anyone know how strict they are with car loans now?

lgriffith

My lease is up in april.  I was going to buy a car for cash but the most I want to spend is 5k and that wont get me anything very good.  So I might just turn my car in and buy a used one.  I found a nice car for 12k.  I was just going to finance it. I looked up our credit and its really good.  Scores over 700 btu I am not working.  DH is but a lot of the money is overtime.  My friend said her parents have really good credit but had to go through 3 banks to be approved for a car loan.  How strict are these rules?

Ciarrai

I dunno about now, but we bought our minivan this summer without a problem.  I'm self-employed and my credit score is tanked (long story, but basically a student loan I lost track of - my fault).  DH's score is good and was probably around or a little about 700 at the time.  He has a good job, makes good money, etc. but it's our only income.  We were approved for Toyota's 0% financing with just our trade-in as our down payment.  (Our trade did give us the equivalent of about $10K down, I think, though.)  We're financed for four years with 0% financing.

ans1999

DH works for one of the big 3 in financing. It is pretty tough out there right now but people are getting financed. Your score is pretty good but the real prime these days is with people who are 740+.

lgriffith

740 HOLY CRAP! Well to be technical mine was 730 and DH was 727.  I was actually shocked by that.  I figured they would be lower.  But when I used to do mortgages anything over 700 was good.

ans1999

It's crazy. But his company is in trouble right now. I think it is easier with a credit union from what he has seen.

firefightersgal

I think that it would be easier to get a loan with your local bank.  We bought our car with no trouble back in May.  Obviously, the economy wasn't in the state that it is in now, but our lender didn't even blink an eye.  Of course, we have a tiny town bank and personally know the banker--so that is an advantage.  We had half of the car amount as a down payment, also.  (And our credit sucks).