Need advice: Finance/ Try to fix car?
July 27th, 2008 | by admin |southernsweetie asked:
I need SERIOUS advice, I have a ‘03 chevy malibu, has @ 119 K miles, 1) having mechanical problems which will cost about 2thousand to fix, 2) Loan interest is really high (% 25 + car has ON TIME system device), 3) I have NO cosigner, credit score is 537, I have never been late w/ payments, I’ve always been responsible w/ paying bills, though score is not getting higher..
I am still working on establishing/building credit is there a company who can finance me? Should I take chances and keep paying this car note + repair ,I was advised to ‘voluntary rep’- b/c car was lemon, And just take my available 2-3k to put down on a new car, any chance I can still get financing on a new/used/lease? help me!?? I want to lower the monthly payments especially, just want a reliable vehicle, this is stressing me out ( I work and go to school, i live in Baton Rouge- public transportation is a joke ) !!
I need SERIOUS advice, I have a ‘03 chevy malibu, has @ 119 K miles, 1) having mechanical problems which will cost about 2thousand to fix, 2) Loan interest is really high (% 25 + car has ON TIME system device), 3) I have NO cosigner, credit score is 537, I have never been late w/ payments, I’ve always been responsible w/ paying bills, though score is not getting higher..
I am still working on establishing/building credit is there a company who can finance me? Should I take chances and keep paying this car note + repair ,I was advised to ‘voluntary rep’- b/c car was lemon, And just take my available 2-3k to put down on a new car, any chance I can still get financing on a new/used/lease? help me!?? I want to lower the monthly payments especially, just want a reliable vehicle, this is stressing me out ( I work and go to school, i live in Baton Rouge- public transportation is a joke ) !!
3 Responses to “Need advice: Finance/ Try to fix car?”
By saved_astronaut on Jul 31, 2008 | Reply
the best thing i can think 2 offer u is 2 have a backup car awaiting u so u can park yer main 1 til u can save yer own $$$ 2 fix it w/o borrowing $$$. the best thing is 2 also buy cars off private owners who happen 2 b selling; this is what i did, & i have 2 very nice cars so either 1 can b a backup. when they’re not backups, i split my transport loads between the cars, so i have an in-town & an outta town/school/work car.
By Jeffrey on Aug 1, 2008 | Reply
Do not “voluntary rep” the car because it will be just as bad as a repo on your credit score.
I would grit my teeth and pay to have it repaired. Any car you could get with $2000 or $3000 is probably going to end up costing you more than just paying for your current car’s repairs. New financing would just be adding more overall debt to your situation, which is not a good idea right now.
Sometimes, if you are really, really nice to them, the repair shop will let you open an account and stretch out a few payments to cover the entire bill.
On a slightly different note: if you pay all of your bills on time there is no reason for your FICO score to be 537. You need to pull your free credit reports from annualcreditreport.com and pay for your FICO scores from MyFico.com and find out why your score is so low.
By ? on Aug 1, 2008 | Reply
Probably you should get a second car, it’s always good to have two cars! Just look for some cheap old, but reliable cars… try Chevy Metro for instance… I got one with manual transmission just to exercise for Europe, for only 1200 buck… I bought it over a year ago and still runs perfectly!