According to my Providian Visa credit card web site my score is 716.

Is this credit score high enough to qualify to buy a new Ford E-350 on credit?

I have my doubts because I have a bankruptcy in 2001.

 

According to my Providian Visa credit card web site my score is 716.
Is this credit score high enough to qualify to buy a new Ford E-350 on credit? I have my doubts because I have a bankruptcy in 2001.

There's a lender for almost any buyer. BTW- 716 isn't that bad. I mean, it's not a beacon buy (automatic approval), but it's not an automatic turndown either. You're in better shape with a BK in '01 than if you were loaded with debt and a lot of 30-60-90 day late dings on your bureau. I'd talk to a dealer or two and see what they think. My gut is that's doable.

 

I wouldn't trust any credit score info unless it is directly from the 3 bureaus themselves and YOU were the one who obtained it.

You can get a tri-bureau report on yourself for around $40. In some states they are free to you each year . (MA comes to mind...)

Each bureau has different scores. One may give you a 716 and another 585. Most creditors take the middle score.

My advice; get a copy of your own credit report via the three bureaus. Well worth the cost.

 

You had a bankruptcy in 2001 and you want to buy a E-350 on credit? <You're an ASSet to society.>

 

Taxidriver; A score of 716 is very good , BUT ... I don't think you want to go out and finance something as costly as a E350 ! You have a clean slate after you bankruptcy and you don't want to end up in the same situation in a few years ! My advise ? Don't buy ANYTHING on credit and cut up all but one of your credit cards and use it for emergencies only ! We own rental property and have purchased a couple of homes pre-foreclosure . One of these families had filed bankruptcy and moved to a new home , bought a new car and had all new funiture ! I could see they had learned nothing from their ordeal and would repeat it ! So buy an older van you can pay cash for and stick some money away each week , then in a year or so you will be able to buy a newer van with out going into debt . The trouble is everyone wants it now and credit is too easy to get !

 

I don't put a lot of faith into anything Providian provides. For all we know that "credit score" on their site could be a number that Providian made up. Check the fine print to find out which bureau that score came from, or if it's an average of all three.

FWIW, I had enough of Providian's dead tree spam for rip-off credit cards and finally wrote them a nastygram telling them to quit sending me offers via postal mail.

 

First off guys layoff the cracks about bankruptcy. You have no idea why he had to do it and second of all if you have not been there you have no room to talk. There are many reason to declare bankruptcy and most have to do with protecting assits. The problem is in most cases bankruptcy will only let you protect one vehicle and in any family with 2 wage earners or if you own a business this does not work.

2 things almost always require a loan now days, buying a house and buying a car. For you who don't buy new or can afford to pay cash for everything congradulations. Yes I bought a new vehicle 1 month after my bankruptcy and my score was only 585. This was a zero percent interest loan on top of that. It is a great way to rebuild your credit.

 

i would try to get into a credit union and finance threw them i got all my financing done threw mine except the house really low intrest rates with a beacon lower then yours and some bad stuff on my credit from my early years.

 

Excellent post Terry!

 

Thanks for the input and advice people.

First off I consider myself a financially responsible person. I have bought a 1993 E-350 and a 1997 E-350 on credit and made every payment on time and even paid them both off early. I am not in debt now. I don't buy anything i can't afford.

The bankruptcy occured after a long, bitter, and costly divorce to a very vengeful now ex-wife. She had five credit cards and purposely maxed them out on jewlery and cash advances. I was awarded the house and the debts of the marriage. While working (driving) my *** off trying to repay these debts I was stricken with pnemonia. There is no hospital locally so I had to be medivaced to Anchorage. Six days in the hospital plus medivac came to $36,000. Doctors advice was to take it easy and not work so much. It would take several months to fully recover. That was the straw that broke this camels back. I was $90,000 in debt and driving one taxi in rural Alaska... Thank god for the bankruptcy laws. You never know, it could happen to you.


