Just thought I'd let everyone know that I spoke with a Lexus F&I guy today and Lexus Financing requires a 700+ FICO for their A Tier financing (currently offering 1.9%). Kirk
Actually, this is an interesting idea. I've always wanted to know more about Tier differentiation, and what scores put you into which tier, etc. I know it's much more complicated than just a FICO score, but let's face it, FICO is a big part of it. Unless you plan to walk into a new car dealership with the entire purchase price as cash in hand, your credit should be ready to be scrutinized. (I know salary, downpayment, and debt-to-income are the other primary factors.) How about expanding this thread to include various bits of info from folks who know a thing or two about what car dealership requires for which Tier, etc? I'm sure it'll be a broad list, but it should be interesting. Anybody out there who works for a dealership that can provide some of that interesting information? (Sorry... I can't really contribute, as I've always been Tier D or E. But I'm working to fix that ;-)
My hubby recently went through BMW Financial Services for financing, which offers similar tier 1 rates as Lexus Financial. Prior to the purchase, he was told by many people(friends&message boards) that he'd prob need a 700+ FICO score to get BMW's Tier 1 rate of 2.9%. The end to this story is that BMW Financial pulled only Equifax and he was approved for the 2.9% with a 673 beacon score. Which makes me think that maybe your score isn't the only significant factor, perhaps income and maybe overall debt to income ratio. Or maybe they are just more lenient in these times...??? If it helps you at all, his annual income is 75K, our debt is fairly low, no cc balance, just a student loan & rent. He also had lates(from 5 years ago) on his students loan TLs before consolidation and he was approved even with those lates on his CR. It was a nice surprise. Hope it works out for you.
