my life sucks so many giant donkey balls right now that the sheer magnitude of all the donkey balls would just boggle your mind.
i am home and carless. fuck me!
it seems my credit is not as bad as i think, because i have none. see, i fucked up a lot in college. . . and was frightened away from the american way of debt. now it seems i’ve basically fucked myself.
it seems i am somewhat of an anomaly. a 29-year-old woman whose never had a car loan. basically, two different car places told me i don’t have enough debt. . . so i am a risk and the banks don’t want to deal with me.
what?
my brother-in-law tony went ballistic on the second car place. so what it boils down to is that i have to wrack up some debt in the next six months and try again. i just don’t get it.
i am seriously bummed out.
what the fuck? that’s weird.
Wait a second… I’m not quite sure I follow. You’ve never had enough debt, so they’re not going to give you a loan? That’s really fucked up. I thought the whole goal was to prove you’re responsible enough to not try to incur any debt in the first place, and if you do, pay it off ASAP.
Jodi, you don’t have to have actual debt. You have to have potential for debt. For example, you need a credit card with a $5,000 credit line (but you can pay the full balance every month… no debt). While debt may beget debt, you don’t have to be in it to get new debt. Didya follow that? Huh?
Dara’s hit it on the head. The issue is really that no-one wants to be the *first* person to loan you a bunch of money. If someone else has extended you credit, and you’ve made your payments, then you are a “good credit risk.” Right now you are an unknown quantity.
Hmm, that last sentence is true on so very many levels. 😉
i don’t know about how it works down there, but i’d suggest going to your bank and sitting down with a loan officer and telling them what you need.
it’s my experience that trying to get financing from the car dealerships or factories is harder than getting an actual bank loan.
you’re more likely to get the bank’s support, especially if you’ve had a relationship with them for a number of years. they’ll look at it as an investement in a mortgage down the line or your next car loan, etc.
hey jodi–
like above responses–get a credit card (if you don’t already have one) and charge everything on it each month that you would normally pay cash for, then pay it off every month–this is
1. Fiscally prudent-you keep interest earning capital earning for longer periods
2. Delay actual payment–thus reducing the cost of purchase (tiny amounts due to inflation–but rack up over years)
3. Creates credit velocity–basically the more you use the better rating you get.
4. Builds membership rewards (Amex), cash back (Discover) or mileage/other incentives (specialty/corp cards)
I have a fool proof plan to establish credit in very little time. Email me and I will send you the book/document. Start with secured loans and then work from there.