robb

Sounds like a great plan. Do you have any cash or a way to borrow the negative equity in the Jeep so you can sell it? Then just a few more months of the extra jobs and paying $570/month would knock it all out and you'd you'd have no car payment at all and could breathe. That $3k car will work out much better for you than a $10k car until you can build up some breathing room.

Well, next time was sooner than I thought. The boyfriend's car went to the mechanic this week and isn't coming back home. So, we're getting him a 2013 C-Max Energi. I took the advice to go the FCU route for a better rate, and got 1.8% from RBFCU (vs. BOfA 2.8%). At that point, I'm not sure it's even worthwhile to have the dealer pull (it's Carmax). Thanks for the advice! It saved me a few hundred bucks!

APPROVING BANK RBFCU BUREAU PULLED ? (Will update when I know) CREDIT SCORE 720 (Will update when I know exactly what they used) CUSTOMER STATE OF RESIDENCE Texas NEW/USED Used YEAR OF VEHICLE 2013 MILEAGE 25,000 RETAIL/LEASE Retail AMOUNT OF LOAN 15,000 ADVANCE PERCENTAGE 84% (They gave me their collateral value directly) TERM CONTRACTED 48 APR/LEASE RATE 1.80% MONTHLY PAYMENT 324 MISCELLANEOUS COMMENTARY: Second car in a couple of months when boyfriend's car hit the end of the road. Took the advice gleaned from these forums and got a credit union in the mix. Nice Savings over the 2.74% offfered from BofA. As soon as we close and fund the loan, I'll update the final numbers.

Nice work! But on the original question, I want to throw in a different perspective. The advice to basically research and know what the car is really worth is certainly important, and nothing's wrong with the idea of saying no to high-margin add-ons, but beyond that is it really important to pick up every last penny off the table? This one turned out well, but nothing's worse than making yourself miserable over the deal afterwards instead of enjoying your new car. At some point, you have an educated understanding of a price you're comfortable with and then just enjoy the new toy and don't worry about the rest.

I'm pretty sure your subleasing contract would be unenforceable since it would be fraudulent subject matter. So, it doesn't really matter what agreement you had drafted with the sublessee. You would be on the hook to Honda per your lease. You could sue the sublessee for them to pay you back, but no judge would look kindly upon you.

Everybody has their own negotiating style. I didn't make it confrontational (as in "You must beat this rate"), but simply said I had attractive financing but would be happy to hear their bid for the business. I did politely dodge two attempts to find out what rate I had been offered. Their best offer shouldn't be dependent on knowing anybody else's offer and probably would've gotten me a rate .1% below instead of .5% below. I drive cars into the ground (this vehicle replaced a 2004), so I don't do this often. I somewhat psyched myself out in preparing and just wanted to comment/clarify that the majority of what I'd read wasn't really true. I think the model of "have the financing, but let them bid" makes the most sense after my experience and follow-up reading. I just need to make sure I get a credit union in that mix next time. Thanks for the feedback

Yeah. I guess if I look more closely, it's credit unions that have the better rates, but I just prefer the service options with s larger bank. But I'm still surprised with all the advice out there of getting bank financing first that in my last 2 car purchases, the dealer beat it... with the same bank in this case. Don't get me wrong. I'm glad I went in knowing I had an acceptable deal, and I didn't tell them what rate I already had. It was comforting to know I couldn't be jacked into some ridiculously high rate. I still agree with walking in with the pre approval, but I don't get at all the "never fill out a dealer credit app" sentiment that is out there. Thanks for the feedback.

APPROVING BANK Bank of America BUREAU PULLED Experian CREDIT SCORE 726 CUSTOMER STATE OF RESIDENCE Texas NEW/USED Used YEAR OF VEHICLE 2014 MILEAGE 9465 RETAIL/LEASE Retail AMOUNT OF LOAN 21845 ADVANCE PERCENTAGE 88% (Based on NADA retail) TERM CONTRACTED 48 APR/LEASE RATE 2.44 MONTHLY PAYMENT 478 MISCELLANEOUS COMMENTARY: No open auto TLs, 2.5 years since any lates, 1 late showing on last payment of older auto loan (4 years ago)

