How Does Your Credit Score Tie Into Your New Vehicle Purchase?

You're interested in buying your next car, but you have uncertainties about your credit score and how it might affect the options available to you.

How Could Your Credit Score Affect Your Vehicle Purchase?

Put in the simplest terms your credit score provides lenders a snapshot of your personal finance history. It's a measure they use to quickly assess whether you'll be able to afford the car you're interested in and make the payments after you drive it home.

If your credit score is high, it will give banks and lenders more confidence in your ability to handle your loan or lease. If your credit score is low, meanwhile, it can make financiers anxious about the prospect of investing in your vehicle purchase.

What Sorts of Factors Determine the Health of Your Credit Score?

At its most basic level, your credit score is determined by how consistent and on-time you are when you make payments on your debts. These can include things like mortgage loans, car payments, and credit cards. If you make your payments on time without lapsing, your credit score will stay healthy.

On the opposite end of the spectrum, however, missing payments and making your payments after their deadline can result in your credit score declining. That's generally not going to happen if your check arrives in the mail a day late. If you find yourself falling weeks behind, however, you're risking harm to your credit score.

What Can I Do to Improve my Credit Score?

If your credit score is in a bad spot, or if you're just looking to improve it, there are some things you can do to help it out. Consider these steps:

• Make sure your making payments more consistently.While the process will be more gradual, making sure your payments are going in on time going forward will help to boost your credit score over time.
• Pay off any outstanding debt that you can afford to pay off. Even if it just means paying down an outstanding credit card with a few hundred dollars on it, removing debt from equation can go a long toward improving your credit score.
• Contact your credit issuers about your late payments. If you have late payments on your record but you're doing better with your payments, your credit issuers may sometimes be willing to rescind late payment notifications. Removing these bad marks from your record can go a long way toward boosting your score.

Contact the Finance Center at Our Dealership Today

Would you like to know more about your credit score, the vehicle purchase process, and how they all fit together? Contact the finance center at Liccardi Lincoln in Watchung, NJ. We'd love the opportunity to answer your questions and give you a better understanding of vehicle financing and all the factors that go into it.

Our experts have years of shared experience and can provide the clarity you need to make the right choice for your life the next time you decide to buy a car. We can even help you choose a vehicle suited to the resources at your disposal.