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dalstrs posted:I actually do make enough to afford it and have enough for a 20% down payment. Regardless of that, I still think what is reported as delinquencies should not cause my score to be where it is at. illcendiary hit the nail on the head. You have $60,000 in student loan debt, you have $22,000 in car loan debt, and 27% credit utilization, whatever that means. You sort of sidestepped what that amount is, but am I right in guessing that it is in the neighborhood of $10,000? You can do what you want, and we will still be friends, but I would NOT buy a house with the better part of $100,000 in consumer debt. The fact you saved 20% towards a down payment shows you can save money, so that’s good, but you are not ready now. The fact that your health has only allowed you to be self sufficient for 2 or 3 months after an illness that kept you in the hospital for 3 months is a complicating factor. If I were you, I would take my 20% down payment, set aside 6 months of expenses for an emergency fund and if there is anything left over, pay off as many credit cards as I could. It’s up to you if you wanted to keep the car. If you like it and you have a plan to pay it off quickly, that’s fine, but if you sold it and got a $5000 paid for car, that would speed up the process by at least a year. In the meantime I would apply for nothing, verify that credit reporting mistakes are fixed, pay off your debt, and keep saving money, and keep working on your health issues. If you are never late on anything ever again, your credit will heal. Time heals all credit wounds. If you went forward with a house purchase now, you would get stuck with high rates and while you might be OK, with this much debt it becomes a financial high wire act where it doesn’t take much of a misstep for you to fall.
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May 29, 2012 14:42
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dalstrs posted:I need help trying to figure out why my credit score is so low and if there is any thing I can do about it. The advice to fix your credit score is "wait" - while you don't see why your score would be so low, I'm actually surprised it is as high as the 600s. You have delinquencies reported on 6 lines of credit (those 4 from the single incident the credit agencies won't see as a single incident...they will see 4 separate delinquencies). As you are noticing a trend...the credit agencies are also noticing a trend of late payments and thus lowering your score. 37 inquiries is a very high number, and this is definitely hurting you. You should figure out if those are hard or soft inquiries. It should differentiate between them, and if not you should get a free credit report that does. Hard inquiries are bad for your score, but "a couple" (5 or under) are pretty normal...37 is very high. 18 is high too, for what that's worth. Also, are you carrying balances on any credit cards or is this just the utilization that is reported by statement balance? That's a decently high utilization. Finally, unless your annual income is 100k plus, you have a very high amount of debt to income ratio. People will be hesitant to extend you credit, because in case your income is lowered you will have little ability to pay across all the lines of credit you have debt on (and you have a history of late payments). Credit and financial stuff is personal, so I don't mean to be insulting. You asked for a look at your situation and that is an objective analysis from where I see it. I agree with Zeta and the others that now is probably not a good time for a mortgage. No trick will increase your score in the immediate term...it will be at least 2 years (for the inquiries and possibly some of the late payments to fall off being reported). You can try writing to your lenders to remove the late payments, but they have little incentive to. You did pay late, and they are accurately reporting what happened - lenders don't really care if there was a good reason for you to be late or not, unfortunately.
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May 29, 2012 15:01
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MalConstant, last summer posted:Thanks for the advice. I'll start a thread once I get a reliable source of income, which is hopefully very soon if these interviews work out! He never did make that thread. I guess his interviews didn't work out 
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May 29, 2012 15:33
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Thanks for the responses guys, I'm not insulted at all, I guess these things have a bigger impact on the report than I realized. I don't carry a balance on my credit cards (I only have 3 and never bothered trying to get high limits on them, probably $2k-$3k on them at the time the report was pulled) and I use them for the bonuses (cashback and such) and pay them off at the end of the month. I am going to go ahead and send letters to challenge or try to resolve all the negative stuff and hopefully some might get removed. I will also follow Zeta's advice and work on getting more of the other debt paid off and save more money up.
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May 29, 2012 18:57
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dalstrs posted:I actually do make enough to afford it and have enough for a 20% down payment. Out of curiousity, why would you have enough money to save for a 20% down payment but at the same time cant (wont?) make payments on your student loans?
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May 30, 2012 01:28
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Devious_05 posted:Out of curiousity, why would you have enough money to save for a 20% down payment but at the same time cant (wont?) make payments on your student loans? It wasn't an issue of can't or won't, it is just one less thing I have to remember to take care of while I am recovering.
