Yup!
The way to achieve a very good credit score is to utilize very little of your available credit, and to pay everything off–in full–each month.
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If you have a credit card through Amex, or Citibank, or Barclays Bank, you can get a free report of your FICO score each month, on their website.
There may well be other cc companies that also provide this service, but I know factually that these three provide free credit scores for you each month. The somewhat bizarre thing is that all three have slightly different credit scores listed for me. Because all of the scores are over 840, I am not concerned about the specific scores, but I think that it’s a little odd that each one comes up with a slightly different score.
I have never known what my credit score was and whatever effect it had I am unaware of it. For years the bank I used for shop business was eager to loan me money to buy a larger shop or a new home but they never mentioned credit score. I have never written a check that bounced, paid cash for almost everything and kept a comfortable operating balance in the business account and thought that was all that mattered.
For over 20 years the same lady at the bank took care of my business account and contrary to bank policy she had the key to my overnight deposit drop pouch. If there was any discrepency in the paper work she called me before correcting it. Her last few years there she was a VP and manager of the branch but continued to handle my account. … There were some benefits in dealing with a small town bank.
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Car Talk Lackey
Following are two good Consumer Reports articles for car loans.
http://www.consumerreports.org/cro/2012/12/how-to-get-the-best-car-loan/in
You want to balance a loan’s total cost against a monthly payment you can
afford.
The first step in buying a new car should be to know what price range you can afford. To do this, you need two pieces of information:
Down payment. How much money can you pay up front in cash, with a trade-in, or both?
Monthly payment. If you plan to borrow money or to lease, what is the maximum car payment you can afford every month?
Know that info but keep it to yourself! Never bargain to a payment because the salesman will always meet that number and you will overpay for the car!
Bargain on the price of the car compared to what others pay. That info can be found at KBB.com or Edmunds and similar. If the list price is $25,000 but most buyers paid $22,000, that is your target price. If you tell the salesman you can afford $350/month, they will hit that target, and you will be paying on the sale price of $25,000. Don’t fall into that trap.
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Knowing the maximum amount you can pay should be one number. The amount you can pay that lets you sleep at night should be a lower number.
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You have to remember, those 72 month car loan payments go on like alimony, long after that car stops being a new toy.
Anyone remember that popular bumper sticker from the past, “Don’t laugh, it’s paid for”?
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I once acquired a chocolate brown Ford Fairmont and the upside down owner of a non running Peugeot scraped up the cash to buy it but was ashamed to be seen in it. A year later the owner had saved enough down payment for a BMW and wanted out of the brown beater and I bought it back. Some months later the BMW was reposessed and the Fairmont wasn’t too ugly as it would get the man to work so off he went again. Then, with the opportunity to save the owner bought another BMW and sold me the Fairmont again. Then, believe it or not that man’s second BMW broke down and repairing it would cost more than he had paid for the Fairmont so he dropped by to check on it but this time it was gone. As much as he hated that ugly old beater he knew it was reliable and while I made a few hundred on it every time I sold it he was still thousands ahead while he hid his head and drove it.
That is the most amazing first hand tale of driver vanity that I have but Reader’s Digest could fill a page in every issue for a year or so with others.
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I got over driver’s vanity long ago. Can you name the make and model of car all your acquaintances drive? Me neither!
I drove an old beater of a '68 Datsun 620 pickup truck for a long time. Sometimes I would hum the theme song from Sanford and Son while starting it. My wife hated that.
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Over the years it has seemed that those with the greatest real wealth usually drove unpretentious cars. Of course realtors and car dealers seem compelled to be ostentatious to appear successful in an effort to become successful I have known a great many families who lived quietly in middle class neighborhoods driving dated, plain sedans and pickups and when they died it became evident that they owned property all over the county. The owner of a parts store I once did business with used one of his store’s delivery trucks as his daily driver. At his death it was apparent that he owned a total of 7 parts stores in the region that operated under the name of the regional warehouse.
I learned at a very young age that stylish vehicles were beyond the means and desires of my parents. When I was starting 8th grade my mother went back to work and our family needed a second car. My dad bought a 7 year old 1947 DeSoto coupe that had faded maroon paint. I made some comments about that DeSoto not being cool and why didn’t my dad buy a cool car. The next day my dad came home with rubbing compound, polishing compound, and wax. He gave me the job of making the car look cool. After 2 days of hard work, I thought that DeSoto was cool.
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Went back to work for a second car? Rich folks. My mother went back to work so that we could buy a new house. First, they wanted to know if I would be OK alone after school until my Dad got home. They may have originally intended for me to look after my second grade sister (I was in the fourth grade) but discovered that the mother of a good friend of my sister two doors down would be happy to look after her for a few hours. She said she already had four kids of her own to tend to and one more was no big deal. Anyway, we had only one car for both to commute to work. Mom went in a half hour early and Dad picked her up a half hour after he got off so they could make one car work. No, we could not afford a second car on government worker salaries. It’s a good thing we lived about 10 minutes from their workplaces and that their Very Big Government Campuses were across the street from each other.
'As Auto Lending Rises, So Do Delinquencies’
“Can you name the make and model of car all your acquaintances drive?”
Not to sound like a smart alec, but my answer is “Yes”
That’s the way my mind works
I look at what cars everybody drives, and file it away in my head
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Probably because you are interested in cars. We tend to notice that what we are interested in. Back when I was 20 years old, I could name any motorcycle from a glimpse of the rear or front, and I knew what make and model of motorcycle was ridden to school by the motorcycle riding students in high school.
Some people gaze at the sky and see a Cessna, Beechcraft, Taylorcraft, Piper, Grummen, Mooney, or a helicopter.
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Car Talk Lackey
These links should be helpful.
http://www.consumerreports.org/cro/2012/12/how-to-get-the-best-car-loan/in
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I’ve been wondering how people are affording all the expensive luxury cars I see on the road lately. Last 5 or 10 years it seems like half the population has a new Mercedes or a 70k pick up truck. 20 or 30 years ago I don’t recall seeing so many Mercedes on the road, now it’s common.
I’m more impressed when I see someone driving a 20 or 30 year old car that’s still in nice shape. Sometimes I’ll ask them how they kept it so nice. If I see someone driving a new 70k car, I usually just assume they’re in debt or on a lease.
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A lot of these fancy cars are leased, a decision that in most cases I cannot support… although I support their right to make it. Some are being driven by owners that are struggling to make the payments, another decision I cannot agree with. Probably no more than 30% are being driven by people who own and can actually comfortably afford them.
Me too. Mine’s 11-1/2 years old, and I get people asking me how I keep it looking good. Here’s a current photo. I probably feel prouder to have a good looking old car that still runs good than I would driving a new fancy car.
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Your car looks great. Not even broken in yet. I’m daily driving a 22 year old S-10. Mine has some scrapes and dings but original paint still looks nice. I had to put a used engine in mine recently and I’ve been fixing a lot of little issues all summer but it’s running great.
I bought a 2005 Ranger last year when the S-10 pooped out just because I needed something to else drive immediately. I decided to sink a little money into the S-10 to keep it going. It’s well worth keeping things running especially if you can do most of the work yourself.
I seem to remember your used engine came out of a Silverado, not an S10 . . . ?
And there were some questions about which pcm was the correct one . . . ?