[BMW Guy]

In March of this year, I signed what will probably be the most stupid financial decision of my life: A 16211 car loan at a 27% interest rate! I was in need of a car and really wanted a 335i badly. Having no credit at the time, I had a difficult time even securing this loan. Realizing what a fool I was a few days after purchasing it, I came up with enough sense to go back and cancel the $2600 warranty I had purchased leaving me with around $13600 left to pay off. Lucky for me, the previous owner had done most all of the major repairs to it allowing me to focus my money towards paying down my loan. 6 months later, here I am with 7500 left to pay off. I have been doing double payments a month plus putting my college refund I get toward my loan, which I have calculated will have the car paid off by March of next year, turning my 5-year loan into a 1. My credit score has gone up since then but I can't get anyone to Refi with me because of the car's mileage and year. I've checked about every personal loan option there is and can't get anything below 29%. I've also tried applying for 0 APR credit cards but can't get approved.
My question is should I just continue paying it down and stop trying to get a refi or personal loan, or keep looking around to find something better? Any suggestion for good lenders for new credit guys like me?
Moral of the story: BUILD CREDIT OR PAY IN CASH!

[StradaRedlands]

Keep trying to get a credit card with a 0-3% balance transfer option, they're out there. Usually need to pay it off in a year. But you can do it in six months, so that's great. Check your local credit union, they may be a better option than the big nationals. Worst case you pay it off in March and learned a lesson!

[chris55552]

Originally Posted by BMW Guy

In March of this year, I signed what will probably be the most stupid financial decision of my life: A 16211 car loan at a 27% interest rate! I was in need of a car and really wanted a 335i badly. Having no credit at the time, I had a difficult time even securing this loan. Realizing what a fool I was a few days after purchasing it, I came up with enough sense to go back and cancel the $2600 warranty I had purchased leaving me with around $13600 left to pay off. Lucky for me, the previous owner had done most all of the major repairs to it allowing me to focus my money towards paying down my loan. 6 months later, here I am with 7500 left to pay off. I have been doing double payments a month plus putting my college refund I get toward my loan, which I have calculated will have the car paid off by March of next year, turning my 5-year loan into a 1. My credit score has gone up since then but I can't get anyone to Refi with me because of the car's mileage and year. I've checked about every personal loan option there is and can't get anything below 29%. I've also tried applying for 0 APR credit cards but can't get approved.
My question is should I just continue paying it down and stop trying to get a refi or personal loan, or keep looking around to find something better? Any suggestion for good lenders for new credit guys like me?
Moral of the story: BUILD CREDIT OR PAY IN CASH!

I did the same thing when my credit score was low. I tried to refinance the vehicle but the lender was being a total ass about it, the loan eventually got upside down and I worked out a deal wtih them to surrender the vehicle and allow them to sell it and put the proceeds of the sale towards my principle and then pay off the difference. Glad I did it. What made it worse is as soon as I bought the 2017 x3 the engine burned up so I had a useless heap of metal I had a 27 percent interest rate on, was forced to buy something else so I got a 328i and thank god BMW of north america good willed me a new N55 motor so I could get it back running and sell it. That was critical, it was also a financially draining experience I learned alot from like you.

[chris55552]

Originally Posted by BMW Guy

In March of this year, I signed what will probably be the most stupid financial decision of my life: A 16211 car loan at a 27% interest rate! I was in need of a car and really wanted a 335i badly. Having no credit at the time, I had a difficult time even securing this loan. Realizing what a fool I was a few days after purchasing it, I came up with enough sense to go back and cancel the $2600 warranty I had purchased leaving me with around $13600 left to pay off. Lucky for me, the previous owner had done most all of the major repairs to it allowing me to focus my money towards paying down my loan. 6 months later, here I am with 7500 left to pay off. I have been doing double payments a month plus putting my college refund I get toward my loan, which I have calculated will have the car paid off by March of next year, turning my 5-year loan into a 1. My credit score has gone up since then but I can't get anyone to Refi with me because of the car's mileage and year. I've checked about every personal loan option there is and can't get anything below 29%. I've also tried applying for 0 APR credit cards but can't get approved.
My question is should I just continue paying it down and stop trying to get a refi or personal loan, or keep looking around to find something better? Any suggestion for good lenders for new credit guys like me?
Moral of the story: BUILD CREDIT OR PAY IN CASH!