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May 30, 2012 02:48
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This is not really a question, but I just wanted to say I am so loving glad I started building up an emergency fund earlier this year. My 22-year-old air compressor finally died this week and I have to replace the whole system. The best quote I got was for $3200, my other option was $4300 for a slightly more efficient system but I'm going to use what I would have paid for the more expensive one to add insulation to the house. It really sucks that this happened, but it feels great to have already planned this expense and have the money in the bank to cover it. I'm also able to support a local business, so that feels pretty awesome too. 
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May 30, 2012 02:53
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canyoneer posted:There could be two things going on here, and both are scummy: There are some auto loans that capitalize the entire interest amount over the life and divide up the payments from the very beginning. I forgot the name of the loan, but it's semi-common in scummy auto loans. There is effectively no interest you can pay off early, it's already been added to the principle and divided up.
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May 30, 2012 04:34
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I'm just about to start trying investing on my own for the first time, and having a hell of a time picking which direction to go in. Every route I've looked in looks like it might be good, or it might just loose all my money. Some background: I'm a 24 year old relatively recent university graduate (June 2011), Making around $60k/y, Maxing out my 401k and IRA, (edit: the 401k is mostly index funds, and the IRA is mostly mutual funds) 11k/y rent Other expenses averaged to around 6k/y. After taxes I have about 15k/y left for saving/investing. I have 21k in savings sitting around doing nothing making a pitiful 0.07% annual interest. I have no debt. I would like to take probably 15k of my savings and invest it in something, but I cant decide what. I'm young and have no specific invest goals like a house. I feel like I can stomach a large amount of risk since I have my 401k and IRA going. I don't want to do something like day trading where you need to be constantly monitoring things, ideally I'd like something I cant look at once or twice a week and make changes to. After reading through Investopedia for the better part of the day I get the impression that a mix of equities, some stable dividend payers, and some moderately growing companies would be most what I'm looking for, but I'm very open to suggestion.
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May 30, 2012 20:12
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Xenoborg posted:I'm just about to start trying investing on my own for the first time, and having a hell of a time picking which direction to go in. Every route I've looked in looks like it might be good, or it might just loose all my money. The investing thread might be better for this, but really it is probably the same people. Personally, I have like $11k in investments outside of my Roth IRA. I put $9k in Vanguard's total stock market ETF and 1k each in intermediate government & corporate bond funds. I have no real reason for having done it that way and just doing the total stock market fund would probably have been fine. I asked in the other thread about diversification and stuff once and the answer was "You do not really have enough money to even need to worry about that." So uh, there you go. A really hands off approach to consider.
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May 30, 2012 22:18
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Blow and hookers  But I agree. I'm in the same situation you are and I think beyond putting money into SOMEthing right now, there's not really a need to worry about all that junk. Put your money into some index funds with low expense ratios, take your time, read some books, learn about stuff, don't sweat about the markets because either you make it up in the long term (especially because you're investing at 24) or the alternative is, you start hoarding guns because the world is all 
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May 30, 2012 23:44
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I am wondering how something I'm planning on doing will affect my credit score, or if it would at all. I just got a major spending limit increase (like quadrupled) on my credit card. This is because I'm going from being a student to an employee. But my employer is a bank and I plan on switching all of my banking needs (inc. cards) to them over the next few weeks. That includes closing my credit card with the old bank. Will my credit rating take a hit if I cancel the card? Especially considering I plan to max it out and repay it just before canceling.
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May 31, 2012 07:36
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tolerabletariff posted:I am wondering how something I'm planning on doing will affect my credit score, or if it would at all. I just got a major spending limit increase (like quadrupled) on my credit card. This is because I'm going from being a student to an employee. But my employer is a bank and I plan on switching all of my banking needs (inc. cards) to them over the next few weeks. That includes closing my credit card with the old bank. Will my credit rating take a hit if I cancel the card? Especially considering I plan to max it out and repay it just before canceling. Does the card have an annual fee? If not, don't cancel it (or convert to a no annual fee version of the same card). Unless your new employer has some sort of banking gestapo that ensures compliance, there's no reason to cancel this card as it will only help your score to keep it open. Closing it will hurt it. Not much if you're a student, so I assume the account's only been open a few years, but it will.
