Subaru BRZ future owner (fingers crossed)

[D_Thissen]

OP see if you can find a 2014 (or even a 2013) BRZ. You might get a lower interest rate plus a lower purchase price since dealerships might be trying to get them off their lots.

[Jfheisenberg]

Originally Posted by PandaSPUR

tldr; Scores aren't everything, "free" scores arent always accurate. You'll probably get the loan you need, but the interest rate might suck (6%+)

Not to be a pessimistic ass, but where did you get your score from? Free credit score places (like creditkarma) use their best guesstimate of the official score calculation algorithms. Sometimes they come close to your real scores, but sometimes they could differ by a lot.

I pay for monitoring through myFICO to get my real scores and the difference between that and CreditKarma ranges from 5 to 50 points sometimes. CreditKarma gives you a good ballpark value and some helpful advice though, so its not totally useless.

Also, it's not all about the score, they'll see the length of your credit history as well and consider it on its own.

I just bought my BRZ last week, so here was my situation:

(I'm making my numbers here a bit more vague so I dont give out a ton of personal info)
Scores: 720-760
Total credit age: 4-5 years
Average credit age: 1-2 years
Debt: 15-30k in student loans
Credit utilization: <15% across quite a few cards

And I was pegged as a "Tier 3" borrower by Chase (the actual lender behind Subaru financing). That got me the loan I needed, but the rate was like 5.7%.

The financier at the dealer called the bank for me and managed to get me bumped up to "Tier 2." She put the phone on speaker so I could hear it all happen, so unless they orchestrated this from the beginning, it wasnt just a sales trick. Anyway, this got me down to 4.09%.

The next part was sketchy, the woman said she could drop me down to 2.9% if I agreed to buy some additional theft insurance for 1.5k (it would give me up to $10k in addition to what my normal insurance would pay out if I needed to replace a stolen car). Refused to give me anything lower than 4.09% without it. She admitted that this was because they needed to make some money off me since the car itself was so cheap. And that my "tier" gives them a range of interest rates to choose from and give to me on their own discretion.
So in the end I ended up buying the insurance and getting 2.9% rate, monthly payments of 500 over 60 months after 2.5k down payment.

EDIT: Didn't realize you lived in the same area as me. AFAIK only the Ramsey NJ dealer has a Series.Blue car right now. I personally didn't find it worth the extra price, cause if you think about it, you could use that price difference and just make similar mods to the car but to your own tastes. Unless you're seriously in love with that blue stitched interior, the rest can be added to a normal BRZ afterwards.

I use credit karma and the capital one free credit report application (i think it pulls it from experian) and both number seem to be in that range. Now, i must say that i bought my current celica for 6k in 2012 and paid it off in 1 year. Im not sure if that help to boost my credit score as i don't see that history in my record (at least not in credit karma or capital one app). I have no student loans, and the only pending balance is currently less than 15% of my total credit utilization.

Anyways, I have checking/saving, and two credit cards which chase, and chase is going to be my first option to look for the car loan. (hopefully they hook me up for being customer for so many years???) I need to get a 3% APR or lower to be in the range where my budget is for monthly payments ($400 or less), Im hoping to get similar numbers as you for the APR.

I live in the Bergen county area, i went to Liberty Subaru in Emerson on november 14, and they had the series blue brz (in rally blue color), i did not buy it at the moment because i want the winter to be over and also need to sell my celica to put the money as down payment.

[PandaSPUR]

Originally Posted by Jfheisenberg

I use credit karma and the capital one free credit report application (i think it pulls it from experian) and both number seem to be in that range. Now, i must say that i bought my current celica for 6k in 2012 and paid it off in 1 year. Im not sure if that help to boost my credit score as i don't see that history in my record (at least not in credit karma or capital one app). I have no student loans, and the only pending balance is currently less than 15% of my total credit utilization.

Anyways, I have checking/saving, and two credit cards which chase, and chase is going to be my first option to look for the car loan. (hopefully they hook me up for being customer for so many years???) I need to get a 3% APR or lower to be in the range where my budget is for monthly payments ($400 or less), Im hoping to get similar numbers as you for the APR.

I live in the Bergen county area, i went to Liberty Subaru in Emerson on november 14, and they had the series blue brz (in rally blue color), i did not buy it at the moment because i want the winter to be over and also need to sell my celica to put the money as down payment.

Hmm, not sure why the Celica loan wouldnt show up on your report. Was it entirely signed by your parents or someone else? If you were at least a co-signer, it should show up on your report. It might be worth inquiring about.

It sounds like your credit is good otherwise. The only issue is the short length, because 6 months is reaaally short :\

I think my income may have helped get me bumped from a Tier 3 to a Tier 2 borrower.