According to Providian the source ot my credit score is TransUnion.

"FICO® Credit Score
Last updated: Jan 2005
Source: TransUnion"

Currently my taxi company consists of a 1989 Ford E-150 with 90,000 miles and a 1997 E-350 with 230,000 miles. The repair/mechanics/headaches bills come to around $500 a month (sometimes more like this month) then there is the down time in the shop and waiting for parts.

Last week I had the radiator replaced in the 1997. This week I'm having the windshield and all the weathersrtipping replaced in the 1989 because it has started to leak everywhere. It would be much better to pay $500 a month for a new vehicle then to Fix Or Repair Daily. A good quality used vehicle is an option but not easy to find here in Alaska.

tmyers

""Yes I bought a new vehicle 1 month after my bankruptcy and my score was only 585. This was a zero percent interest loan on top of that. It is a great way to rebuild your credit.""

Where did you find this loan?

 

Perhaps this will help you. I work for a Mortgage company and see many credit profiles all the time. Some good points by Terry as for why people fall into it. Well here are some things you do not want to do.
1. Do not cancel your credit cards. Lenders usually require at least 4 trade lines that are 2 years old and have been in good standing. Examples- Mortgage payments, car payments, student loans, and credit cards. etc.
2. Your credit cards should not be maxed. When you know you are going to be making a large purchase you should not use up more then 50% of and limit on a credit card. Always try to keep your balance under the 50% mark. Transfer some of the balance to another card if you must. Do not, I repeat do not play the credit card game of opening new cards then canceling others for introductory offers.This can and will harm your credit. Example credit limit of $10,000 and a balance of $9,869 would be bad, but a balance of $4,598 would liik better. Also drop and cards with limits of less then $500.
3. Most people get carried away and hung up on the fact that they filed bankruptcy. Yes this should be a wake up call. Typically after one year from the date of discharge you can be in pretty good shape if you learn to manage your credit. Considering Taxi has been three years out of it works in his favor. Unfortunately many cancel all there credit cards and may have a hight score, but with out the trade lines to back it up it can be deemed worthless.
Good Luck and I would encourage him to finance one pending he learned some valuable lessons from his prior Bankruptcy.
Here are the 3 credit reporting agencies telephone numbers to get your free credit reports. You get one free one from each per year. Credit scores range from 300-850, typically anything over 680 in near perfect

Equifax 1 800 685 1111
Experian 1 888 397 3742
Trans Union 1 866 887 2673

 

Probably FMCC. Don't make that BK more than it is, we deal with it routinely (car guy talking here).

re: E350. You might check on program vans- there's a few '03-'04's running around at attractive prices. This is one of those times where a dealership can be really helpful.

 

Yep FMCC. 3 new cars through them now. I find that it is hard to beat FMCC in most cases.

 

I have had great luck with FMC. I had very little credit a year ago with a couple of collections(paid). Utilities bills less than 80.00 for two bills. Anyway my score was 540. They Financed me with 20% down and 16.9% interest. This year nothing had changed other than my car payment. I traded my focus in for the new F-350 I have been waiting for. They Financed my truck minus taxes. 2800.00 down and did 60 months at 9.9%. With 700+ and income to cover payments I would say The only question is the interest rate. I have heard that Ford Commercial Credit is a little more strick. I too was looking for a work truck. I wound up buying my new truck in my name with a personal auto loan. I only have 18 months of bussiness history. I have never used credit in my life till last year so I can tell you that no credit is bad news. PS I am looking into getting a credit card or two to save money, LOL crazy world.

 

I'll agree. FMCC is being aggressive in getting people financed. I went thru the instant financing and got declined, but the dealer got me financed thru FMCC anyway on my F-150.

So long as you're reasonable of course. In your situation Taxi - your vehicles are business expenses so those your accountant should amortize those as capital expenditures. Though with the high cost of living in AK I wouldn't know if they would do any good ...