How to get 0% financing for a car, with no credit score?
Yes, of course it is. Car dealers are motivated to write loans even more than selling cars at times. When I bought a new car for the first time in my life, in my 40's, it took longer to get the finance guy out of my face than to negotiate and buy the car.  The car dealer selling you the used car would be happy to package the financing into the selling price. Similar to how 'points' are used to adjust the actual cost of a mortgage, the dealer can tinker with the price up front knowing that you want to stretch the payment out a bit.  To littleadv's point, 3 months isn't long, I think a used car dealer wold be happy to work with you. Is it possible to get a 0% interest rate for car loan for used car in   US? Possible? Yes. It's not illegal. Likely? Not really. $5K is not a very high amount, many banks won't even finance it at all, regardless of your credit score. I suggest you try local credit unions, especially those that your employer is sponsoring (if there are any). Otherwise, you will probably get horrible rates, but for 3 months - you can just take whatever, pay the 3 months interest and get rid of the loan as soon as you're able.
Since no one else answered this part of your question yet:  Checking your own credit score or report will not affect it in any way.  It only hurts you when someone looks it up to run a credit check at your request for the purpose of possibly getting a loan, for example a car dealership. This only hurts it a tiny bit, and is not worth worrying about unless you are going to 20 different car dealerships who each do a check. However, it is a good idea not to let them run your credit until you are seriously ready to buy a car. In fact, it is better to just get financing somewhere else and not let them run it at all. Since your credit score is much better than hers, you should apply for the credit card yourself alone to get the best chance of approval for your card of choice. Once you have the card, you can add her as an authorized user, which will get her a card of her own, tied to your account.  Most banks will begin reporting to both of your credit reports, which should help her credit score over time. Keep in mind that you are solely legally responsible for the debt; your girlfriend will be able to make charges and will have no legal responsibility for the debt.  Make sure you are comfortable with that. For what it is worth, in general, I recommend against combining your finances with someone who you are not married to, but it seems that you have already done that, so adding a shared credit card to your finances shouldn't be any worse than what you are already doing. These are the things to focus on... do not put yourself in debt with a car, there are other better solutions.  1) Get a credit card (Unless you already have one) -Research this and get the best cash back or points card you can get at the best rate.  - Start with buying gas and groceries every month do not run the balance up. - Pay the card off every single month. (THIS IS IMPORTANT) - Never carry a balance above 25% of your credit limit.  - Every 8 months or so call your credit card company and ask for a credit line increase. They should be able to do this WITHOUT pulling your credit you are only looking for the automatic increment that they can automatically approve. This will help increase your available credit and will help keep your credit utilization low. Only do this is you are successfully doing the other bullet points above.  2) Pay all of your bills on time, this includes everything from water, electricity, phone bill, etc. never be late. Setup automatic payments if you can.  3) Minimize the number of hard credit inquiries. -This is particularly important when you are looking for your mortgage lender. Do not let them pull your credit automatically. You should be able to provide them your credit score and other information and get quotes from those lenders. Do not let them tell you then can't do this... they can.  4)Strategically plan when you close a credit line, closing them will do two things, lower your credit limit often times increasing your credit utilization, and it may hurt your average age of credit. Open one credit card and keep it forever.  *Note: Credit Karma is a great tool, you should check your score monthly and see how your efforts are influencing your score. I also like Citi credit cards because they will provide you monthly with your FICO Score which Credit Karma will only provide TransUnion and Equifax.  This is educational information and you should consider talking to a banker/lender who can also give you more detailed instructions on how to get your credit improved so that they can approve you for a loan.  Many people can get their score above 720 in 1-2 years time going from no credit doing the steps described above. It does take time be patient and don't fall for gimmicks. "The conclusion that ""it's bad to have 0% utilization"" from the data you linked is misleading.  When people have zero history, they also have zero utilization.  The fact that generally people with zero utilization are credit virgins is what drives that average score.  Obviously, people with zero, or limited, history will have significantly lower credit scores than folks with some utilization and a lot of history. In response to the couple comments regarding the dip on attaining 0% utilization.  The data shows a 67 point drop in average score from 0% to 1%-10%.  The stark deviation in average score between those two groups is not the result of a couple point change because of zero utilization." "Why are banks all of a sudden providing people their credit scores for free? Because it is a really good idea.   On an ABC Bank website, it has:  ""Check your credit score for free"" button.  You click it.  Not only will it come up with a credit score, but it could also trigger a marketing workflow.  