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May 31, 2012 14:02
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Xenoborg posted:I would like to take probably 15k of my savings and invest it in something, but I cant decide what. I'm young and have no specific invest goals like a house. I feel like I can stomach a large amount of risk since I have my 401k and IRA going. I don't want to do something like day trading where you need to be constantly monitoring things, ideally I'd like something I cant look at once or twice a week and make changes to. If you wanted to do this just about the only meaningful decision is "what is my target mix of equities / bonds / cash / etc, based on my tolerance for risk", then you rebalance as necessary every 6 months or so. You can even cheat and pick a "target retirement" fund that'll make this choice for you. For advanced players (since you'll get bored and feel like you absolutely have to do something), invest in bonds and dividend-heavy funds in your 401k so you don't pay income tax on those gains, and balance your non-401k account to offset it and give you the overall target mix that you're after. It's just that easy and you'll come out ahead of 99%+ of day traders. Ulf fucked around with this message at 22:10 on May 31, 2012 |
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May 31, 2012 22:07
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Solved.
PRADA SLUT fucked around with this message at 05:08 on Jun 1, 2012 |
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Jun 1, 2012 05:01
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PRADA SLUT posted:Solved. You sound pretty sure, maybe you could share your knowledge with us?
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Jun 1, 2012 14:54
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Xenoborg posted:Some background: Do you not spend any money on anything discretionary? You only spend 6k a year on "everything else"? Just curious how you manage to pay ~900 a month in rent, max your roth and 401k (16.5k a year?), and still have another 15k a year to invest.
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Jun 1, 2012 15:27
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tolerabletariff posted:I am wondering how something I'm planning on doing will affect my credit score, or if it would at all. I just got a major spending limit increase (like quadrupled) on my credit card. This is because I'm going from being a student to an employee. But my employer is a bank and I plan on switching all of my banking needs (inc. cards) to them over the next few weeks. That includes closing my credit card with the old bank. Will my credit rating take a hit if I cancel the card? Especially considering I plan to max it out and repay it just before canceling. I’m not one who recommends keeping open accounts that you will never use for the sake of credit score. That said, especially if you are going to be working for a bank, I would keep it open just to have something separate from your job. I work for a credit union so I’m in the same boat. Not like anyone is snooping, but if you decide to subscribe to a gay sex site, do they really need to know? 
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Jun 1, 2012 15:36
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On this theme, I pulled my annual credit report and found a credit card I had used basically for a balance transfer that I paid off in 09 had been closed last month. I can live with that, heck, if it means I won't be getting and envelope of unsolicited checks each month, then great. What was odd is the bureau is listing the account as closed the the request of customer, which isn't the case. What gives?
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Jun 1, 2012 16:19
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jfballin posted:On this theme, I pulled my annual credit report and found a credit card I had used basically for a balance transfer that I paid off in 09 had been closed last month. I can live with that, heck, if it means I won't be getting and envelope of unsolicited checks each month, then great. What was odd is the bureau is listing the account as closed the the request of customer, which isn't the case. What gives?
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Jun 1, 2012 16:26
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jfballin posted:On this theme, I pulled my annual credit report and found a credit card I had used basically for a balance transfer that I paid off in 09 had been closed last month. I can live with that, heck, if it means I won't be getting and envelope of unsolicited checks each month, then great. What was odd is the bureau is listing the account as closed the the request of customer, which isn't the case. What gives? It sort of was closed at your request, kind of. The real reason it was closed was due to inactivity. But they had to pick either closed at consumer request, or grantor request and it looks better when the consumer closes an account. Plus you didn't do anything wrong by not using it, so it would be unfair for them to report that it was at their request.
