How to get Highst Fico Score for Autoloan

This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at 10/04/2009

Theoretical Scenario:

You have 2 credit cards with no balance and no late payment. However, you plan to buy a house in the future. To get the lowest mortgage interest rate in your future buy, you have to get the highest FICO score possible to qualify. You are buying your first car. You have available money to pay for $40,000 car...cash if you have to... How do you configure your auto loan to get the highest FICO score later on?

Possible choices:

A. Pay the car in full ...cash now

B. Loan the Full Amount ($40,000)

C. Loan with downpayment for X# of months

If you choose C, How much do you loan? How much will be the downpayment? How many months?

(To get the highest FICO Score + Low Interest to the bank)

Herb - B or C is your option and either one will do. When it comes to an auto installment loan, it's not so much the balance as the type of account and how you manage the account. There's a big difference in the way FICO scores view revolving (credit card) and installment (auto/mortgage) loans.

Personally, I'd probably go with option C and finance the loan for 36-48 months just to show a solid history and still pay off the loan in a reasonable amount of time w/ as little interest as possible.