Went To The Dealership... Left W/O Car

[ADIO SS]

Go around and around with the credit discussion all you want.
BOTTOM LINE, financing is a 'necessary evil' for neccesities and shouldn't be used for luxury purchases.

You say your father credit history is a mess, the reasons should be personnal, learn from it.

Either you have the $$$ for 'good' down payment, or continue to save. Like pointed out earlier, the payments net you nothing.

Your young, it's good to have dreams and wants, but be realistic. When you involve your emotions, you are setting yourself up for not making the right decision.

Start looking at a used 2010, I am sure there are people looking to trade up to the latest and greatest (even though the changes are not that great).

I know it's tough to listen to an older guy, but I seen things and experienced things already as I also encontered similar 'let downs' along the path of life.

Don't get yourself tangled up in a high payment, The car is meant to be enjoyed, not about worrying how you are going to make the $500 16th month payment with 44 months still to go.

Build some equity - life will be more fun...

AND I TOTALLY AGREE WITH THE PREVIOUS POSTED RESPONSE...

Stop trying to justify and convince others - you have miminal experience - your beginning to sound like a 'brat' - you started off with a mature post - keep your game up...

[SWAT 79]

That's a blessing in disguise, NEVER put money down on a lease, you'll never get it back. Keep saving your money, get your credit score up, and purchase a leftover one for a great price.

[SSizzle]

There is only one way to end up with a score in the 500's. It's not due to lack of credit, it is because of negative credit like late payments, collection accounts like unpaid medical bills, cell phone bills, or judgements. You start with no score at all. Once credit is established it will generally start in the 600-700 range. Having too much used credit will hurt your score as well. So when people say I just bought a house I don't understand why I can't buy a car, its because of their debt to income ratio. Someone had mentioned that being a authorized user on your dads accounts may have something to do with your poor score. I would look into that, it is very possible. Check your report to make sure you have no outstanding medical bills on it. Even if you had a collection for $20 that will impact your score. Also your free credit report scores will be different than your auto score used when buying cars, not typically more than 40-50 points though. I have worked in the car business for many years. Car companies are not going to loan a first time buyer more than $15k for the most part without a strong co-signer. Even if you have a credit card paid well, it needs to have a high credit limit for it to be a major factor. A credit card with a $500 limit is not going to impact your chance at a large car loan. Just remember you have to walk before you can run. You need to look into your credit and save a large downpayment if you cannot find a co-signer with strong credit. I'm not sure your age, but don't worry it all comes in time if you set goals and work hard!

[spoone123]

I'm sorry to hear that, I put down 3k down and had my dad co-sign it. good thing his credit is good so.

[Baelfire]

I'd reccomend eschewing the free report websites, they all provide one time, limited information, and give you very limited insight into how to fix/improve your score.

I was/am in a similar situation. I have a 2011 2SS on order and have been planning the purchase for months. I wanted to make sure my credit was in order so there won't be any problems when it comes time to do the financing. I reccomend signing up with the individual credit reporting agencies for their montioring services. All three agencies offer a version of the service for ~$15 per month that allows you daily access to your report and/or credit score.

You can check your report, intiate online disputes for negative information, and see exactly what is being reported that is affecting your score, good or bad. if you see any negative information, I would dispute it whether its true or not. If the company doesn't respond in a timely manner (within 30 days) it will come off the report. The services will also provide advice about what you can do in the short and in the long term to improve your score.

The reason I went with subscribing to all three agencies individually was because they all report different things if requested by a third party. For example, if you used the Bank of America privacy assist credit monitoring thing, it shows different info than what Experian will tell you if you use their service. Likewise, Transunion's 3-in-1 service will not only be more costly(around $35 I think), but provide innacurate information about your experian and equifax reports. The cheapest and most accurate option I found was to do each services basic $15 plan individually and go through each report that way. I was able to raise my score by ~135 points over the course of 3 months using the information and disputing negative information.

After using them to fix/improve your score, you can cancel the subscriptions, or keep one of the all in one monitoring things active just to make sure nothing wierd crops up. Its not the only way to do it, but this is what worked for me.

[born-to-fish-]

As the old saying goes "good things come to those who wait"

[rodscamaro]

I hate to be a downer but have you checked the price for insurance yet. You have to factor in a lot of details when ( I assume your about 20 years old) your buying a sports car. Registration is not going to be cheap, either is the payment, insurance, possible tickets, etc. What about your future, college or trade schools can be expensive as well. You don't have to own a camaro to be happy?

[Scrappy Doo]

Originally Posted by jrhaus76

A... I am not a "douche".. I am being honest. Its a shame how no one can take that anymore. Everything is fine as long as people agree with you, when they don't they get the "if you dont have something nice to say" comment. Honesty is NOT always nice.

B... Nothing wrong with help from your parents and it is possible that the dealers would take advantage of your age.

C... I have been you, YOU WILL REGRET IT... Trust me! I have made some REALLY stupid decisions about cars in my day... REALLY STUPID. Get you credit worked out first... You get NO WHERE today without credit. 530s is really bad. Fix that, then buy a Camaro!