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Jun 1, 2012 16:45
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Dreadite posted:Do you not spend any money on anything discretionary? You only spend 6k a year on "everything else"? Just curious how you manage to pay ~900 a month in rent, max your roth and 401k (16.5k a year?), and still have another 15k a year to invest. All numbers pretty round, I don't keep a precise track of my spending as I consider myself pretty frugal and don't have access to my records here at work: 60k/y Income 16.5k 401k pre tax 2k HSA + health insurance pre tax 4k taxes (a guess based on my withholding from the IRS worksheet, had no taxable income in 2011 despite working 6 months due to tuition and carry forward loss deductions) 5k IRA 11k rent (includes internet, some food, utilities, may be my parents house) 1k auto ins it gets increasingly guessy after those ~800 gas ~600 average car upkeep ~2k food/alcohol that I buy ~3k fun This leaves just about 15k, its probably not exactly that, but I can't imagine its more than 2k off, unless I'm missing something major. I do know that I'm pumped that I'm able to save 50-60% of my income. Ulf posted:Sounds like you may want to put the money into one or more low-cost index funds and just leave it for a few decades. Instead of once or twice a week, you don't need to look at it more than once or twice a year. I was intending to post this is the investment thread, but discussion continued here, so I figure this is as good as there. Assets: No debt 21k sitting around doing nothing in a BoA savings account making a pitiful 0.07% annual interest 17.5k (~half maxed for 2012) in my 401k split as follows: ----- 20% VANGUARD TOTAL BOND MKT INDEX ----- 20% VANGUARD INDEX 500 ----- 40% FIDELITY SPARTAN EXT MKT ADV ----- 20% VANGUARD TOTAL INTNL SIGNAL 9.5K (maxed for 2012) in my Roth IRA with Wells Fargo split as follows: ----- 33% AMCAP FUNDS CLASS A ----- 33% EUROPACIFIC GROWTH FD A ----- 33% SMALLCAP WORLD FUND CL A 21K in a Wells Fargo account from my father (actually 42k, split with sister) ----- 80% GROWTH FUND AMERICA CL C ----- 20% in common stocks of Coca Cola, PepsiCo, Hershey, Disney, Intel, GE, and Wal-Mart (that’s what you get when you tell your 10 year old kids to pick some stocks, guess which were mine and which were my little sisters) So I have a few specific questions: 1) What should I do with the 21k I have lying fallow in savings, and the roughly 15k a year I’ll be adding to it? Mostly solved, I’m liking the idea of putting it into more (probably vanguard) index funds, and especially like Ulf’s idea of putting the high risk/reward ones in my 401k, moving around the existing funds I think would be more difficult. 2) Is my current portfolio any good? It’s made up mostly of what amounts to blind guesses as well as sticking with whatever institutions I already had accounts with because my parents used them when I was younger. I can change the split of new money going into the 401k easily. 3) Should I move what I keep in savings to something with a better interest rate? I’ve seen people mentioning interest rates of 5% or higher which seems insane for a savings account. Do these really exist? 4) Automatic vs manual investing I’m thinking about doing 10k/52 or 10k/12 automatic investments as opposed to big amounts once or twice a year. Would this result in more transaction fees? I’m guessing it would. 4) Is there any reason it would be a stupid idea to put 5k into the SpaceX IPO when it happens in a year or so? Xenoborg fucked around with this message at 17:09 on Jun 1, 2012 |
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Jun 1, 2012 16:48
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Also while there is a discuss on credit reports going on, I thought of another question I had: I got my equifax report a few months ago just to check it out for the first time and saw this: Length of Credit History 32 Years, 5 Months Average Account Age 17 Years, 7 Months Oldest Account EXXON/MOBIL/CBNA (Opened 10/1979) Since I'm 24 this confused me a bit until I realized that in back in high school my parents put me as a cardholder on their Exxon Mobil gas card, which has been an active account since the late 70s. I don't use the card anymore, but they still do. I know that those three statistics above contribute in some way toward my credit score. So is my score inflated by these, or do they know a 24 year old doesn't actually have 32 years of credit history?
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Jun 1, 2012 16:55
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Xenoborg posted:Also while there is a discuss on credit reports going on, I thought of another question I had: Lol. Just for fun, look at your Experian and Transunion reports too and see what they say. They might not all report that old account in exactly the same way. It's definitely not hurting you either way, so I wouldn't worry about "inflation" in your score. Even if it went away, you'd still be in fine shape.
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Jun 1, 2012 17:13
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Xenoborg posted:Also while there is a discuss on credit reports going on, I thought of another question I had: My father's name is extremely similar to mine (difference between IV and V) and our credit is pretty entwined. According to my report at one point, I was a 26 year old with 30+ years of credit history with two cars, a house (that they bought before I was born), two jobs, and lived in Lousiana (never have lived outside of Texas). He also has one of my credit cards on his account and apparently works where I do.
