I am new to this forum but have been on this site for a while now. I am desperate for a loan of about 6K to purchase a car. I don't know if this is appropriate for this forum but i am grasping at straws at this point. I am hoping someone will have a suggestion to get a loan. No bank will give me a loan, any car dealers are tacking on insane fees and ludicrous monthly payments. I do not want to go down the buy here pay here route as the payments are very high. I cannot get a cosigner. I don't know what to do. Are there ANY avenues i can explore. I am responsible, make good money, and want to prove that i am a fiscally responsible. I just want a chance to start the next phase of my life.

I will provide the basics. I am 27 years old and I have bad credit. i had to voluntarily let my car get repossessed due to my father getting cancer and i needed to move home and support my mother and father. That was over a year and a half ago. My mothers car broke down. In a desperate situation, i bought her a car from a buy here pay here dealership and pay $400 a month. My father passed away last October and i have been living at home to support her since. The house fell into foreclosure and we need to be out by the 15th of August. She got approved for an apartment and is moving in a week and a half. I am trying to move into my own apartment with a reliable roommate in a city much closer to my job.

The thing is, i have been paying and driving the car i bought for her because i have a well paying job and she was always supported by my father. She does real estate but has not been able to because my job is much more stable and i needed to get to work. I need to get a car that will be reliable so i can get back on my own 2 feet. If anyone has any ideas please let me know. I am losing hope.

Thanks

First off, I'm terribly sorry for your loss. I can't imagine the kind of stress you must have endured over the past few months.

Secondly, it sounds like your mom needs the car, not you. You already have a car. You're paying $400/month for it.

How's your mom's credit? Can she get a loan with a better rate than you could?

Your mom needs a viable long-term plan. To go from being supported by her husband to being supported by her son is not a sustainable plan. She eventually needs to be able to support herself. Part of that is obtaining a vehicle so she can ramp up her real estate work. As I said - she needs a car, not you. You already have a car.

Finally, I hope this situation encourages others to ensure they have adequate life insurance, as this is a stark cautionary tale of how quickly your life can unwind and leave you in a very difficult situation if you're unprepared. I'm sure your father was a wonderful man, but it was inexcusable of him to not ensure his wife was provided for in the event of his death.

Thank you for the reply. This car was purchased for my mother. She has a plan. She is getting my fathers social security benefit and once the dust settles, she will be able to work on real estate as well as find a part time job. She has been unable to do this as i have had to drive the car to work 5 days a week. She cannot afford a car payment on top of rent and everything else. I can. this is the support that she will get from me and i can afford it. My problem is that i cannot explain to the banks what the case is. I can never talk to the decision maker and show them that i am not the person my credit report shows. She does not have good credit on account of the foreclosure and all. This needs to be a car for me.

Also, I know my father lost his benefits when he got laid off and was unable to afford life insurance.

Right. But you're the one paying for it, and you're the one driving it. So doesn't that make it your car?

There's no point in arguing over semantics. If you're moving to an apartment much closer to your job, do you still need the car? Is public transit an option? A bike? Carpooling? Do you really need another car?



It's truly a sad situation, and I don't mean to pass judgement on your father. I simply want to point out to anyone else reading how important it is to ensure that you have adequate life insurance outside of your employer. Term life insurance, for a healthy individual, costs about the same as the cost of a pizza per month. If you have a cell phone, or a TV, then you can afford life insurance.

I drive it and pay for it only because i have been living with her to help out with the house and the move and i am the one with the full time job. the car is hers, registered in her name, and will be driven by her in less then 2 weeks. when i say closer to work, it is still 20 minutes away and there are no public transportation or carpooling options. I NEED a car and need help finding a loan of about 5 grand that i can pay back with no problem. I can pay as high as $250 a month and plan on paying it off sooner.