I know you dont want to give it up, but you can work out deals with the lender to surrender the vehicle with the agreement of paying off the difference and have them do the paperwork where it doesnt have a huge negative impact on your credit score. It can be done.

[Brandoch]

My wife and I have been together for 19 years now, I'm 37. We have a zero debt policy in our life. If we can't afford to pay for something in cash, we can't buy it. We are unfortunately lucky (car accident settlement) to even buy our house with cash. No matter how poor we were, zero debt. My first 10-12 years of owning a car, they were $500-$2000 cars. Always did my own wrenching; clutch jobs on jack stands, automatic transmission valve body jobs on the ground, etc...
Edit. $18,000 student loan took 5 years to pay off. But we also saved money while doing it too.

[rvphuerta]

Originally Posted by BMW Guy

In March of this year, I signed what will probably be the most stupid financial decision of my life: A 16211 car loan at a 27% interest rate! I was in need of a car and really wanted a 335i badly. Having no credit at the time, I had a difficult time even securing this loan. Realizing what a fool I was a few days after purchasing it, I came up with enough sense to go back and cancel the $2600 warranty I had purchased leaving me with around $13600 left to pay off. Lucky for me, the previous owner had done most all of the major repairs to it allowing me to focus my money towards paying down my loan. 6 months later, here I am with 7500 left to pay off. I have been doing double payments a month plus putting my college refund I get toward my loan, which I have calculated will have the car paid off by March of next year, turning my 5-year loan into a 1. My credit score has gone up since then but I can't get anyone to Refi with me because of the car's mileage and year. I've checked about every personal loan option there is and can't get anything below 29%. I've also tried applying for 0 APR credit cards but can't get approved.
My question is should I just continue paying it down and stop trying to get a refi or personal loan, or keep looking around to find something better? Any suggestion for good lenders for new credit guys like me?
Moral of the story: BUILD CREDIT OR PAY IN CASH!

Just keep paying it down. If you want to keep the car, learn to do the maintenance yourself. I'm surprised no credit has approved you yet.

[BMW Guy]

Originally Posted by rvphuerta

Just keep paying it down. If you want to keep the car, learn to do the maintenance yourself. I'm surprised no credit has approved you yet.

I have learned to do all of the maintenance myself. Most banks won't finance you if your car is more than 10 years old or is over 100k. Also, even though I'm making double payments, the banks only reporting one so one of the guys at a refi company said I'm probably going to need at least 6 payments reported before I get accepted. That probably won't be the case tell late October.

[BMW Guy]

Originally Posted by chris55552

I know you dont want to give it up, but you can work out deals with the lender to surrender the vehicle with the agreement of paying off the difference and have them do the paperwork where it doesnt have a huge negative impact on your credit score. It can be done.

Had I only been able to do the minimum payment a month, I probably would have done something like this. But right now, I'm almost a year ahead on my loan and I will be receiving my school refund in the amount of 2200 in October which will bring my balance to $5000 something, I think the best option would be to just pay it off.

[BMW Guy]

Originally Posted by StradaRedlands

Keep trying to get a credit card with a 0-3% balance transfer option, they're out there. Usually need to pay it off in a year. But you can do it in six months, so that's great. Check your local credit union, they may be a better option than the big nationals. Worst case you pay it off in March and learned a lesson!

Looks like March its going to be. I am definitely going to start focusing more on finding a low-interest credit card.

[StradaRedlands]

Originally Posted by BMW Guy

Looks like March its going to be. I am definitely going to start focusing more on finding a low-interest credit card.

Hopefully it's a good car for you that you can keep a long time! Over 10 years, the cost of ownership even including exorbitant interest will all average out!

[lookalikehuuh]

Keep in mind that applying for a bunch of cards/loans and other things are going to plummet your credit score for a couple of years, it doesn't matter if it is approved or denied it will negatively affect your score until that hard inquiry falls off your credit report. I honestly think you are better off just doubling up your payments like you have been doing for some time. It will also slightly help to improve your credit score a bit.

