Financing a Harley with a bad credit score?
Outstanding HDF Member
Joined: Jul 2013
Posts: 2,874
Likes: 36
From: Houston, TX
I appreciate your advice as well as all the others saying I should fix my credit first. I am not in any way offended, but the fact of the matter is I am by no means "poor". I make good money and can easily afford the payment on a new sporty even with an extremely high rate. that being said I dont have 9k just laying around to go pay for it in cash. Sure I could save for probably just 5-6 months and be pretty close, but by that time summer will have come and gone, hence why I am looking to finance. My credit is the way it is due to a recent divorce and my trying to live like I make the kind of money i do now, back when I didnt make half as much. It may be more financially smart to put my wants aside and just save, but like ive said I want to enjoy my bike this summer. I realize this gottta have it now attitude is what may have gotten my credit score the way it is, but so be it, I want what I want. I understand people often associate a low credit score with a low income, however that is not always the case. I simply asked what my chances would be, not what the smart thing to do is. I understand I may come off as a complete compulsive idiot who just wants instant gratification, but oh well. thanks for the replies though and no hard feelings, I realize you all were just trying to give me your opinion on what the right thing to do was. sorry for the rant I just wanted to put it out there that I may be aN Idiot, but I am not the "poor, pennyless idiot some of you are making me out to be. Thanks for the suggestions and I plan to go to my dealer sometime next week!
Check your email.
By the way, turn on your PM's please.
Grand HDF Member
Joined: Oct 2009
Posts: 3,918
Likes: 3,715
From: Hill Country, TX
I understand I may come off as a complete compulsive idiot who just wants instant gratification, but oh well. thanks for the replies though and no hard feelings, I realize you all were just trying to give me your opinion on what the right thing to do was. sorry for the rant I just wanted to put it out there that I may be aN Idiot, but I am not the "poor, pennyless idiot some of you are making me out to be. Thanks for the suggestions and I plan to go to my dealer sometime next week!
I guess I'll just never understand why someone in your situation would make the decision you're going to make, knowing full well how bad it is for your financial well being.
Good luck to you. You're going to need it.
Road Warrior
Joined: Jul 2007
Posts: 1,898
Likes: 67
From: Saint Amant, Acadiana
What credit. If you buy a vehicle you can afford you pay cash. If you do not have enough cash then you cannot afford it. Yes, it is as simple as that. This is common sense.
But then again, if everybody had common sense in financial matters banks would go out of business. They live on peoples difference between ambitions and realities.
But then again, if everybody had common sense in financial matters banks would go out of business. They live on peoples difference between ambitions and realities.
Keeping a mortgage for the tax deduction isn't a good idea. Let's say you pay $10,000 a year in mortgage interest. You would get a $10,000 tax deduction, sounds good doesn't it? But if your in a 20% tax bracket that $10,000 you paid in interest saves you $2,000 per year on your taxes. How does paying a bank $10,000 to not pay the IRS $2,000 make any since? I'd rather pay the IRS $2,000 and keep the other $8,000 for my self. In good years you can make more on mutual funds then you pay in mortgage interest but what happens in years like 2008 when the market crashed. I'd rather pay off my house then invest the money I'm saving by not paying mortgage interest. That's the kind of stuff Dave Ramsey teaches. You can learn all you need to know by listening to his radio show which doesn't cost anything.
There's always more than one way to look at things...
What happens in years like 2008 when the market crashed? If you don't cash out your investments, nothing. We're now back to higher than we were then.
Equity is an expense. If you own a $200,000 house free and clear, you've got that money sitting there doing nothing, costing you money on lost investment opportunity.
If I told my financial adviser that I wanted to cash out $200,000 in investments paying 6%-8%-10% in annual returns in order to pay off a 4% mortgage, he'd punch my teeth in. In fact, given where current mortgage rates are, if you owned your home free and clear, you'd be financially better off to take out a new mortgage for as much as you could borrow, and invest it.