I do not want to argue about semantics. I am asking for advice or an avenue in which i can obtain a $5,000 loan for a car. I have bad credit, cannot get financed through a bank, and the dealerships ive been to have fees which, before interest, is doubling the cost of the car. I do not want another buy here pay here, payday loan, shady loan or any other questionable method which will ultimately put me right back in the situation i am in now. If i had more time, this wouldn't be an issue but i am needing to do this within the next 2 weeks.

Sorry if i am coming across as frustrated, its only because its officially the last minute and i am essentially back to the drawing board.

But you haven't even moved yet, right? Why would you get an apartment that's still a 20 minute drive from your job? Is it too late to get an apartment (with roommate, of course) within walking distance of your job? Or at least near a major transit route?

I'm sorry, but it really sounds like you're doing this to yourself. You haven't even moved yet, but you've selected an apartment that requires you to spend money buying/registering/insuring/maintaining a car. It seems to me that an intelligent person with their back truly against the wall would have sought an apartment that obviated the need for a vehicle they clearly cannot afford.



Zitara, I'm starting to get the sense that you're actually fishing for someone here to lend you the money. If that's the case, I can tell you right now, you're barking up the VERY wrong tree. This is not Prosper.com.

But to answer your question, no, I don't know of any cheap loans for high-risk borrowers. It's simple market forces, supply and demand, and risk-premium. You are perceived as a high-risk borrower, so no one is going to lend you money at the same rate as they would a trustworthy borrower. That's just how it works.



I absolutely agree, and I think you're right to resist such circumstances. But that leaves you with few options, such as borrowing money from a friend or relative (a bad idea, in my opinion), or, as I've been trying to say, remove the need for a vehicle. Lots of people out there seem to manage just fine in life without owning a vehicle. They're not geniuses, they've simply arranged their lives such that they don't need a vehicle. You could do the same.

why not get a $500 car? they exist. they have problems, but generally will get you down the road. I drove a '93 olds up until a couple years ago. The car worked pretty well sans the air conditioning and had LOW miles. I sold it for $700 after replacing the rack and pinion. If someone would have given me a sob story, I would have knocked a $100 off.

Or a bicycle. my 20 min drive is a 35 min bike ride. and i ride everyday, 100 degree weather, rainy weather or snowy weather. this saves you a tremendous amount of money, by the way.

I'm sure you'll have excuses for why neither of these are viable options for you. But know, you have a round a peg and you are trying to force in a square hole. Your excuses do not change the size and/or shape of your peg or the hole.

I was simply asking if there was a bank or lender that anyone knew of that would work with my situation and not base the entire thing off of credit. I was not soliciting for loans. being without a car is simply not an option for me. i appreciate the feedback and will consider alternatives.

Thanks

It is understandable that you are frustrated. And it is at least partly understandable WHY you have bad credit. But the fact is, you DO have bad credit. That means anyone thinking about loaning you money expects that there is a good chance they will lose is. I know you understand that but you really need to accept what that means. No one is going to loan you money unless they are well paid for their risk. That is why they add on a lot of extra fees. If you don't like it you can go to a bank...of wait a minute...you don't have that option.

I see three possibilities:

1. Find a way to live close to your job so that you can walk or bike for a a few months until you save up enough to buy a car for cash

2. Get your mother to give you a ride to work every day for a few months until you save up enough.

3. Find a much cheaper car (~$1000) or moped to buy for cash then drive it for a few months until you can save up enough to buy a $5000 car for cash.

Do you see the trend here? You are NOT going to get a loan except under abusive terms from the kinds of places you mentioned. You need to find a way to put off the car purchase for a short time until you can save up to buy a car for cash. If you make a lot of money as you say then it should not take you long to save up. As you mentioned, borrowing under abusive terms is an option, just not an attractive one.

Good luck to you.

Part of your problem is that you are purchasing a used car. Most lenders aren't really interested in financing a $6K used car to begin with much less to someone with bad credit. There's no equity in the vehicle when they have to repo it.

Did you look at leasing a new car? Sometimes the lease payments are quite low. Ordinarily I would not recommend a car fleece & with your bad credit you may not qualify.