Also start off with a credit card that designed for lower credit scores like Capital one Quicksilver or similar. You won't get the crazy starting promos, but you can't just expect companies to give you all kinds of promos when it sonds like you are a subprime borrower. There are tools out there that can give you some ok ideas of what cards you might qualify for like Credit Karma (keep in mind there is risk with anything you provide your information to nowadays).

Anyway, I would strongly recommend you stop applying for all these cards or loans and focus on paying down what you currently owe on your car. Focus on applying for 1 solid card that you can actually qualify for and buckle down for a few year. Make purchases with your card, and pay it down. I usually recommend people carry a small balance every other month on a credit card. The reason for this is that it actively shows FICO that you are actually using the card AND paying it off on a regular basis.

This is a good resource to start with: https://www.myfico.com/credit-educat...r-credit-score

keep in mind that credit scores are quite complex but FICO is the market leader in credit score keeping.

[BMW Guy]

Originally Posted by lookalikehuuh

Keep in mind that applying for a bunch of cards/loans and other things are going to plummet your credit score for a couple of years, it doesn't matter if it is approved or denied it will negatively affect your score until that hard inquiry falls off your credit report. I honestly think you are better off just doubling up your payments like you have been doing for some time. It will also slightly help to improve your credit score a bit.

Also start off with a credit card that designed for lower credit scores like Capital one Quicksilver or similar. You won't get the crazy starting promos, but you can't just expect companies to give you all kinds of promos when it sonds like you are a subprime borrower. There are tools out there that can give you some ok ideas of what cards you might qualify for like Credit Karma (keep in mind there is risk with anything you provide your information to nowadays).

Anyway, I would strongly recommend you stop applying for all these cards or loans and focus on paying down what you currently owe on your car. Focus on applying for 1 solid card that you can actually qualify for and buckle down for a few year. Make purchases with your card, and pay it down. I usually recommend people carry a small balance every other month on a credit card. The reason for this is that it actively shows FICO that you are actually using the card AND paying it off on a regular basis.

This is a good resource to start with: https://www.myfico.com/credit-educat...r-credit-score

keep in mind that credit scores are quite complex but FICO is the market leader in credit score keeping.

Most of the places I have applied for are only prequalifications, so they are not impacting my score. I actually have had the Capital One Savor One card for about 6 months and I like it a lot except that the APR is 30%! My credit score is 716 so I don't think that's holding back as much as the fact that I've only used credit for about 6 months.

[lookalikehuuh]

Originally Posted by BMW Guy

Most of the places I have applied for are only prequalifications, so they are not impacting my score. I actually have had the Capital One Savor One card for about 6 months and I like it a lot except that the APR is 30%! My credit score is 716 so I don't think that's holding back as much as the fact that I've only used credit for about 6 months.

Which score is 716? because there isn't just 1 score theres tons of different scores and lenders will use different scores for different situations. Your scores can vary wildly by sometimes 100 points or more. Some scores even have an entirely different range that don't top out at 850. Its wild!

If you sign up for myFICO they will actually give you a ton of insight into that, they have a car buying score, a credit card score (and even different revisions of those scores). For example Capital one might use FICO BankCard 3, then you go to Chase and they will use FICO BankCard 7 which will be different and will qualify you for different levels. Its all needlessly complicated IMHO. Although FICO is usually the market leader some lenders won't even use FICO, some will use the VantageScore from Experian or a different score from another credit bureau.

[BMW Guy]

Originally Posted by lookalikehuuh

Which score is 716? because there isn't just 1 score theres tons of different scores and lenders will use different scores for different situations. Your scores can vary wildly by sometimes 100 points or more. Some scores even have an entirely different range that don't top out at 850. Its wild!

If you sign up for myFICO they will actually give you a ton of insight into that, they have a car buying score, a credit card score (and even different revisions of those scores). For example Capital one might use FICO BankCard 3, then you go to Chase and they will use FICO BankCard 7 which will be different and will qualify you for different levels. Its all needlessly complicated IMHO. Although FICO is usually the market leader some lenders won't even use FICO, some will use the VantageScore from Experian or a different score from another credit bureau.