Oh and I guess that dealer was just outside of my search radius. I'm not familiar with the different parts of NJ lol. Just hopped on google and cars.com when I started searching.

Anyway, good luck! Be sure to post some pics when you get the car

[Jfheisenberg]

Originally Posted by PandaSPUR

Hmm, not sure why the Celica loan wouldnt show up on your report. Was it entirely signed by your parents or someone else? If you were at least a co-signer, it should show up on your report. It might be worth inquiring about.

It sounds like your credit is good otherwise. The only issue is the short length, because 6 months is reaaally short :\

I think my income may have helped get me bumped from a Tier 3 to a Tier 2 borrower.

Oh and I guess that dealer was just outside of my search radius. I'm not familiar with the different parts of NJ lol. Just hopped on google and cars.com when I started searching.

Anyway, good luck! Be sure to post some pics when you get the car

It was finance entirely by me. I had no credit history back then, but some car loaner was able to finance the car because i had a pretty good income. How can i inquire about my celica loan to credit agencies?

[PandaSPUR]

To be honest, I don't know the exact process. There are actually probably guides on CreditKarma that would help.

You'd need to have proof of all this though. And if it was a personal, off the books loan from a random person/small company, it might not be helpful at all.

Inquiries are usually for errors one way or another. If someone just never reported your loans and payments at all (so THEY could avoid taxes maybe) then I think you'd be out of luck

[Wilsonk227]

Originally Posted by Jfheisenberg

Yeah I basically buy stuff with my credit card (less then 20% of my total credit limit) and then just pay it off in the same month. That seems to have help to increase my credit score a lot.

$400 or less is what I'm looking to pay per month. I will be paying around 250$ for insurance (insurance is high in jersey)

Im really hoping Subaru releases a Series blue 2016. If not i will be unsure to get the car :S

thats what I did too but my credit didn't increase that fast D: lol

Most likely it'll be $400+. Probably won't be lower. Think of every $5000 on your loan as about $100. You put $5000 down it'll only be at $25000 on a limited BRZ. So you have about $500 left per month. Increasing your finance term would make it less but I'd say about $420-$460.

I really doubt they will to be honest :/ especially after one year. Maybe a different version. I'm saving up just to buy the STI lip kit and all.

[iLaw]

Not sure about all the credit stuff, as I am Canadian. However in my experience, Subaru typically doesn't do special editions for more than one model year. That's not to say in another model year they may release a different special edition car, but in the example of the Series.Blue, it's unlikely it will go beyond 2015.

[EAGLE5]

Heisenberg,

You're uncertain about this?

[Dr Speed]

Get rid of 3 of your 4 credit cards. Better chances of approval with a lower rate if you dont have the potential to rack up 4 credit cards full of debt at any given time.

[Jfheisenberg]

Originally Posted by iLaw

Not sure about all the credit stuff, as I am Canadian. However in my experience, Subaru typically doesn't do special editions for more than one model year. That's not to say in another model year they may release a different special edition car, but in the example of the Series.Blue, it's unlikely it will go beyond 2015.

I just email a guy that i know at a Subaru dealer asking if he has any insights about a 2016 Subaru BRZ Series blue. We'll see what he says (if he know anything)

[Jfheisenberg]

Originally Posted by Dr Speed

Get rid of 3 of your 4 credit cards. Better chances of approval with a lower rate if you dont have the potential to rack up 4 credit cards full of debt at any given time.

I heard that closing a credit account hurts your credit score somehow (not sure how accurate that is). Anyways out of my 4 credit cards, only 2 are in used with very minimum utilization.

[TatharPallan]

Originally Posted by Jfheisenberg

I heard that closing a credit account hurts your credit score somehow (not sure how accurate that is). Anyways out of my 4 credit cards, only 2 are in used with very minimum utilization.

Closing the card hurts you. The idea is to keep the card open with a low balance. The ideal balance you should have on the card is 5-10%. Keep in mind the credit card companies make money off of interest. If you have a "0" balance on the card you aren't doing anything for them. If anything just hit the internets, there are plenty of articles regarding this.

[iLaw]

Originally Posted by Jfheisenberg

I just email a guy that i know at a Subaru dealer asking if he has any insights about a 2016 Subaru BRZ Series blue. We'll see what he says (if he know anything)

Should be interesting. But considering we are only 10 days into 2015, it wouldn't surprise me if they don't have any knowledge of what's happening in 2016 yet.

[Dr Speed]

Not true. I'm not a personal banker or financial advisor . I would never personally carry 4 credit cards. The more sources of debt you have the less likely you are to get for an approval whether there is a balance or not. Don't beleive me? Go get 5 more credit cards and then try to apply for a mortgage

Anyway.... OP good luck again with getting the subaru. If you are concerned just get serious with the dealer and ask them to pre approve you. It will involve a credit check but you are going to buy the car anyway