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Jun 1, 2012 17:34
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Xenoborg posted:
It all depends on what you plan to use it for. But, at a minimum, I'd move that poo poo over to ING or somewhere with SLIGHTLY better rates than 0.07%. Personally I keep some liquidity in my savings account, then all my additional monies go into medium-term bond funds like PTTDX or DLTNX. You can achieve similar using the bond funds at Vanguard and pay very little in fees & transaction costs. This money covers larger consumer expenses (think cars, vacations) and any overages in my monthly budget, it isn't retirement or investment savings. Gotta match your investment to your objectives, not the other way around!
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Jun 1, 2012 21:59
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So I finally have some cash flow going beyond just basic living expenses, which is super exciting. Plus, there's a possibility of a nice little worker's comp settlement coming through in a couple months. (I'm not banking on it, but if it does happen I want to have a plan ready.) I've been doing some research, but I've never had to manage a significant amount of money for myself before so I want to make sure I'm attacking this right. So far, my plan for my extra cash is to get my $1000 emergency savings set up, pay off credit cards, and then...I'm not sure. We have no other debts except $8,063.49 on a car loan with 3.74% interest, so I feel like it might make more sense to keep paying the minimum ($283.24) and focus instead on building up our emergency savings - the lack of which, by the way, is how we ended up with all our credit card debt in the first place. But I don't know if that's wise, or if I should maybe split the difference (and if I split, how much on each?). Also - I've been reading the long-term investment thread, but I feel like this question is too basic for over there. I have self-employment income and I want to set up some kind of retirement savings/tax shelter. Everybody says Vanguard, but is there any reason not to go through ING? I already have a ShareBuilder account with them so it would be easy, and it seems like they work with Vanguard. Plus, any money I shove into ShareBuilder is in a money market account until I decide what I actually want to do with it. So it all seems really easy - unless I'm missing something.
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Jun 2, 2012 03:15
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Vanguard has very low expenses with a good reputation for fund management. While I've used Sharebuilder, AFAIK they don't have funds they manage. It is just an interface through which you can buy stock. If you want to actively buy/sell single stock, ING would be fine (though you're far more likely to make less money than an index fund on average as a small, single investor). If you're more interested in larger packages, Vanguard would be the way to go. Additionally, you need to remember that for every trade you complete in sharebuilder you'll get hit with the $10 trade fee. The expenses vanguard charges (% of total assets invested) is built in, professionally managed, and is at a much better rate due to the scale of their funds. All IMO, of course.
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Jun 2, 2012 03:46
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This is why I chose Vanguard. That and the low expense ratio, low/no fees (for what I do anyway which is extremely hands off). After the poo poo that went down in 2008 it seemed really appealing to stick with a financial company that doesn't operate with profit as their single, all-encompassing focus without regard to the well-being of the investors. ING, by contrast, is owned by CapitalOne, which is a publicly-traded company that mixes banking and investment. Whatever their results, I wouldn't use them for investing because I don't think they have investors' best interests in mind. Vanguard does the Money Market account for holding unallocated cash thing too. As for your other questions, $1000 is suggested as an emergency fund because it's a small goal that a lot of Americans don't even have. It's not meant to be a stopping point, though. Ideally your emergency fund should be able to support you/your household for 3-9 months of expenses (Shoot for 1, then 3, then 6, then see if you want to do 9), should someone lose a job or should another crisis occur. Keep building that poo poo up  I didn't notice the bit about the car loan before. Do work on getting an emergency fund built up, but pay more than the minimum if you can at the same time. I think that should be a higher priority than finding an investment to park your extra earnings in. It's a lower interest rate than most, but personally I'd rather be earning less on my money, but owing less on my debts, than earning a little more on savings while accruing more on the debt. The growth rate for your investments might be good, but it also might tank, whereas your auto loan will probably stay the same rate whether or not wall street shits its pants again.
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Jun 2, 2012 14:10
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Thanks guys! I am definitely into the idea of avoiding for-profit financial institutions (our credit union is how we got our car loan refinanced at that awesome rate, incidentally). Is there any compelling reason to keep my ShareBuilder account open, then? I got it originally as a part of some promotional deal where you get $50 if you sign up, but I guess I might as well close it if I'm going to go through Vanguard.
