Tips on Buying Cars: Upside down with credit problems, car accidents, grand cherokee


Question
"My husband and I were desperate to get new cars after we both had car accidents within a month of each other. Well that desperation landed us with two auto loans with 22.5% (whew!) interest rates on two used cars. It goes without saying that both of us have credit problems. Anyway, that was a year and a half ago and my husband's 02 Grand Cherokee with 77,000 miles is having problems that even the dealership can't seem to solve. He is ready to trade in and get something more reliable. But here is the list of problems with that: 1. We are extremely upside down in that loan (About -$9,000); 2. He was 35 days late on one payment last December so our credit hasn't really improved much; and 3. We don't have a down payment to balance anything out. I feel that we should wait as long as we possibly can before we try to get something else but he is anxious because the truck quits on him about once a week. It almost feels that we are in another desperate situation but there has to be !
a better solution, PLEASE HELP!!"

Answer
Hi Bobbie,
I think you have the right answer, you should hold off as long as possible. Your situation will not get better until you 1)lower the neative equity or 2) pull your credit score up to get a better interest rate.

Wish I could help you more Bobbie. Hang in there
Good Luck.