Minimum credit score for Toyota financing?

My dealer also mentioned this--saying that even if I paid cash, they'd need my social security number to meet that requirement.

 

We have been taking deposits in anticipation of the roll out date. I bet we already have 5-6 cars sold based on what we know as of this point.

 

The scoring system is actually very flawed fundamentally. I consider myself to be an expert on how they calculate the score based on years of reading them, courses (when I was doing mortgages for a short time), and a friend that works for Transunion. It WAY too complicated to explain everything in detail, but suffice to say, what most people like to do is actually hurting your score. One of the tips I have (some people know, but most aren't aware):

DO NOT CONSOLIDATE YOUR CREDIT CARDS TO ONE CARD AND THEN CLOSE ALL THE OTHERS!

Not only will you hurt your score by moving all the money to one card (lessening the buying power you have, or credit available), but by closing them you do further damage. I actually heard one of the "experts" on CNN, HLN, one of those stations, tell a caller to do this. Beyond a shadow of a doubt, you will drop your score by 40-50 points by doing that.

Here is how the bureau "translates" the info:

You have 4 cards with limits of $7,000, $3,000, $10,000, and $1,000. Total of $21,000 in available credit.
On those cars, you have balances of $3,000, $1,000, $6,000 and $0, respectively.

Here is how the bureaus calculate the score.. Card A has more than 50% available, you get plus points. Same thing with card B. Card C ($10,000 limit) has less than 50%, but more than 70%, you get a small deduction in points. Card D is more than 50% available (no extra points for having no balance). Then it looks at your totals.. $21,000 limit, $10,000 balance... more than 50%... you get more bonus points.

Now, in the mail, Card C sends a letter for you to transfer your balances over at 0% for 1 year... sounds great! But, the minute you transfer all the money over, you have just maxed out that card. So now you get hit hard for a maxed out card. But, you get plus points for the other 3. The minute you close them you are done. Because now you have a maxed a single card in your name with a $10,000 limit and a balance of $10,000. If makes no difference that you transfered the money over to lessen your overall debt. It makes no difference that it is still the same amount as before, just all together now. The bureau's formula only looks at history where payments made on time are concerned. It doesn't care about anything else, or even look at it for that matter. The only other thing that it looks at is how long the account has been open. So when you realize your mistake about closing out the other cards, and apply for new ones, the bureau sees 3 brand new cards on your report. But, it still sees the fact that you have a maxed out card. It "thinks" that you applied for the cards to max those out too. Therefore, it will give you negative points for that.

Now, eventually, as the new cards stay on your account for a year, and the balance drops on the $10,000 limit, your score will go up. But if you had to buy something on credit in between then, you undoubtably paid more in interest than you should have.. all because of a little three digit number.

Sorry for being so long on this post, but I have seen too many people make that mistake and don't understand why it happened to them.

 

It can even be worse than that--let's say your credit limit is $20k but you have never had a balance more than $3k. You have good credit, live responsibly, and don't want to max out your card. Banks and lenders may report high credit, rather than necessarily reporting the limit since that is subjective. So--your balance is now $2k, however the "points czar" concludes you are using 66% of your credit card (the $3k one time high) and thus you lose points versus someone who is at $4k but had been as high as $8k at one time (maybe even OVER their limit!)--they are now only at 50% but in reality may be worse off than you! A good credit evaluator needs to look at more than the score.

Jim (was a banker in credit card when credit scoring was first introduced)

 

I agree. If the lender doesn't send the limit info to the three bureaus, it looks at the highest amount you have had on the card up to that point. One of the two is always reported.

Good point Jim. You also said:

A good credit evaluator needs to look at more than the score.

That is also very true. It is easy to look at something and evaluate it using common sense. That is how I always got "shaky" deals done when I was specializing in bad credit customers. Just explain why the score is so low, and have a good story to back it up. However, due to legal issues, most if not all, banks use the score to determine your rate. That is in no small part due to the Chrysler lawsuit where a zip code was determining your rate (and how dumb is that...)

 

what - terrorists can't be green too?

but seriously, if somebody shows up on the list do you call somebody or just tell them they can't buy the car, even for cash?