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Jun 2, 2012 18:23
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Eggplant Wizard posted:As for your other questions, $1000 is suggested as an emergency fund because it's a small goal that a lot of Americans don't even have. It's not meant to be a stopping point, though. Ideally your emergency fund should be able to support you/your household for 3-9 months of expenses (Shoot for 1, then 3, then 6, then see if you want to do 9), should someone lose a job or should another crisis occur. Keep building that poo poo up And when you get to 3-6 months, it's amazing how much less stressed you are about money. Speeding ticket? Car broke down? Unexpected huge gas bill? Who cares, you have the money to cover it and will work hard to replenish the emergency fund back to where it needs to be. My wife and I take it just a little bit further and have a couple of additional emergency savings pots, specifically for a couple of likely major problems like a huge car repair bill, hvac in the house dying (15+ years old...), or a doctor/vet visit. While this is a little bit overkill beyond the 6 months of expenses, this gives us the peace of mind that we can weather a whole lot of financial turbulence if needed. Sparta posted:card's annual fee 
devmd01 fucked around with this message at 01:44 on Jun 4, 2012 |
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Jun 3, 2012 14:37
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A few years back I was dumb and built up a bunch of CC debt, forgot to pay a couple times on time. My cscore is around 640 right now. I have recently come in to some money so I immediately paid off all debts. I've set everything up to automatically pull monthly payments if there is a balance so I don't miss any payments (like if a card's annual fee triggers and I don't realize and don't pay because I think I dont owe anything *this just happened*). I apparently have 1 delinquency, but I have no idea what it is (I have a small hunch it was for a cable company bill that I don't believe I owe, as it was for my apartment a few months after I moved from the apartment). With zero debt, and a asmall amount of money, how do I repair my credit? Are these credit repair agencies any good?
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Jun 4, 2012 00:46
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Sparta posted:With zero debt, and a asmall amount of money, how do I repair my credit? Are these credit repair agencies any good? You wait, and no, they aren't. There is no legitimate way to "repair" one's credit other than time. Pay all your bills on time, auto-pay, etc and your score will bounce back over time. Pull your scores and make sure that everything is there that's supposed to be there, and you don't have any other weirdness. Negative reports remain reported for 7 years, so if this was a few years ago you only have a few years left to go. Credit repair agencies usually just tell you to dispute information on your report (negatives usually). You might be able to get something taken off, but it would be if the credit agency isn't paying attention or fails to check, because they aren't supposed to do that for accurate information. Best case, your score goes up a few points which would happen eventually anyways. Worst case, you lose the money you paid and nothing changes. And get cards with no annual fees.
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Jun 4, 2012 03:36
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I've been on the fence about a car purchase. I never thought I'd buy new and it runs counter intuitive to every frugal bone in my body but now I am thinking about it. We need a second car so I can commute to work which is about 55 miles round trip. At first my gut feeling was to go with used 2005ish econobox with good MPG. Looking around cars that are around this year with 100k miles are going for about $9,000. If they include luxuries such as power windows/key remote usually a bit closer to $10k. After a day of disheartening used car searching we were at a Hyundai dealer and I got in a new Accent. MSRP is about $17,500 for the SE trim which has all of the decent options. The car costs about $8,000 more, but with the warranty it basically means I will only be paying for routine maintenance for the next five years (I figure this is worth $1000-$2000). Additionally it has slightly better gas mileage I guess due to improved technology. Obviously the higher cost is depreciation but with how little 2-3 years old Hyundais are selling for even this doesn't seem terrible. For something I'll be in ~250 miles a week, it would be nice to be much more comfortable. After taking into account reduced amount spent on maintenance and the fact that even if I bought a used car it would depreciate some, it looks like I'd be paying an extra ~$4000 for a vastly better experience. Am I crazy for thinking this might be the best option?