Of course, that assumes you can sleep at night, but that's an entirely different subject.
What happens in years like 2008 when the market crashed? If you don't cash out your investments, nothing. We're now back to higher than we were then.
Equity is an expense. If you own a $200,000 house free and clear, you've got that money sitting there doing nothing, costing you money on lost investment opportunity.
If I told my financial adviser that I wanted to cash out $200,000 in investments paying 6%-8%-10% in annual returns in order to pay off a 4% mortgage, he'd punch my teeth in. In fact, given where current mortgage rates are, if you owned your home free and clear, you'd be financially better off to take out a new mortgage for as much as you could borrow, and invest it.
Of course, that assumes you can sleep at night, but that's an entirely different subject.
Tourer
Joined: Feb 2015
Posts: 410
Likes: 124
From: South Carolina
I appreciate your advice as well as all the others saying I should fix my credit first. I am not in any way offended, but the fact of the matter is I am by no means "poor". I make good money and can easily afford the payment on a new sporty even with an extremely high rate. that being said I dont have 9k just laying around to go pay for it in cash. Sure I could save for probably just 5-6 months and be pretty close, but by that time summer will have come and gone, hence why I am looking to finance. My credit is the way it is due to a recent divorce and my trying to live like I make the kind of money i do now, back when I didnt make half as much. It may be more financially smart to put my wants aside and just save, but like ive said I want to enjoy my bike this summer. I realize this gottta have it now attitude is what may have gotten my credit score the way it is, but so be it, I want what I want. I understand people often associate a low credit score with a low income, however that is not always the case. I simply asked what my chances would be, not what the smart thing to do is. I understand I may come off as a complete compulsive idiot who just wants instant gratification, but oh well. thanks for the replies though and no hard feelings, I realize you all were just trying to give me your opinion on what the right thing to do was. sorry for the rant I just wanted to put it out there that I may be aN Idiot, but I am not the "poor, pennyless idiot some of you are making me out to be. Thanks for the suggestions and I plan to go to my dealer sometime next week!
I hear what you are saying, but do you "need" a brand new $9000.00 bike right now when you can find a really nice used bike to ride for a third of that?
I just bought a bike, shopped around for over a month before I decided what I wanted, there are a crap-ton of really nice used bikes out there right now. It's a buyers market out there. I picked up a FatBoy with 5K on it for what you are looking at paying for a Sportie. Looked at a ton of nice Hondas a Yams. Buy what you can afford.
Seasoned HDF Member
Joined: Aug 2013
Posts: 35,774
Likes: 38,462
From: Post Falls, ID
Unless of course, your "income" doesn't produce a W-2 or 1099. If you are working for cash or "under the table", you won't get credit because a lender can't verify your income.
Last edited by upflying; Mar 6, 2015 at 09:35 AM.
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Seasoned HDF Member
Joined: Sep 2010
Posts: 11,722
Likes: 9,152
From: Georgia
Sure you are. Don't kid yourself. Being broke and pennyless isn't about how much you make. It's about how much you spend. You are broke now and you will be broke in the future. The majority of the posts in this thread were suggesting behavior modifications that could change that. Mine wasn't even that radical, but do you. Just realize most of the posts came from a spirit of helpfulness, rather than one of judgement.
Outstanding HDF Member
Joined: Jul 2013
Posts: 2,874
Likes: 36
From: Houston, TX
I still don't understand how you make good money. With unpaid debts, your past creditors must have multiple judgments against you. Your income has to be garnished up the yazoo.
Unless of course, your "income" doesn't produce a W-2 or 1099. If you are working for cash or "under the table", you won't get credit because a lender can't verify your income.
Unless of course, your "income" doesn't produce a W-2 or 1099. If you are working for cash or "under the table", you won't get credit because a lender can't verify your income.
This thread sounds like a bunch of men who let their wives handle the finances so they have no clue how any of this really works.