I’ve been ferreting around everywhere the last few days trying to get things in motion to get a car. I haven’t saved up as much as I’d hoped to have at this point, for a few reasons – mainly due to random little expenses and because I’ve diverted part of my pay to buying shares in Apple (which has gone up over 13% since I started, schweet). But then, I’ve found that being an AAA member (roadside assistance, basically) actually gives you a sizeable discount, plus a few other things… so I’m actually about where I was expecting to be, in terms of loan amount.
Unfortunately, after trying a few different credit reporting websites, I finally got one which would actually give me an answer other than “sorry, we’ve got your credit report but we can’t show it to you because… just because“, which said to the effect that I don’t have enough credit history to have a meaningful result. So, no credit. This is not a good thing.
I’m going to wander over to the Honda dealership just across the road in a minute, and see what they offer in terms of financing and whatnot, but I’m not expecting much; from looking about on the web, dealer financing isn’t typically competitive. The best rates seem to be with credit unions, but still, without a reasonable credit rating you get beaten about pretty badly. :(
There’s not a whole lot I can really do… I could open up half a dozen credit cards with various banks, and sit on my thumbs for three months… other than that, it’s just a matter of waiting (a long time; you need at least five years of credit history to get beyond an “average” credit rating). Ironically, having a few loans here and there would improve my credit rating. So maybe I should just go buy a house or something and stick it to ’em. ;)
I find it most infuriating the way the credit reporting scheme here works… you’re rewarded for owing lots of money to people, and having many high-value and high-risk lines of credit… which is completely retarded, because someone who’s a safe bet to lend to would be someone who takes and presently has very few financial risks…
Finance is retarded.
I had the light-bulb idea of checking the Commonwealth Bank’s loan rates, since I still have my account with them and could funnel the money over here, but, their best interest rates still weren’t as good as even the worst ones here. Ah well, it was worth a try.
And of course even once I get the car, I have to deal with insurance. Insurance here is brutal. Several of the places I checked quote over $5,000 a year for comprehensive insurance on my hypothetical 2007 Honda Civic Hybrid. The typical quote was well over $3,000. And these provide so little coverage anyway, it’s just laughable – for my $3,600 (on average) a year I’d be covered for all of $15,000 property damage, $25,000 person damage, and while my car would be covered it would have all these retarded excesses.
However, on the upside I spoke to Erick at work, whom has moved here from Holland and is thus going through similar trauma, and he noted that he was paying a relatively affordable amount for his insurance. After taking his comments and fiddling with the web forms, I managed to get a quote for something around $2,300 a year. That’s a bit painful, but, I always knew it’d be pricey for me anyway, because I’m one of those evil hot-headed hoon teenagers, that you see writing off their Porsche Boxters every other weekend.
Because I have garages full of Porsches. That I bought with all my low-interest car loans, because of my awesome credit rating.
#%@!
