Ok, so I'll preface this by saying I'm a dumb college kid, however, I don't have gobs of credit card debt, etc.  I do have some hefty student loans that aren't due until I have a full time job.

I'm looking at ways to build my credit. Its not that its bad - I have a single credit card from my bank with a limit that was just upped to 1k and a stupid mall store credit card. I have *heard* that taking out a loan and paying it off (even if its quickly) is a good way to make your credit rating jump. I don't have an impending need to do this other than I have a lot of friends who have financed cars etc and now have great credit.

Since I"m probably going to be upgrading this summer I was thinking this was a good opportunity.  Has anyone financed a bike before? Have any experiences to share? Any advice? Am I totally dumb?

i was once stupid and newbie.. if you finance through the dealer.. they will get you a good deal but the loan they give you is a 'personal loan' and hence the interest rate is kinda higher than usual, i got 14.99% for 48mo. Seriously if I went through my bank i could have gotten a lot lower than that.

Shop around.. but be aware most places consider bikes as a personal loan and not a automotive loan.

I suppose it depends on how badly you want to get raped and become "part of the system".

Would you like the red pill or the blue pill?   

Personally, I don't play the credit game.  Don't know what my credit score is, don't care.

Try your bank first.Since you have established a credit line with them, they will be more inclined to lend you money with collateral(bike).Plus they can monitor your account to make sure you pay your loan.Not that you would skip out on them.

Quote from: GeeP on May 27, 2008, 10:02:50 PM
I suppose it depends on how badly you want to get raped and become "part of the system".

Would you like the red pill or the blue pill?   

Personally, I don't play the credit game.  Don't know what my credit score is, don't care.

You apparently haven't bought a house lately.  Any credit score below a certain number and guess what, your payment goes up.  Although I don't like to be part of this whole system we have, to get a decent place I have to play the game.

I would hold off on buying a house anyway, the market is just going to sink a little more.

As far as a bike, one general rule: don't finance your toys unless you can pay them off right that instant.

well not many of us are wealthy terry 

well d'uhhhh

Quote from: spcterry on May 27, 2008, 10:50:27 PM
I would hold off on buying a house anyway, the market is just going to sink a little more.

As far as a bike, one general rule: don't finance your toys unless you can pay them off right that instant.

Quote from: mjn12 on May 27, 2008, 09:41:33 PM
Ok, so I'll preface this by saying I'm a dumb college kid, however, I don't have gobs of credit card debt, etc.  I do have some hefty student loans that aren't due until I have a full time job.

I'm looking at ways to build my credit. Its not that its bad - I have a single credit card from my bank with a limit that was just upped to 1k and a stupid mall store credit card. I have *heard* that taking out a loan and paying it off (even if its quickly) is a good way to make your credit rating jump. I don't have an impending need to do this other than I have a lot of friends who have financed cars etc and now have great credit.

Since I"m probably going to be upgrading this summer I was thinking this was a good opportunity.  Has anyone financed a bike before? Have any experiences to share? Any advice? Am I totally dumb?

What the hell does a college student need credit, or a good credit rating for ?

Forget doing that man. Focus on your books, buy whatever you want/need with CA$H, and forget about credit until you are out and working, like 5 years later.

Read ^ that again, there is  abosultely no reason for you to finance anything other than your education (if you have to) right now.

Save the money you would have made payments with, and purchase whatever after all the money is stacked.

You'll be ahead of your game, less stress, and you can watch your kids cars/bikes get repossessed.

**** my 2 cents, but they're MINE, all MINE ****

Quote from: yamahonkawazuki on May 28, 2008, 12:10:15 AM
well not many of us are wealthy terry 

Is there something wrong with being wealthy ? I mean, so wrong that you should finance yourself into a hole and then complain about it ?

If you can live without it (credit) then don't get on the merry-go-round but if you must, take your time and shop around - don't overlook the bleedin' obvious and stoll into your local high street bank branch(s).
A good general rule is stay away from people advertising in the newspapers/mags/internet etc if they make it all sound so simple and if you have to go for plastic, do the deal and then slice the card.

Having good credit is overrated.  It just means you have bought a bunch of crap that you couldn't afford and payed it off on time. 

Having said that...that's ok, as long as you don't overdo it.  To each his own.  I personally believe that Mr. ohgood is right on the money, though. 

