$99 down, $99 a month...to good to be true?

[rdeckert]

I am in a bad financial spot at the moment and am looking for a car to buy. I'm sure everyone has seen these commercials "$99 down, $99 a month. No matter what your credit is.", but is it really worth it at all? I know this program was created for people in my position, and I'm sure there's some crazy interest involved, but what if I just need this car for now?

Has anyone ever tried this deal? Or does anyone know someone who has? My plan is to go ahead and get the car, and just continue paying until I can afford to get something else. Is this a bad idea?

[soapsuds22]

How is your credit? Alot of these dealerships that advertise these deals are just fishing for customers. I worked at a used dealership in Sunrise Florida that used that type of advertising. They promised in all of their ads that they can finance anyone regardless of your credit score and it will only be $99 down and $99 a month. And they kept true that deal...but only to people with good to excellent credit. Alot of those ads if you look at the bottom will have WAC in small print. With acceptable credit.

Big dealers have no problem lying to people to get them on the lot. Once you get there they inform you that you don't qualify for that deal and try to sell you a car with a big downpayment and horrible interest rate. Alot of people they just turn down and send them on their way.

They dealership that I worked at had a policy with their sales people that nobody sees the key to a vehicle or takes a test drive without a credit check first. Alot of the customers that had bad credit were just turned away. I would have to tell them that we can't sell them a car. People would get really pissed. Expecially if they drove over an hour from Miami because they thought we would put them in a car for $99 down and $99 a month. Most weekends I would see over 30 customers a day. Run their credit, turn them down, and move to the next one. I'd usually hit my 10 percent and make 3 sales for the day.

[rdeckert]

That just sounds like I'm really screwed then. My credit, isn't so hot. It's not like horrible, but we can just say I haven't been able to pay every bill on time. I could give you an exact number, if I knew where to get it for free. Do you know of somewhere that I could do a credit check for free? And one that actually is free.

['97ventureowner]

The only free site set up for consumers to check their credit reports is : www.annualcreditreport.com . That is the site set up a few years back by the government. Consumers are allowed one free report a year from all 3 credit reporting bureaus If you want your score from each reporting bureau, it costs anywheres from $5.95 to $7 or $8.95 depending on the agency.. You are also entitled to a free report if you are denied credit or have an incident such as a credit limit on a credit card suddenly decreased ,from the agency that supplied the credit info to he creditor that made the decision. They are ususally identified in the "rejection letter".

[drdisque]

if you're in a really bad spot, I suggest just crapping together $1000 and buying a cheap car like an old tercel or geo prizm or ford tempo.

[rdeckert]

Well, thanks for the link to that site, but it's not free. It doesn't give me my actual credit score for free. It just lets me know that I have one agency on my ass. The reason I don't just scrape up $1000, is because I don't have the funds to just scrape it together.

['97ventureowner]

Originally Posted by rdeckert

Well, thanks for the link to that site, but it's not free. It doesn't give me my actual credit score for free. It just lets me know that I have one agency on my ass. The reason I don't just scrape up $1000, is because I don't have the funds to just scrape it together.

to whom are you replying to in this post? If it is mine, I sated in my earlier post that the link supplies free credit reports from the 3 agencies once a year, but you would have to pay from $5.95 on up ( depending on which agency) for the score itself. I just checked mine back in October, and paid roughly $25 to $30 total for all 3 of my scores.

Originally Posted by '97ventureowner

The only free site set up for consumers to check their credit reports is : www.annualcreditreport.com . That is the site set up a few years back by the government. Consumers are allowed one free report a year from all 3 credit reporting bureaus If you want your score from each reporting bureau, it costs anywheres from $5.95 to $7 or $8.95 depending on the agency.

[rdeckert]

I'm a dumbass, which is why I didn't understand the part about paying for the scores. I'm thinking that I thought you meant $5.95 for all three and something like just one of them was free. Excuse my incompetence.

['97ventureowner]

Originally Posted by rdeckert

I'm a dumbass, which is why I didn't understand the part about paying for the scores. I'm thinking that I thought you meant $5.95 for all three and something like just one of them was free. Excuse my incompetence.

No problem, I suspected there might have been a miscommunication. Before I buy something , I thoroughly research it to get the best, ( aka cheapest price to pay ) As of October 2008 when I looked into the "best deal" for all 3 scores online. I found that if you got your free reports from the site I listed, the best price for your scores was by paying for them ala carte from each of the reporting agencies' sites. I looked at the "bundled packages" available but couldn't beat the price by going to each of the 3 sites and paying for the individual score at the time of obtaining my free report.
I just got through reading, "Living rich by spending smart : how to get more of what you really want" by Gregory Karp. In that book he states that signing up for those credit monitoring services, especially those that are offered by your credit card companies are a big waste of money, with many charging upwards of $12.99/mo. He said it is cheaper to check your report and score by yourself a few times a year and pay for it at that time. Besides, most of the time these services "catch" something, it has already happened and the damage is already done.

[HarmonyRose]

try creditkarma.com. it's not perfect, but it's free