Help! Don't want to waste inquiries. Who's most likely to approve?

[cali girl]

Since we can't get approved, my mom is going to finance a car for me. Nothing big, I told her I would take a used car at $8000 or less.

My mom is about 1 year and 4 months out of a Chapter 13 BK, and her scores are in the early 700's right now. She's re-established credit, things are looking up. She's got a Walmart card and a few others. And has paid everything on time, she even paid her BK off early.

The problem is, she lives in another city. We'd have to arrange a time to get together to purchase a car, so I'm trying to help her apply online for a loan so that we will have something in hand when we start looking (instead of wasting a weekend on a hope and a prayer that we'll find someone to finance). CapitalOne Blank Check declined her - I don't know if it's because she said she was going to do a 'private owner' loan or not, but at any rate, we're not gonna try to reapply again. Also, her income may not be enough for them. She's making about $2700 per month.

So my question is, who is the MOST likely to approve her? I don't want to put all sorts of inquiries on her credit report so I'm hoping to find a really good company that will approve. I tried HSBC but it looks like they aren't doing auto loans right now, only refinance.


Help!

[Flamingo]

The "Most" likely to approve her is a creditor that she prevouisly had a car loan with, that was paid in full, on time and no late payments. If she ever had a loan with Ford Credit, GMAC, etc., that would be her best chance. However, her income may be a problem but you do not indicate what she pays for mortgage/rent, other bills, etc. $2700 per month is $32,400 (is that gross or net?). Since it will be in her name her low income may work against a car loan. Best of luck to you....

[wayne-o]

cali girl, I recently purchased a new car and filled out the application online for the dealership. After doing this a company named Credco pulled my reports from all 3 bureaus. I searched them and they put together credit files for finance managers etc. etc. The dealership called me told me to come by. Went to the dealer picked out car. I was financed fairly easily, the problem was not getting financing, but financing at a decent rate. So I ended up having several inquiries on my credit report. However, like others have stated, since they all seemed to be for the same thing (auto finance) my score only took a ding like it was for 1 inquiry. I ended up getting approved by Huntington Bank, never heard of them. 3 days later got a letter from Americredit saying they had purchased all of Huntingtons auto loans. Who knows that may have been the plan all along.

Having a down payment will help you as well, it shows the banks you are willing to risk your own money, not just theirs.

[Walnut]

Try RoadLoans. They are very BK-friendly as long as you don't have any hitches (lates after BK, Repos).

[CindyLou]

The issue may be with her debt to income ratio....does she already have a car payment?

As far as the credit inquiries..try lending tree..that may work better to consolidate apps

[HHM]

Don't worry about inquiries, (granted, you don't want to over due it, thus, you need only apply to places where you have a realistic shot at getting financed), but inquiries that are done within a 14-30 day time span, will count as ONE inquiry for scoring purposes.