|
Yes, as others have mentioned. Build your credit and save! A secured loan is a great way to show creditors that you can make consistent payments to an installment loan. Also, if you don't have any credit cards yet, apply for one that doesn't have an annual fee. Don't ever use it, but if you do, don't use more than what you can pay off in a month.
The longer you have a credit card on your history, the higher the score goes because part of your score is age of accounts. Another major part is available credit and credit utilization ratio. If you have a $1000 credit card, don't keep a balance on it higher than $150 because doing so will lower your credit score. The larger your credit card's available credit, the higher your score as well. So if you have a $5000 credit card, your score will be better than if you only had a $1000 credit card.
Installment loans showing on-time payments increase your score as well as on time payments to utilities that report to the credit reporting agencies. But I warn you, if you make even one payment 30 days late or more, you'll take a large credit score hit. So pay your stuff on time.
If you can save up 100% of your cars value before purchasing it, more power to you. But 90% of people don't have the patience for that (I'm in that boat). So if you must get a loan, try to at least pay for 25% of the total cost of the car + tax/title/license.... That way you don't have to worry that if you hit financial hard times and you sell your car that it'll be worth less than your loans value. Never lease.
|