 

well i consolidated my credit cards so now i only have 2...well didnt really consolidate... since i never carry a balance... just closed a few. but it did reduce my available credit by $14,000. now i only have two. a Visa and an Amex. maybe that is why Toyota would not finance me.

but i guess its all moot now

 

Don't know about where you live but if you produce a cashier's check from a local bank or CU around here, the dealer does not have to run your credit and I always insist that they do not. No reason to do so if the funds are verifiable.

 

Sorry to take this slightly OT, but be prepared w/typical private party values (from Edmunds, KBB, NADA, etc. and from looking at private party ads) for that Altima and be prepared to not accept what the dealer offers.

Unless the Altima is a piece of crap that you'd feel guilty selling to someone else, I'd suggest you sell it private party. A little work could fetch you a lot more than what a dealer will give you. Dealers will usually give you little on a trade-in.

 

do you KNOW they didn't or do you THINK they didn't? cause i think they can still pull the report w/o the ssn

if they can call somebody they know at the bank that will probably work

cashiers checks aren't as safe as some people think they are

 

It's actually a federal law that established the free annual credit reports, and that is the official site. For those interested in their credit scores (Experian, Equifax, and/or TransUnion) you can get those online as well for a small fee.

My dealer used Experian, and they are required by law to provide you a credit score disclosure (they also provided a copy of the credit report) if they run your credit in connection with your applying for a lease or loan.

 

This is true, but only if you are driving off after handing them a PERSONAL check before the funds clear. I did not want them to pull my credit and have the inquiry when I bought my last car cash so I got a cashier's check from the bank and since it was same as cash there was no issue and no reports were pulled.

Are you sure Jabber? I've talked with several people in the finance industry and they have all said that the protection has been extended to car financing as well as mortgage financing...

 

To answer the OP, when I took delivery of my Prius yesterday, the dealer's finance guy indicated that the threshold score to qualify for the best interest rate was 720. This gave us an interest rate of 4.24%, which was better than any bank we or they were able to find. I don't know whether this varies geographically or by any other factors. I had the impression it would still be possible to get Toyota financing at a higher (but still attractive) rate with a score below 720.

 

That's very true. Many people have the idea that "Cashiers" or "Certified" checks and Money Orders are as good as cash, and that's not the case. I work for a bank here in Cleveland, and we had to stop giving "Cashiers" & "Certified" checks immediate availability because of increasing fraud. They are treated like any other check, with a minimum hold of one day or a maximum hold of four days, depending on the time and day of the week it is deposited.

We even had cashiers checks from our bank counterfeited, causing all kinds of headaches. The only checks that are given immediate availability are checks drawn on our bank (because we can verify that they are good), and US Treasury checks.

But that's from the banking perspective, so sorry for derailing the conversation. I just wanted to share my experiences in dealing with cashiers checks in the banking world.

 

Financing rates $ a 4th credit bureau to worry about - Checksystems

In the PDX metro, most Toyota dealers were offering 4% with no loan fees from a local credit union (which you had to join by opening a $5 savings account). Since I am buying mine 300 miles away next weekend, and I noticed a green loan discount of 1/2% on their web site, I went to the CU last Monday direct. Good news was that the rate is 3.5% for up to 5 years (so financing whole thing for 4 as spread from savings is not much). Bad news was that when they ran my SS No. to open the CU account, it matched some guy's name in FL. He had opened two checking accounts in FL 5/08 which were closed due to NSF. I have had my other accounts for years so never knew that most banks and CU use CheckSystems, not the big 3 credit bureaus. So despite checking my credit report twice a year, having a fraud alert already on the account, and having a 790 score, I could not open the account until...I went to SS and proved I was me with my passport and jumped through a bunch of other hoops. I am now dealing with CS who does not even have a phone number to talk to a human so could be weeks. So just a note to everyone who thinks you are safe, are using a credit alert service, etc., I encourage yo to go open a savings account somewhere every year or two yourself, just to be sure!

 

I said no way to Toyota's deal of 5.9%, and went with PedFed credit union at 3.9%.