I was playing with some numbers...If the OP can afford $250 a month, which is what I think he mentioned, then that does not buy a lot of car.

I think Tightwad is right. From a lender's perspective, they are going to want a big fee in cash up front for their efforts. Basically, they have to put in a certain amount of work to get you a loan. If they get 1% of a $20000 loan on a $25000 car then that is $200. That pays for an hour or so of staff time (you have to include benefits and overhead). In reality it probably takes close to an hour of time to process even a simple loan. So, the lender gets to pay the staff plus keep a tiny profit.

If the loan is "special" meaning that they have to ignore the credit report and do their own diligence to assess the risk, perhaps by verifying the story about the illness and the otherwise good credit, calling the employer to verify employment and future employment likelihood, etc. etc., the lender has a lot more time invested in your loan. That does not make any sense if their payment is 1% of a $5000 loan ($50). That might be why those car dealerships want to charge extra fees.

You are going to have to buy an old clunker for $500 or so until you can save up for a better vehicle.

Unfortunately I dont see any other reasonable option. No one will loan you money if you have bad credit without a high interest rate. If you have family, they might do it, but thats a crappy thing to do to them, IMO.

Public transit sucks, but its cheap and Ive used it before when I had to. Biking could be an option depending on where you live. You could attempt to carpool with some co-workers, take the bus, bike, get a ride from your mother once or twice a week, in some combination to make it through a couple of months to get a cheap used car. Then run that pos into the ground, and by that time you should be back on your feet and ready to go.

Remember, a repossession will only really ding your credit for a couple of years, and will be completely gone in 7 years. Either get a super cheap used car or find a way to live without a car for two years, then revisit your transportation needs.

$250 * 24 months = $6000. Combined with a much better credit score and you could buy a nice vehicle that will last for quite a while and isnt embarassing to be seen in.

You need to make a long term plan and budget accordingly. Look at all options.

When I was flat broke, I lived in a tiny bedroom at a friends home and took the bus to work. It sucked, alot. However, it didnt take long doing that to build up a decent savings amount.

Not sure why you have bad credit, but a majority of the time, people are buying NICE stuff they can't afford.

If I were you, I would sell some of that stuff and use that towards saving for a car. You don't have to have a 5 or 6k dollar car.

I think you're being unreasonable when you say there are no carpooling options. I think you don't want to tell anyone that you're at the end of your rope and need a ride. Suck it up, cupcake. Go find someone who lives FAIRLY close to you, and you can either walk or bike to a location that's near their house and get a ride.

In the meantime, save up some money with your decent paying job, and get a car. If your mom isn't ready to get back to work, why does she need the car? I'm sure she'd prefer you drive it and work while she gets herself together, financially and mentally.

Think logically and rationally, and you'll find a solution. Sorry about your dad and all the things that have gone wrong in the past. Today is a new day. A fresh start. Get busy.

Hey Ziatara. Sorry about the current situation and the loss of you father. You did a brave thing by moving back home and helping your parents.

1. Buy/rent a motorcyle? It would be temporary hopefully but it would save on gas and do the trick.

2. Rent to Own (Where you pay double or tripple)? There are companies who would loan to you at 15% or more interest I'm sure on a 4-6k vehicle. It not ideal but that is an option.

3. Buy a clunker? A $1000 car isn't ideal but it would get you from point A to point B.

4. Public Transportation? I have a friend who took the bus for a few years while he got back on his feet. It's not ideal but it does get you to and from work.

5. Carpool? Pay someone a certain amount per ride until you can get it all worked out?

Cheer up! Something will work out! As peachy said think logically and you can figure something out.

Thanks for all of the helpful tips. i have resigned myself to accept this new reality. While not having a car is still not an option, i am ready to start looking for a cheap car. I can buy a 1,000 car now and save that monthly payment until it breaks down and hopefully have enough saved so i can get something more reliable. Any tips or advice on searching and purchasing a "transition car"? I have a grand to spend right now.

Thanks