Car Loan

My credit is less than stellar. i have a few old CA's on there and a current student loan, and scores are low-mid 600s. I don't have any revolving credit. I also don't make high income, taking home about 950 every weeks...i'm looking to get a car soon that i need for work and wondering if anyone can have any pointers on getting good rates, or even if i qualify ...

my month expenses

rent and util - 635
phone - 70
student loan - 270 (could possibly lower this)

the rest of my income is used on grocersies, public transport, etc ...so can anyone offer me advice on getting me started on this, where to look, what to get, etc...


Thanks!

Well, there are car dealers who would offer loans especially to customers with poor credit score since they can charge exorbitant rates to them. Hence, if the need isn't extremely pressing, you may wait till your score improves. Now, if you can boost it up to 680 around, you may find the problems with bad credit disappearing.

It'd be hard, if not impossible to get good rate with poor score.

how about with income of 16.24 an hour full time, about 33k a year?

i really need a car for work, its getting to be a brutal commute since my office moved...i need some help/advice on where to look

Can you save $500 - $1000 and get a beater car until you can raise your credit score? Just remember that cars also create maintenance fees, gas fees, insurance fees. Very important to keep in consideration when budgeting your monthly money.

I could save that much to help get a car ...would that help? i also understand the fees and all, so i definitley have to keep that under consideration.

i'm just concerned about the credit check, having no revolving credit...i was denied a CC several months back so i don't want to rush in to applying for one again. i was thinking of a store card or something to help. but i don't know how much longer i can put off getting at least a cheap car to get around in.

this is becoming a huge source of stress for me and i feel at a total loss.

If you can save the $1000 for a car, this is the route i would personally go with. This way you can avoid credit checks all together. Check out carsoup.com or autotrader.com these 2 sites let you check out cars by price - you can find something that can get you to work and back for less than 1000.

With scores mid 600s you will be fine going to a dealership, but first I would suggest a local credit union.

If money's an object, taking on a new car loan might not be the smartest thing a body could possibly do. The damn thing'll lose two to six thousand in value as soon as you drive it offa the lot, anyway.

Talk to friends, coworkers, and such. See who runs the best independent mechanic shops in the area, then go talk to them. They'll probably know of a customer looking to sell a decent car cheap. You can not only find some really good deals this way, but you also talk to somebody that knows the maintenance history of that particular vehicle. Plus, you get your foot in the door with a good shop, in case you need things done down the line.

Do you know whether or not you are currently living within your means? In other words, are you spending more than you make? What are you doing to reduce your spending? Do you know where every penny goes? I highly recommend you spend 2 hrs/wk MINIMUM trying to understand your spending then determine whether or not a car loan is even affordable, given insurance, maintenance, etc. Locate your checkbook register and go back at least 6 months and start a "spending" spreadsheet in MS Excel or something similar. Break it down into categories so you can see where money is leaking out the most then attack it. This will help you create a "real" budget which will also help you make the best decision on what to do about transportation. Best of luck.