Its VantageScore. Has anyone had experience with Exeter Finance? I supposedly got approved by them. I'm reading some really bad things about that place so I'm kinda worried.

[lookalikehuuh]

Originally Posted by BMW Guy

Its VantageScore. Has anyone had experience with Exeter Finance? I supposedly got approved by them. I'm reading some really bad things about that place so I'm kinda worried.

IMHO Vantagescore is mostly worthless nowadays. Sign up for a free Fico account so you can get a much better idea of a real score.

Exeter is a "sub prime" auto loan company and is likely to add tons of hidden fees and have pretty high interest rates themselves. Did they give you information on the loan the approved you for? There are a few lawsuits against them for various shady business practices.

[BMW Guy]

Originally Posted by lookalikehuuh

IMHO Vantagescore is mostly worthless nowadays. Sign up for a free Fico account so you can get a much better idea of a real score.

Exeter is a "sub prime" auto loan company and is likely to add tons of hidden fees and have pretty high interest rates themselves. There are a few lawsuits against them for various shady business practices.

Yikes! Glad I checked before signing anything. I just remembered that I had applied to Space Coast Credit Union a couple of months ago but had been turned down at that time. I decided to apply again and I got approved! I'm not sure what the terms are but this bank is pretty common in my area and is what my friend recommended to me when trying to find a refi company so maybe this will be the one.

[lookalikehuuh]

Originally Posted by BMW Guy

Yikes! Glad I checked before signing anything. I just remembered that I had applied to Space Coast Credit Union a couple of months ago but had been turned down at that time. I decided to apply again and I got approved! I'm not sure what the terms are but this bank is pretty common in my area and is what my friend recommended to me when trying to find a refi company so maybe this will be the one.

Nice! as a general rule of thumb local Credit Unions usually have great rates and solid loans.

[chris55552]

Originally Posted by BMW Guy

Looks like March its going to be. I am definitely going to start focusing more on finding a low-interest credit card.

like another member suggested, credit unions are one of the best options. I wouldnt give up just yet on finding someone that could refinance it for you. It wouldnt hurt to call the finance company and play hardball with them and tell them they can either allow you to refinance and make it easier for you to afford your payment to them every month or risk not receiving payments from you due to the car finance situation putting you in a bad financial situation. All they can tell you is no, and do not give up if one person says no, ask to speak to supervisors and give them hard facts. By you showing the initiative and going to them first like a responsible adult should give you some leverage, I know I would definitely respect that. Tell them you have been hurt by inflation as well, see if they have a hardship program. Some banks and lenders do.

[eljay]

First, it's great that you realized this quickly and immediately took corrective actions.
Second, thank you for sharing your story! Not many would and there are others out there who will benefit from seeing, hopefully, before they sign up for a loan like that.

Now, you already got some good financial advice above.
So, let's see the car!

[BMW Guy]

Attachment 3558439Attachment 3558439Attachment 3558439

Originally Posted by eljay

First, it's great that you realized this quickly and immediately took corrective actions.
Second, thank you for sharing your story! Not many would and there are others out there who will benefit from seeing, hopefully, before they sign up for a loan like that.

Now, you already got some good financial advice above.
So, let's see the car!

Alright, here you are




It is a 2011 335i with VRSF downpipe, charge pipe, boost pipe, intercooler, and stage 2+ tune.

[StradaRedlands]

Originally Posted by BMW Guy

Attachment 3558439Attachment 3558439Attachment 3558439

Alright, here you are
Attachment 3558459
Attachment 3558460
Attachment 3558461

It is a 2011 335i with VRSF downpipe, charge pipe, boost pipe, intercooler, and stage 2+ tune.

Nice... a keeper!!!

[BMW Guy]

I got the approval terms for my Refi request from Space Coast Credit Union. I might try and get them to lower the rate even more but for now, here's what they offered: 245 a month for 48 months with gap insurance which I will decline so more like 230 and 220 which is great considering my current loan is 495 a month with a term of 60 months. And guess what? My APR is going to be around 12%! I know this is still high but compared to my old rate of 27%, I'll take this any day. I am now just waiting to hear back from them now. So glad I decided to go back and try to apply again at this place. Thank you guys for the inspiration to not give up trying!