Oh and $200 a month for insurance is INSANE! I have 5 cars and the insurance is only $200 a month for all of them! Please, do yourself a favor and don't let the aura of the Camaro strap you... $700 a month for car and insurance is rediculas at 20. Wait a year when the payments are still there and the car's novelty has worn off... you are still stuck with $700 a month. Do you really make enough to spend $700... hell even $500 a month on a car and still do what 20 year olds do???

Be smart, think about it first, a $500 burden every month is a real eye opener for someone who is 20... trust me... been there, done that. It took me untill I was 30 to right all the bad decisions I made when I was younger concerning cars and what I spent... Cars can really suck you in... esp the beauty of the 5th gen.

I am not trying to be a "douche" to anyone... jsut trying to enighten you a little...

In the end, it's your call, good luck.

This is a great post here. Agree. + 10

[KungFuHamster]

this thread doesnt surprise me.

stupid/shady/sucky GM dealers are one of the principal reasons ive driven Fords for the last 9 years...and i was a Camaro/Firebird guy my entire life.

OP: go to your local Ford dealer and get treated correctly. youll be pleased that you did.

[SchwarzerDrache]

danifox-I think I have already given you most of this info in another thread you started, if I am confusing you with someone else I am sorry, but it sounds like you are not willing to accept the face that you have some issues to work through.

OK, here it goes. If you have 1 card and a 720 your score doesn't mean CRAP! You only have one account and that is not enough credit history to gauge your credit risk even with the score. Their is a good chance you would have been denied even if they had pulled a 720.

Now, you say the dealership pulled a 500 something score. The question you need to be asking is why is it 500? If they pulled a 500 you have some credit issues period. Now, they may be mistakes and if so you need to dispute the mistakes ASAP. Like others have said it could be that 1 CB is reporting you at 500+ and the other is 720. You need to go to www.annualcreditreport.com and get ALL THREE reports. Don't pay for the score because right now that doesn't matter (more on that in a second). You need to make sure what is on there is correct. If it is then the scores are right. The thing is with auto loans sometimes they only pull from one bureau other 2. If it happens to be your worst score, well, that sucks. Try a different bank.

Why do you not want to pay for your score? Because their are NO guarantees that the score you will get will be the same the bank pulls. Their are many different scoring models used and the one used for consumer scores is the most forgiving. No point in paying for wrong information.

Also, only use annualcreditreport.com. It is the only official website that you can get all three bureaus info. The other sites are trying to get you to sign up for a service.

Build your credit. That means 3-4 open and active accounts in good standing. This will keep your score up and it will be a valid score showing your true risk.

Sorry this went bad for you and sorry if I am repeating what others have said. I did not read every post.

Let me know if you have any questions.

[Scrappy Doo]

Originally Posted by KungFuHamster

this thread doesnt surprise me.

stupid/shady/sucky GM dealers are one of the principal reasons ive driven Fords for the last 9 years...and i was a Camaro/Firebird guy my entire life.

OP: go to your local Ford dealer and get treated correctly. youll be pleased that you did.

WOW..........

That's great logic......

[Maxhenry]

Originally Posted by jrhaus76

A... I am not a "douche".. I am being honest. Its a shame how no one can take that anymore. Everything is fine as long as people agree with you, when they don't they get the "if you dont have something nice to say" comment. Honesty is NOT always nice.

Oh and $200 a month for insurance is INSANE! I have 5 cars and the insurance is only $200 a month for all of them! Please, do yourself a favor and don't let the aura of the Camaro strap you... $700 a month for car and insurance is rediculas at 20. Wait a year when the payments are still there and the car's novelty has worn off... you are still stuck with $700 a month. Do you really make enough to spend $700... hell even $500 a month on a car and still do what 20 year olds do???

Sorry, but I have to agree with this guy; he's not being a "douche", just truthful. However, it really sounds like you can't afford the car. As "harsh" as that sounds, it is a simple truth.

Furthermore, as jrhaus wrote, at 20 do you really want to be strapped into a $700 monthly payment. When the novelty of the car wears off, or another "must have" comes along, you will regret it.

Trust me, you NEVER want to be in a position where think, "what was I thinking?"

Just me 2 cents; worht exactly what you paid for it....

[Ghost1LE]

I think you should fix your credit, then look into getting the Camaro and good luck with what ever you choose, but don't get desperate and agree to something like that lease offer you got it's not worth it in the end.

[leperkhaun]

Quick question.

Are you 100% that the credit score you pulled wasn't a Vantage Score, which goes up to 990? That would make your 720 score not that impressive as your FICO score is always lower, in some cases much much lower.

The Vantage Score was developed by the three credit bureaus as an alternative to FICO, basically so they didnt have to pay the Fair Isaac Corporation any money (they are the ones who developed and run the FICO score you know).

Unfortunately no one uses it really almost all the credit lenders use FICO and other metrics, also since FICO and Vantage Score uses different metrics and values you cannot do a straight Vantage score to FICO score. In fact the "suggested ball park" conversion has been known to convert to FICO scores up to 50 points higher than it actually is.