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Jun 4, 2012 06:31
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Some thoughts, not that it simplifies it: 1) You don't seem to include the 7 years' worth of wear already on these 100k cars you're considering. The lower cost isn't just off-the-lot depreciation, it's car life. 1/3 of a car's expected lifespan has to have a value, as when you buy a car it's a huge factor in its cost to you over time, especially if you're the type to keep driving it till it's in throwaway condition. There are two types of depreciation differentiating new and used cars- the depreciation you get when it's driven off the lot, and the depreciation of mileage. The former is something you always want to avoid taking as a buyer (and why buying "new" is generally considered a waste of money) but the latter is more of a judgement call. The ideal is to get a car that's already taken the off-the-lot depreciation (they can't call it new) but is so new that it hasn't had time to have the poo poo beaten out of it, and is most likely being sold due to buyer misfortune/bad finances. If you can't find that or the difference between these almost-new and new cars is negligible, buying new ceases to be the terrible idea it's traditionally been. 2) There's also the value of knowing a car was serviced and handled well throughout its life, which you only get if you A) buy new or B) buy direct from a seller that you (think you) have the measure of. You will never get this from a used car lot and only some used personal sellers ("my grandma died and barely used this car"). 3) I'm assuming you put in more than a day car searching and just mean you had a bad one, but bear in mind that used car searches favor patience big time. Like 6 months of religiously watching craigslist and classifieds for that rare person who doesn't have any idea what their car's worth. 4) You aren't crazy and the used car market is completely hosed right now from what I've seen lately. Maybe it's just my location, but last few years I see prices on cars from the late 80's and 90's that are higher than you'd have paid for those exact same cars 10 years ago. All my life I've driven $700-$1400 cars and sworn by driving them into the ground, but the used market is so dire lately that my plan is to squeeze another 2 years out of my current shitbox while saving at least 8k to put down on a car loan for an almost new one when it finally gives up the ghost. I'm not about to drop the kind of money people are asking for cars with a decade on them right now. Remy Marathe fucked around with this message at 00:09 on Jun 5, 2012 |
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Jun 4, 2012 07:26
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alreadybeen posted:I've been on the fence about a car purchase. I never thought I'd buy new and it runs counter intuitive to every frugal bone in my body but now I am thinking about it. Buy a vehicle from a dealership that was surrendered after a 1 year lease. I did this with my Hyundai, and instead of paying 100% for a 2011 Elantra Touring GL, I paid 70% for a 2010 Elantra Touring GL with 22000km on it -- it essentially was a new car that didn't have a new car price tag.
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Jun 4, 2012 17:16
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Fraternite posted:Buy a vehicle from a dealership that was surrendered after a 1 year lease. I attempted this at first when I was looking and it seemed everyone was pricing closer to 90-95% for that type of deal. It was insane.
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Jun 4, 2012 17:19
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LorneReams posted:I attempted this at first when I was looking and it seemed everyone was pricing closer to 90-95% for that type of deal. It was insane. I had to go in twice, but the second time I walked out with my car. Maybe I did everything right and got lucky; I don't know. But I went in at the end of the month (salespeople have quotas to meet to hit bonuses and if they haven't moved enough vehicles they'll be motivated to sell cheaper), I had cash to pay that day, and I made one take-it-or-leave-it offer price that they left the first time but took the second time. All I can say is that pricing on used vehicles is extremely flexible and that the asking price was a fantasy they used to try and get me to pay more after negotiation. Don't get psyched out by a high asking price -- make an offer, be firm, and walk away when they balk. And keep shopping, too. Sooner or later, I bet you'll find someone motivated to sell you a vehicle. We both know that an asking price 90-95% of a new car is bullshit, so don't take it seriously.
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Jun 4, 2012 17:27
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Just wanted to throw in my quick two cents. In addition to the depreciation discussion Remy put out there: inexpensive cars depreciate less than luxury cars. Think about it: a hyundai sedan for 18k can only move so far down. The amount it does is pretty much chump change. A 60k ford f250 lariat has a LOT of room to depreciate, and will. This with the knowledge of how a car has been maintained, increased gas mileage, etc is why my wife and I decided to buy her a new Civic when the time came. I think buying a new car for sub $25k is completely reasonable. A new Mercedes? Think about used options a little bit longer...
Dead Pressed fucked around with this message at 23:16 on Jun 4, 2012 |
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Jun 4, 2012 23:08
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| # ? May 9, 2024 21:32 |
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Has anyone had any experience using CreditKarma? I'm sure more than a few people here use it, and from what I've found it seems to be legit and well-reviewed, but when it asked me for my full SSN that seemed like a pretty big red flag...
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Jun 5, 2012 00:28
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