Starting to build your credit sucks. I had to get my father to cosign for my car , otherwise I would have been paying like 15% intrest.

When I first went to get a credit card I was turned down 10 times before I got one. My girlfriend applies once and gets one with lower intrest and a higher credit line. She has no job , no credit history , and is a full time student. The system sucks unless you are 45 with perfect credit which 80% of us are not.

 

That totally sux!!!

Maybe you can buy a used P5 and take out a loan with a bank for part of it, using the car as collateral and hopefully getting a better rate.

Then, you might be able to pay it off early and build some credit. Make sure you get a loan that doesn't penalize you for paying off early.

 

Thanks for the tips. I'll see if I can get a line of credit and use the car as a collateral. I'm also starting thinking about a lease, but I think a lease would be a step back in my effort to build equity and credit history.

 

I had no student loans either, am 21, got the college grad rebate AND deferred billing and did not need a cosigner either. Five years at 2% interest. I am surprised everyone is having this kind of trouble! My salesperson was great.

The trick for me was that I put $5,000 down payment and had two credit cards with flawless histories on them. My parents bitched at me all through college and high school not to have any credit cards, I had 4, cancelled 2 and built my credit this way. Had I listened to them I might not have the P5 I so love and drive each day!

 

Just for the record, a lease does contribute to your credit history -- it's treated almost the same way as a loan is in your credit file. When you lease you're still agreeing to pay the leasing company a total amount of $x over x number of months, just like a loan, and that's all recorded in your credit history, along with a rating of how good you were at making the payments as agreed, just like there is for any other kind of credit you've used in the past.

 

It is odd, isn't it that someone with nothing but good intentions and definitely the ability to pay would get turned down for lack of history, but alas that is the way it is. I have a reasonable amount of unsecured debt, 40K in student loans from Grad School, and a pretty decent, but not awe-striking, salary. I have been at it for 8 years, though, i.e., establishing credit, and have never ever missed a payment or had one in more than 30 days late (which is what they look for), in addition, I have a good debt to income ration, besides all of that, so I get approved every time! Weird, cause I am sure I owe a lot more cash that you do in total, but since I have a good history, I get approved. Toughest thing to swallow is that with your minimal debt, you'd probably be more able to pay than I would if we both lost our jobs tomorrow. Hope that doesn't happen, I have a new car coming next week (P5, silver) and a fiancee at home (5'6", brunette, cute as all get out)! Good luck, bud-