end of this semester I will be working full time and enlisting in a branch of service in the fall. I have been consistant and never missed a payment on anything until I got into school where I have missed a truck payment once, a Dell Financial payment, may have been two and I have been late of everything... this has been over the past 4-5 months or so due to hard times because of school and handling a truck payment as well as costly repairs that hit me hard.

I had a credit score of 591 before all of these happenings due to lack of credit history I just turned 20. I am well aware of finance management however with the neccessary repairs for me truck and no one to help the things that happened were inevitable. I was talking to a few people about buying a used EVO about a year from now when I return home from training and that I was planning on selling my Explorer now and driving a beater, saving the money that would have gone to my truck payment and a hefty gas bill over the summer and leaving for training to come home with even more cash saved up because my bills are minimal. I planned on trying to find a nice RS or VIII for between $20-23,000 with about $5,000 down.

I was thinking about it all and I wondered if I would be smarter to just keep my truck and pay it off through the loan, I have 2 years left on the loan however an accelerated payment of the truck to pay it off in time to buy the EVO... would this be better for my credit situation? I would show that I can indeed pay off a vehicle loan instead of abandoning it by selling the truck right away and not really having anything but a small credit card between now and buy time to make my credit look better, I would have a truck to trade and probobly $2,500 cash=$5,000 to put down between the trade and small lump of cash. Of course this would limit me to a dealership used EVOlution wich may be tricky to finding a nice well taken care of one unless I do talk to the previous owner through the dealership, I want to do this right. Upon homecomming of training I will be in a financial situation that will allow me to afford the car I have always, always ALWAYS wanted however my approach is key I think. Thanks for the help.

 

i am 22..fresh out of school with a credit score over 730...and im still not happy with my rate on the ix...

i can only imagine what kind of rate they are going to give you with a 591 score. i would say ud be better of saving up as much as possible to put down on the car so you dont have to finance too much.

 

I am trying to figure though if it would help me out better getting financed if I kept the truck and paid it off a year early through large payments each month, it would be more payments not late or missed and more than the payment and I could use the truck as half my down payment, instead of putting $5000 cash down, I'd have that much more payment history, a truck to trade and $2500 instead of selling it now and just sitting on the credit i have with only a small credit card to help me get my credit history looking better.

 

Should have got the 0% financing on an '05 back in September Just needed a credit score of 700

 

^^^that's great but he bought an IX b/c, i assume, he wanted a IX. there have been no incentives on the IX yet.

 

You can have a high credit score and still not qualify for a great rate, or a ~20-30,000 loan. You have to have some history too.

Recent college grads get special treatment, but their monthly income (18% of it) determines the monthly payment they qualify for, and may or may not get top tier financing.

 

no highjacking please, this isnt a thread about intrest rates it is about approval. thanks

 

pay off the truck loan , wait for a month or two , so ur credit score goes 70pt+ up

 

i think that you would be better off building up ur score as much as possible..not to mention it takes a while for ur score to update. not only that the less debt you have the easier/better loan u get.

and yeah i wanted the 9...i got it first week it came out...they gave me lowest rate they offered for 06 cars...

 

I am not even shooting for a IX, I wish I could but when it is my buy time the IX will be out and the anticipation for the X will be in. I want to keep the cost of my car fairly well under $25,000. I'd love to find a used low mileage IX RS however but I wonder what kind of availability they will have.

 

i got 5.9 on my evo ix MR

 

i'm guessing you'd have trouble getting financed at all if it was a 591 before you missing payments and it all happened recently. i'd say sell the truck now, save up while in training, and get something you can pay for with cash when you get out

 

I will have my EVO, that is what I am shooting for... so many have told me that with enough down it acts like bought credit in a way, I only had a bad spot for 4 months or so, my consistancy and payoff of my truck if I keep it and another full year of never missed or late payment will help me out on top of a truck I will get a solid $2,500 in trade along with $2,500 down on a sub $25,000 EVO.

 

I agree with fevo. Pay the truck off. I'm not sure your score will go up by 70pts, but it will go up. in 2003 i turned in a leased 2000 Grand Prix and that made my score go up by 32 pts. Even though its leased it still shows up on your report as a vehicle loan for the amount you pay for the lease. in my case $13K.

Also you have to remember that the older your vehicle is that you're purchasing the worse your financing is going to be. The loans are for less money and less time. They need to make their money back somehow, so they charge higher intrest rates. I know in MN here most places won't even give you a loan for over 36months on a car that is 5 years old, and that makes for a higher monthly.

Pay-off your truck, and get that loan pay-off on your credit report. You'll be much better off in the long run.

my .02

 

Wow. Sorry.

Considering the fact that none of us are the loan officers with your credit file sitting in front of us, we can only offer wild speculation. We don't know your income either. So you'll have to just try again when you pay your car off, or come in there with an *** pocket full of money to try to buy your way into an approval - meaning the next loan after you trade has a payment no more then you have now. The only way you are going to improve your score is by showing you can make consecutive payments without being late. It'll take 13-18 months of solid car notes to improve your situation, and of course, paying off your revolving debt.