My advice is to find a Credit Union.  You won't find a lower interest rate than a good credit union would offer.  It used to be that only certian professions had credit unions and you had to work at a certain place (Teachers, Government/Military, etc) to become a member.  But now lots of them accept members from the puplic.  For example...I work for the Federal Aviation Administration, so we had an FAA Credit Union.  In the beginning, you had to work for the FAA or certain other government entities to be a member.  In the past couple off years, though, they have expanded and let the general public become members.  All they require is that you at least open a savings account and maintain a whopping $5 balance.

Right now my Credit Union is offering Motorcycle rates as low as 5.74%.  Of course part of that IS based on credit score, but since you say your credit isn't 'bad', you can still probably get a decent rate.  Much better than you could get from a regular bank.  Good luck!

Credit 100% Directly effects your insurance premiums! Sounds lame ehh.. but its true. You can have 2 DUI's and have lower insurance rates than someone w/ a low credit score.

Credit is looked at for WAY more than just the abillity to accrue debt. Most employers will even pull your credit, insurance co. check it and determine your rate based on it, even the utility co's, car rental co's and many more... Doesnt seem fair, but thats how they roll 

So CREDIT IS VERY IMPORTAINT!

Like mentioned above, I would only go with your personal bank or a credit union. and the best way to build your credit is a term loan, Like a motorcycle loan. You must pay it to term though, meaning DONT pay it off fast, that makes it worse, not better 

Depends on the price of the bike and how it's financed.

Our dirtbkes are on a honda card because of the low price of them, they'll be paid off in a couple more months, never pay the minimum amount and it does not hurt to pay off on a schedule that is shorter than the term as long as it's not some sudden lump sum payment and you establish a history of paying more than just the regular amount. They were on a 24 month same as cash deal so I have been paying them at $180 month to pay that account off before intrest begins accruing on the principal owed.

My wifes bike is financed through American Honda Motors it is an auto loan. Paying an extra 20 dollars a month we should have it payed off in 46 instead of 60 months. In doing that extra every month it applies to the principal our monthly statement for her bike is about 1/2 of what the payment should be because we are ahead on payments for the princpal which also reduces the monthly interest payment. These things look good on a credit report if it is a consistent scheduled payment.

Same thing goes with house payments It doesn't matter if it's only 10 dollars extra pay that extra 10 dollars because everything above your scheduled payment applies towards the principal amount.

As a recent college grad I can tell you that student loans hurt your credit score tremendously!  Doesn't matter how much or little!  As soon as a creditor sees student loan on your application you are almost guaranteed to be turned down!

I ran into this problem while buying my bike!  I have a great credit score, but at the time the only things I had on my current history was a house payment and student loans.  HSBC (Bank of choice for Suzuki) did not want to give me a loan because they saw the student loans.  I had to prove to them that after I paid the payments on all my loans I still had over 60% of my income coming back to me on top of putting almost 50% down on the bike! 

Why did I go through this hassle for them?  Because my bank was going to charge me 12% where as HSBC charged me 6.9%. 

My monthly bike and insurance payments combined are less than it would cost me to put gas in my car for two weeks!

Student loand reallly, no issue for us my wife has 80k in loans and her credit score is better than mine.

My credit score is near perfect... after I jumped through their hoops and proved to them that I had the income to cover everything they approved me for $15,000!  NO WAY IN HADES DO I SPEND THAT MUCH ON A BIKE AT THIS POINT IN MY LIFE!!!

My Student Loans are only $30,000.  I guess they realize that since it's a Federal Student Loan, then it gives the government the authority to garnish tax refunds, wages, etc... if I don't pay them! and since this is a "Toy" then they assumed this would be the last one on the list to get paid.

Doesn't make a lot of sense to me either, that with a near perfect score that something like that would be such a big headache, but it was!

Motorcycles and boats are luxury items or playtoys. The lending guidelines for them are much stricter than for automobiles. Usually anyone who can get factory financed on a bike will have good credit.

Yeah we got pre approved for enough to buy my goldwing when we bought my wifes bike last year, she almost didn't get that pretty blue f4i

I paid cash for my bikes and my credit is crappy.My insurance is low on my bikes but stupid high on my cars.I use two different companies.It comes out cheaper that way.

Quote from: bettingpython on May 28, 2008, 11:27:17 AM
Usually anyone who can get factory financed on a bike will have good credit.

I would have to put some emphasis on "usually" I have seen some people here at work with bellow a 600 and on SSI get a new Gixer with a Suzuki card 

Scary...