I have been saving for a house (my first) and the market is great now to buy one. I remember a couple of years ago a lender advised me that I should have 3 lines of credit. He noted this when he saw I only had 2 credit cards. I need to buy a car. Mine was wrecked. So am I wondering if I should take a loan out for the car to give me a 3rd one. My score is currently 864. I have no debt and have a six figure income. Does it make sense to have the car note when I apply for a mortgage , does it help me at all? Or should I get the car loan and pay it off quickly (which I can do) then apply for a mortgage? I have saved a good down payment for the house. Thanks for your help.

Makes sense to me, just use financing (a note) that doesn't impose a prepayment penalty.

I just went through the loan process and first thing I would do is to get preapproved through your bank ,credit union, then shop around. There are some great articles from the Morgtage professor at Yahoo. He is great and A-1. If you have all the bases covered then you will make the right call. Pay cash for the car. timozozo

Here's additional info (a lot of it) that may shed additional light: KnowDebt.org - Resource Center (http://knowdebt.org/resource-center.html)