Consumer Car Buying Advice Blog

If you want to improve them and have less than perfect credit a lender will still check out your credit scores

Understanding the process

Applicants with credit issues sometimes don’t know what their credit scores are or even what they mean before applying for no credit auto loans.

We know this happens because at Auto Credit Express we’ve been helping buyers with car credit problems for over twenty years. Our website even goes so far as to explain how bankruptcy and repossession affect auto loan approvals as well as today’s subject: the need to know and understand credit scores.

Keeping score

Before applying for a car loan, everyone should order their credit reports and credit scores (one of each from Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion). One report per year per bureau is free and they’re ordered at www.annualcreditreport.com. You’ll need to pay for each of your credit scores.

This can be simplified by visiting sites such as www.FreeScore360.com where, for a fee, you can receive all three reports and all three credit scores at the same time.

Score types

All three bureaus use a version of the FICO score. Equifax calls theirs a BEACON score, at Experian it’s called the Experian/Fair Isaac Risk Model while at TransUnion it’s known as an EMPIRICA score.

The bureaus also use a new score they jointly developed called VantageScore.

In a perfect world, all three VantageScore or Fico scores would be the same. But, in fact, they aren’t.

Differences

Unless your credit file is fairly new, there are usually differences in each of your credit reports because:

1.    Some creditors might report to only one or two of the bureaus.
2.    It may take one bureau longer to report a new creditor
3.    It may take one bureau longer to remove an old credit file
4.    One, two, or even all three may be reporting inaccurate or incomplete information

These reasons and more can result in credit score differences. Additionally, car dealers typically use an “auto enhanced” score that emphasizes car loan performance – meaning the score they receive might also be different.

Credit score ranges

Now knowing your credit scores, it’s time to see where they fit in and what kind of car loan you might qualify for.

Here is Experian’s classification for both types of credit scores:

Super prime:
FICO Score: 740 plus
VantageScore: 801-990

Prime:
FICO Score: 680-739
VantageScore: 701-800

Non-prime:
FICO Score: 620-679
VantageScore: 641-700

Subprime:
FICO Score: 550-619
VantageScore: 601-640

Deep subprime:
FICO Score: less than 550
VantageScore: 501-600

Typically, super prime is the best of the best, prime is excellent and near prime is fair credit. Falling into either the subprime or deep subprime category means you’ll probably need to apply for a problem credit auto loan.

As we see it

If you know your credit scores you’ll typically know which type of car loan you’ll need to apply for.

If you have problems with your car credit, a good thing to know is that Auto Credit Express specializes in placing credit-challenged applicants with dealers that can give them their best chance at getting approved auto loans.

So if you’re ready to take that first step in improving your auto credit, you can begin now by filling out our online auto loans application.

Tags: credit scores, no credit auto loans

This entry was posted and is filed under FICO score. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.