Will it help my credit score to finance a car and to pay it off immediately?

Kat,

You leave out some important details.

I'm going to assume from your comment that you don't have credit right now because you purchase everything in cash, right? I did that when I was young. Paid cash for my car and did't have a card. Had $20,000 in the bank to put down for a mortgage. They wanted to refuse my loan because I didn't have a credit history! Lucky for me, they had a loan manager who had sense enough to look beyond a credit report.

What about your husband? Does he have a credit history? Good or bad credit? Remember that they will be looking at his score also if you both plan to be on the loan. If he has good credit you may not even have a problem.

As the others mentioned, you need to build a credit history. How long from the time you buy this car on credit, until you start looking for a home? Credit Guru is correct, it won't help you much to pay it off immediately.

Having a big down payment for the home may impress the mortgage company into giving you the loan without an impressive credit score. Worked for me.

If you really need the car right now, consider paying it off in cash when you buy it. Many car dealers will cut you a very good price if you are paying up front.

Before you go any futher, go to the link I supplied below. You are trying toimprove your credit score, so you need to understand exactly how they calculate it. MYFICO is the folks to developed the scoring system, and their site has lots of information on establishing and improving your score.

After your have educated yourself you can make better decisions on how you can proceed.

I sure wish I had your problems. Wanna trade?

Maxing the credit card to buy a car then paying it in full really won't help your score any more than charging a small item and paying it in full. Nor will it help to string out payments for a year. You get the payment history but you also pay interest. Carrying balances of more than 30% of your available limit, hurts your score. The best way to use your credit card to build your credit is to use it every month and pay it in full. This builds a good payment history. It isn't the amount; it's the payments. If you take out an actual car loan, you need to pay on it at least 12 to 18 months to improve your score -- installment loans are a different category. The interest rate for a car loan is probably higher than what you can make on the cash in a savings account. Just pay cash for the car. Save the interest.

If you have savings, you might consider using it to pay off existing credit, if any, especially if the interest you get on the savings is less than the interest you are paying on the credit. There's no need to pay down your home mortgage loan as the liquidity you have from the savings is good.

If all you have is a home loan and a savings account, don't get more credit just to "build up your rating". You probably have a decent rating just from having paid your home loan on time.

You could apply for one or two credit cards and simply pay what you spend on these on a monthly basis. The available credit and the regular payments you make on those cards would enhance your credit. But not that much.

Applying for and getting an auto loan then paying it off immediately will actually lower your credit score. Your score will go down (usually just a little) when you apply. If you pay off your loan immediately you will have no record of any kind of positive installment payment history to build your credit score.

If you have the cash, then figure how much you can put down to get a smaller car loan so you will still have a good debt to income ratio for qualifying for a mortgage. Keep the car loan until it reports for at least 12 months so you can raise your credit score before you pay it off.

Having savings is great but in no way affects your credit score.

Als if you have no revolving credit(dept store, gas cards, Visa/Mastercard) then you should considering applying for one. If you have no credit then consider a secured credit card. Bank of America & Wells Fargo have good programs with low fees.

Check out www.myfico.com at look at the Credit Education section to learn about credit scores.

Good Luck

financing a car is an excellent way to build credit. Although you must make sure that your debt to income ratio does not max out. You can also get a secured credit card at your bank. You actually deposit an amount of money with the bank and then borrow on it and pay it back monthly. Either way, you generally need to show that you can make your payments on time for about 6 months at a minimum before a bank will consider loaning you money for a home. Contact a good mortgage broker. They are excellent at putting you a plan for the future business of selling you a home loan.

If you want to boost your score. The credit report is about you HISTORY of using credit. If someone sees that you borrow $10,000 then paid it off next month, it would be report as an I-0..Meaning that there was not enough time to pass to have a history. If you want a history, borrow the funds, pay on it for 4-6 months, and then pay it off. Put the extra money in an interest bearing account then, pull it out and pay it off. They want to see a HISTORY of your spending habits.

paying off debt kind of helps. If use use a credit card and pay it off immediatly it doesnt help, because you didnt actualy borrow the money. So you need to have and open balance and make the payments for it to help. I would suggest a 0%apr credit card (introductiry) and pay it off b4 the time is up.

go to a financial ad visor in your bank,he will pull out your credit report and well tell u exactly what 2 do, is absolutely free.

NONE of these are good answers! That is if you are refering to your "score" not the whole report. Go to the following link to learn all about the FICO score.

best way of having good credit is don't borrow