Obviously, I should've remembered good old creditboards and come to read up BEFORE I went car-shopping, but I have mostly cleaned up my credit and haven't been around much. First of all, I have an EQ 724 FICO (732 Auto8/748 Auto5). I financed about $20K on a 2014 Ford with < 10k miles. Confusion 1: What actually is a good/average rate these days? Before car-shopping, I got pre-approvals from BOfA and Chase for about 2.95% on 48-month Used Loans. I have a relationship with both, but no FCUs. Since Bankrate/myFICO are telling me that rates are over 3%, I was feeling fine with that, but now I see a bunch of people on here getting 1.5% and better with scores in the 600s on longer terms. Confusion 2: Banks vs. Dealers Conventional wisdom seems to hold that you'll get a better deal from your bank (unless buying a new car with a 0% Mfg Incentive), but from my last car purchase, I remembered that the dealer was still able to beat it. So, this time around, after we agreed upon a price, I let the dealership make a financing offer. They came back with 2.44% from BOfA (the same bank that had quoted me 2.94% directly). Either the CW is wrong about strongly favoring non-dealership financing, or there's a nuance I'm missing here. What do you guys think? Finally, does 1 + 2 = 5? If #1 says that I really should have been able to get 1.5%, and #2 says dealers pad the interest rate, what are the odds that I actually got approved for 1.5% and the dealer padded it up to 2.5%? If so, then what might I have done wrong in getting rates directly from the banks? I'm not really complaining. The only reason I financed $20k was because they wouldn't take more than $2500 on my mileage-earning credit card for the down payment. I didn't want to trek out to a distant dealership a second time with a check for more, so I plan to immediately pay down the principal by $5K and pay it off early. The 1% difference isn't much more than $100 in the total interest over the 3-years that I'll actually pay off the note. I just feel like I thought I knew what I knew, and instead I was all Jon Snow about the financing--I knew nothing. Can you help educate me for next time? Thanks

I received this letter from Midland. I don't think it has anything to do with SOL. The asterisk is a note about when they will note the account as Disputed. If you DV within 30 days, they will update the account as Disputed. If you DV after 30 days, (after the federal reporting period has expired), they will not mark it as Disputed. I think the letter is sleazy, because they are trying to get you to do their work for them.

No one has any ideas in this situation?

I have looked over the HIPAA pages, and still have a few questions about how to deal with a situation. I have a letter from a collection agency who has not reported to a CRA yet (in fact, they state in the letter that they will not report a neg until after 60 days.) I notice that their wording does not exclude the possibility that they would wait 60 days and report a neg even if it were paid off prior. Also, they have tacked on "interest", which of course was no part of the original agreement, but my most important objective is to keep it off a credit report. So, I cannot send the recommended first letter because it's not been reported to a CRA yet. Should I submit payment (not including interest) to the OC with HIPAA letter (insert a)? If I do that, and the CA does later report it, then what do I do? I would honestly just pay the CA if I could truly guarantee that it would never appear on a credit report, that is all I care about, but I know enough to never trust a CA.

You mean the ones who recklessly bid up home prices buying houses they couldn't afford with money they didn't have? The ones who priced me and everyone else who wanted to borrow responsibly right out of the market? The con men who borrowed the money for the houses they couldn't afford by lying about their income and assets on no-doc loans? Those are the scumbags I'm supposed to feel sorry for? Sorry, not one bit. A bailout of these losers justs props up housing prices and takes money from me and the next round of home buyers and gives it to the sleazebags.

Not if cocotel's buyers had a contingency on the sale of their house. Unless you were referring to them, as they should get to keep the earnest money from their buyers, but it still leaves cocotel SOL. Did your home sell quickly enough the first time around to give you confidence to take out a bridge loan and proceed with the purchase of your new house while you seek new offers on the old one?

OMDG I can't even read any further before i post to say DO NOT use credit cards to make a major purchase like this!!!!! Just drop by the credit forum to hear tales of ratejacking and other problems related to credit card use. No matter what they have to say about your interest rate for life, they absolutely retain the right to change that rate if they think you've become less credit-worthy. I guarantee you that a sudden increase in your unsecured debt of $50,000 even if the mortgage is paid off will be considered a scary move on their part and they'll ratejack you. Please, please, please, no! OK, now that I have that off my chest, why do you need to buy this fixer-upper free and clear? Can't you just get a mortgage for it, fix it up and sell it, paying off the mortgage with the proceeds of the sale?