desperatly need an auto loan (San Antonio, Mission: insurance, credit score, how much)

[jons_wifey]

i have a 664 FICO score.
Citibank declined me for a personal loan.

I do not have anyone that can help co-sign me for a car/loan.


does anyone know where i can go to for a loan based on my 'fair score'?

thanks

[Everest209]

You can save $1000 dollars a buy a car to get you around until you can buy a $5000 car.

There's a thought, buy with cash..... groundbreaking

[plwhit]

You can go to a place like DriveTime but be prepared to pay an extremely high interest rate.

[IonRedline08]

A personal loan?

Why not apply for an Auto Loan? Most banks or Credit Unions will write those. Try at your bank. They will most likely give you a better rate than any dealer

[TexasRedneck]

Do yourself a favor....get smarter with your credit. That means do NOT go out and borrow money for a car with the score you currently have - you'll end up with a second or third tier loan, which means lousy interest rates. Find an ugly beater you can buy for cash, then save the money you WOULD have been paying monthly (@27% APR or so) and in 8-12 months upgrade that car with cash. Stay away from the "buy here, pay here" places - find a private owner with a decent older car and keep the middleman (and their profits) out of your life!!

[L210]

Sometimes buying the old beater ends up costing you more money. When it falls apart, all it does is eat up money you could've had for a down payment or savings for a better car. I've learned my lesson; no more old, high mileage cars for me. I had to spend a lot of money fixing up the cars just to have even more problems before a year was even up. I've learned that private owners are even worse than the shady used car dealerships. At least dealers are required by law to have the vehicle up to a certain standard. Get ready to pay a mechanic to do a thorough inspection of the vehicle because you can't trust anyone and get an AutoCheck report. A lot of dealerships are selling cars with flood damage.

Watch out for curbside dealers. Some dealers will pose as private owners. I also had a "private owner" who tried to sell me a stolen vehicle.

When you ask private owners for a VIN or tell them that you're going to have a mechanic check out the vehicle, a lot of them will make up excuses and not call you back. They know their car is a piece of crap and they're hoping to find some naive person to just flop down the cash. I gave up on Craigslist and newspaper ads. It was a waste of gas checking out all of those put-putting beaters.

I would try CarMax first. They work with a lot of lenders. Your income will matter the most in those cases. I think making over $2,000 a month would put you in the safe zone for approval. Don't go to DriveTime or J.D. Byrider. You can try World Car, but I've heard they are known for lying on the application to get you into a car just to have the lender take the car back later when the information doesn't check out.

You'd be surprised at how many new car dealers can work with a score of 664. Of course, you can buy used cars from them. Even after you pay off your debts, your score won't budge much. You have to get some kind of credit and make regular payments on it in order to boost your score.

[skeet09]

You can still get a car...we went to Mission Chrysler Dodge Jeep for my hubby's 2006 Dodge Stratus. They were able to get him a auto loan thru SACU (San Antonio Credit Union) for 11%. At that point, his credit score was the same as yours and had every collection account paid for and had not missed payments on anything for 2 years but the score does take a while to catch up so to speak.
You may not be able to get a brand new car but something used and that can function as a point A to point B car.

[majormadmax]

I hope you are trying to get basic, reliable transportation and not a mobile piece of fashion! There are a lot of good, inexpensive compact cars that will get you from Point A to Point B without a problem. Cool rims and a ghetto blaster radio are fine if you have the money for it, but since you're already on a slippery slope with your credit you need to spend your money wisely. You may even consider forgoing air conditioning and going into work earlier when the temperatures are less brutal during the summer. I do and on the way home I don’t care how hot and sweaty I get, as a matter of fact it’s nice because not using a/c in the car makes the house feel a lot more comfortable when I get home!

Try looking for a good car on Craigslist, and if you’re not mechanically-savvy then find someone who is that can look it over and ensure it is sound. It also helps to have an objective person with you when shopping for a vehicle to be the devil’s advocate.

Good luck, and let us know what you find!

Oh, and don’t forget about insurance!

Cheers! M2

[Hedgehog_Mom]

I remember from your other posts that you're having a baby soon. You do need a car...but if you and your husband are currently sharing a car, it would be smarter to keep doing that for the next year. When you file your income taxes next year, you'll get back more taxes than you paid, because of the earned income credit and the child tax credit. Then you could use your tax refund to buy a car...nothing new or glamorous of course, but $3000 is enough to get a decent used car if you buy from an individual not a dealership.

If you guys don't have a car at all, then you do need one. San Antonio is a difficult city to get around in using public transportation and you can't take the bus to Walmart at 2 am when the baby suddenly runs a fever and needs ibuprofen.

The difference between a personal loan and an auto loan is that the auto loan is secured by the car. If you don't make your payments, they reposess the car (and you still have to pay for it eventually). An auto loan is easier to get. The dealerships will find financing for you. You know your credit score which is useful. Figure out your monthly income and how much down payment you can manage, and start calling around to the dealerships. Before you actually buy the car, figure out how much you can really afford to spend on it a month. Keep in mind you'll probably have a five-year loan. You also have to keep full coverage insurance on the car the whole time you owe money on it, and probably gap insurance as well.

[dcharmingone]

I am sure you have figured out the whole car thing by now, but just to let you know for next time me and my husbands credit scores are way worse then yours for reasons we couldn't control and we got a car loan through RBCU our intrest rate was only 7.4% which I thought was good for our situation.

Sometimes things happen that you can't control that will ruin your credit. People shouldn't judge until they walk in your shoes. I am so glad that RBCU gave us a second chance so that we can start to rebuilt our credit.