If it is direct mail, email, or a phone call a banker could contact you for help with a debt product.  This marketing could also be targeted, say a person with a high score could be targeted for a mortgage.  A person with a low or medium score could be targeted for ways and products to improve their score. Now if you run XYZ bank and not do the same, you are losing a competitive advantage to banks that offer this.  Not only will your customers be less happy, but you will lose a great marketing opportunities.   Face it, the only people that worry about their credit score are people that are in the market to borrow.  Which again, is more information.  If you have someone that never checks their credit score, or has their credit frozen, then it is wise not to market to them debt products." the best thing to do is file bankrupt. your credit will be shot for 7 to 10 years. however usually 3 years after the bankrupt people will give you small lines of credit. then you rebuild on the small credit lines. and never get into a bad loan again you learn from mistakes. there is no shame in a mistake if you learned from it. I rebuilt my credit by using fingerhut. small credit limit on a cap 1 credit card 300 dollars unsecured card. personal loan of 1500 dollars to buy a old clunk for a car as I did not want to have five years of car payments. you can also get a secured credit card. and build credit with that. the bank will explain how to build credit using your own money. also you should know a lot of banks like your bankrupt stat. because they no you cant file for several more years. meaning if you don't pay your loan they can garnish you and you cant file bankrupt. you can get a new car loan with good interest rate. by taking 5000 dollars of your 15000 dollars savings down on the new loan. making your new car loan have better payments cheaper and better interest. and get a secured credit card of 2000 to build towards a unsecured credit card. keep all your new credit tabs small and pay on time.i would not use all your nest egg savings. that is not smart. get a lawyer and file. stay in school you will have a fresh start and you learned about upside down loans. don't listen to people trying to tell you bankruptsy is bad. it in a lot of ways gives you the upper hand in a no win debt or debts. "1. Your oldest active credit agreement is not very old This is fairly straight forward. If you've not been exposed to borrowing for a reasonable length of time, people won't want to lend you money. They have no reason to have any confidence in your ability to repay them. As other said, it's pretty much a case of proving yourself by being good with credit over a period of time. 2. You have no active credit card accounts Credit reference agencies have to consider a variety of factors for a variety of purposes. Notably, they will be used for credit cards, unsecured loans, mortgages, and secured loans such as vehicle finance applications. These all have varying types of customer, and some will be inherently more risky than others. For instance, someone with a mortgage on a home is far more likely to make payments because they would be homeless without, however someone with a finance agreement on a car is relatively less likely to make those payments because all they stand to lose is their car. Consider that the most fruitful information the lender will get is a score and some breakdown of how it's generated, it's a very general understanding of your history. For that reason, having a wide variety of credit is very important. A good variety of credit to have would be one secured loan (e.g car finance) to get started, as well as at least one revolving unsecured credit account (e.g a credit card), and later on in your ""credit life"" an unsecured fixed term loan (e.g a loan for something which has nothing secured against it). I say the above reluctantly, because that's how I increased my credit score from 450 to 999 - first step was the car finance where in 3 months or so I changed from 450 to around 600, with a credit card I was approaching 900, and once I had an unsecured loan for 8 months I hit 999 - now I have all of the above plus a competitive mortgage and remain at 999. Whether each is mandatory to maintain 999 is debatable but based on personal experience, it seems reasonable." I have done this for years and have been quite successful at it. Two reason I even need to do this - desire to pay for engagement ring and pay for 150 person wedding without using my nest-egg/savings.  You need to keep a document that details when the free APRs run out, and you need to setup automatic payments of the minimum balance from your checking account so you ensure you do not miss a payment.  You need to understand when you are going to need to make big purchases of homes/apartments/cars so that you can ensure you aren't doing this right before your credit score is being checked (Need to leave 12 months without opening new accounts before doing this).  I have been able to finance about $60,000 worth of unsecured debt paying between 3-5% interest per year. We have an unsecured credit line with Citibank that charges 14% and is capped at $10,000, and Discover Personal Loans charge around 14% as well (in pre-paid interest!).  I would say, all things considering, that this is a great deal if you don't have a secured line of credit with a low interest rate.  It is something, however, that if you aren't diligent can get away from you. From my experience I would rather pay a small amount of interest while allowing my savings and retirement to grow interest (hopefully greater than 3-5%) than pay the huge expense and start from zero. But if you miss a single payment on a 0 APR balance transfer they charge you all back interest concessions plus charge you a penalty rate.  Like many of the other posts, you need discipline to make this work.