If you’re looking for St. Louis guaranteed financing on a used car loan, you’ve come to the right place. Cross Keys Auto offers the following tips for avoiding too many credit inquiries while looking for a car loan to buy your next used car:

Request a Free Copy of Your Credit Report
Every year, you can request a copy of your credit report for free from each of the three credit reporting bureaus. Make a few copies of the credit report and bring one with you when visiting our St. Louis used car dealership. We can often use it to get you preliminary approval – or discover if it’s not possible to lend to you. You can also use it when applying for a car loan from other sources, to help avoid an inquiry on your credit report which can result in a lower credit score.

Once you find a lender with guaranteed financing that it appears you qualify for, they may still have to pull your credit report or score – but at least you will only have one pull of your credit instead of multiple inquiries over several months as you try to find someone who can lend you money even with a bad credit score. While multiple inquiries within a certain time frame for car loans count only once – if you continuously apply for credit over a long period of time, the inquiries will be counted multiple times against you and it will further damage your credit score. Having a copy of your credit report will help minimize the number of times you need to let lenders pull your credit.