Car Loan Question

[robivi3]

Discharged 5/6/04

Situation

I have two Visas in good standing, low balances.
GMAC Loan with less than $5500.00 owed, down from 25,000.00 principal when vehicle was new
No lates on the Mortgage ever

Two lates on the vehicle more than two years ago.

Can demonstrate "tangible assets" now.

House, loads of equity, no, not using anymore of it for ANYTHING so don't suggest it.

We are thinking of replacing our older Chevy Corsica which we have had since new with a VW Jetta TDI. I imagine we will get about 300-400,000 miles from it. It is an excellent automobile. Price is about $22,500.00.

Job 23 years, vested, Civil Service and 13C Railroad job guarrantees, unlosable, literally you can only fire yourself, wife 4 years. Income extremely good.

I would like to sign and drive as i did with the Truck (@ 5.3%). When i did it with the Truck my Score was 770. Today is hovering at around 650's. Anybody had any experience with buying a new vehicle after BK? What about interest rates? Low enough, sign and drive, use their money.

So no comments about income/BK, it was our online Toy Store that got us into major BK, not spending for personal items. My "personal" debt was never high.

[Lightning]

If you filed a business bankruptcy, why would you have trouble financing a car under your name?

[AAAArt]

You can prob. get the new vehicle, but my understanding is that you would get better interest rates at around 680 and up.
You can increase your credit scores by a number of ways...but first you have to pull them and find out what they say (you may have already, since you know what they are)
1. Check and dispute any inaccuracies. Are all of you accts. that were included in BK listed as "included in BK...0 Balance (some will try to keep the balances on, which is a no-no and bad for your score.)
2. Limit of credit available. If you can find out on what date your various accts. report and then lower that in time that it will post before they report, then your scores will improve.
3. Time...The longer you wait and pay on time, the higher your scores will bet.
4. Don't apply for credit or let anyone "run" a credit check for you. Some people claim that a credit check can lower your scores by 8 - 12 points. However, all credit inquiries w/in a 14 day period count as one.
5. IMPORTANT...Talk with the lending person before you see a salesman. Don't let salesman get your SS # or keep your Dr. license. 9 times out of 10, they will run a credit check while you are test driving. If this has happened to you and it shows up on your report, demand that they write that they did not have your authority to do so. Have them put it on their company letterhead and give you a copy and mail to all 3 credit reporting bureaus, or at least the one which they used.
Explain your situation to the person in charge of financing. Ask him what their criteria are for various tiers of interest rates and amount down. Tell him what your scores are and don't let him run a credit check until your sure that you can get what you want.
Supposedly the best place to purchase all 3 of your scores and FICO from is www.myfico.com Also you can get your reports for free once a year and if you have been denied credit, you can get a free report from where they checked.
Having said all of that, you should be able to get your vehicle fine, it's just a matter of interest rates.
From what I hear, auto sales lots are really hurting now, because of the "employee pricing" discounts and the number of new vehicles which have been purchased in the last 3 - 4 months. Good luck.

[robivi3]

Most of that I've already done. There afew discrepancies I haven't addressed. I think by the time I hit two years from discharge I should be up around 680-700. There are afew hard inquiries that will come off as well the items I can correct.

TDI sales aren't hurting, the closest i can find one now is on the lot in Gainesville about four hours away. It's Diesel and gets about 50 mpg.
Thanks for th input, appreciated.