1. How long does an inquiry reduce your FICO score? Is it just for a few months after it is pulled or for the entire 2 years that it is reported on your profile? 2. Is it different for unsecured credit (i.e. credit card) vs. secured credit (car loans and mortgages)??? 3. Also , for FICO purposes, do several car loan inquiries within a 30 day period greated treated as ONE pull the same as in shopping for a mortgage? Legally a car loan is a (chattel) mortgage so I would assume that may be the case but am not sure. My FICO scores as are follows: TU - 690 EQ - 722 EX - 685 They result from 3 credit card trade lines at least 4 years old in good standing with no late payments and my income is more than adequate. I applied for an Infiniti auto loan and was denied because of 'insufficient credit history' meaning that I have never had a car loan before. That was with a 10% down payment. From what I am told, that seems to be a "Catch 22" situation with Infiniti, BMW and Mercedes. Even with good credit if you don't show a history of a previous car loan they want you to earn your stripes somewhere else first. I am sure Ford or GMC would give me a loan to build a track record but want to avoid them if possible. Any suggestions on how to deal with this and not using a co-signer other than increasing the down payment to 20 or 25% if not higher? Thanks,
From MyFICO.com: http://www.myfico.com/CreditEducation/CreditInquiries.aspx?fire=5 "What to know about "rate shopping." Looking for a mortgage or an auto loan may cause multiple lenders to request your credit report, even though you�re only looking for one loan. To compensate for this, the score counts multiple auto or mortgage inquiries in any 14-day period as just one inquiry. In addition, the score ignores all mortgage and auto inquiries made in the 30 days prior to scoring. So if you find a loan within 30 days, the inquiries won't affect your score while you're rate shopping. "
You don't have to finance thru the dealer. You should also consider a credit union, or bank. If you don't want to pay 20% or 25%, do you really need an Infiniti, BMW, or Mercedes? Cars are not investments, they are depreciating assets. Your return on investment on any car is negative, and on new cars, particularly expensive ones, is the most negative. Leveraging a negative return investment just increases the loss.
Re: "luxury auto" financing, they are usually just FICO score driven. I have a Mercedes financed through Mercedes Benz, and the score was the only thing. They are looking for high scores across the board (of course credit "mix" is part of your FICO score). Yes I did have an auto loan on my CRs, but it was only open for three months, I paid it off within that time. But, you should consider the previous advice, if you are having this kind of challenge, perhaps going after the high line autos is going to be a burden. There are a lot of good vehicles out there, and there is no shame in driving something with no payments!
Good points to consider and thanks for the feedback. I started looking at BMW, Medcedes and Infiniti because of the reputation and the service from start to finish seems better. I do qualify with Ford and GM but it's been a chore getting a salesperson who knows the product and is willing to return a call in less than 3 or 4 days. They appear to be burnt out grubs that just don't care if they make a sale or not. I'm not a big fan of chasing someone to take my hard earned cash, especially on a big purchase like an auto. Yes, let me rethink this whole idea. There is no rush.
