Financing a Car

term?

 

You've left out some information that is needed to answer your question.

1) Will you be trading in a vehicle? If so, how much do you expect to get for it?
2) Will you be paying any portion of the vehicle up front, or are you planning on financing the entire purchase?
3) Are you planning a 2 year loan? 3 year? 5 year? In other words, how many months do you plan to spread out the payments?

Oddly, it appears that you used a term of 5 years 10 months (70 payments) for your calculations?

 

I googled it and the answer was 6.25% but you should ask the dealership to be sure.

hummm, is that out the door, all dealer prep and destination charges too?
My calculations, with no trade in, looks like:
21,329 x .0625 = 1333 + 21329 = 22662 @ 4%
48 months = $542.70
60 months = $422.65
72 months = $376.04

$376.04 x 72 = $27,074.88

Can't answer that one, there are too many personal variables.

Deb

 

21,329 * 1.06 = 22608.74
Notice that I put in 1/10th the loan amount (demo software), so multiply the results by 10.

 

This one is called FinKit.

Hundreds of similar programs can be found by googling
'financial calculator'

Or go here for a web based calculator.

 

Did you shop around for rates?

 

That freeware is great, thank you for posting it.

Can anyone share what they feel is a "fair" financing rate given by a dealer for those with good credit scores? (Always paying my CCs off in full is looked at highly by ratings agencies for some reason, even though it means I'm not really "using" credit ironically)

I've never financed a new car and I would just like to hear opinions on what would be a "reasonable" rate, specifically if I have any hope of pushing them down to 2% or below. Last thing I want to do is gird my loins to fight tooth and nail to waive "documentation fees" and other assorted nonsense, stick to MSRP, only to lose all that savings over time in their interest payments.

 

No such thing as "fair," there is only the best rate you can get.

I suggest opening an account at PenFed.org. If things have not changed, you can join this credit union by paying some $15 to a friends of the military organization if you do not meet other criteria to join. Let the dealer hammer you with whatever rate they want if it helps in your otd price, so long as you are pre-approved for a good rate at PenFed and the loan does not have early payoff penalties. PenFed is happy to transfer the loan to them.

Current rates at PenFed are 1.99%. Notice that OP's loan would be paid off in about 5 years instead of six




As an aside, of course you are using credit; the CC company's money paid for something. They are happy you are not defaulting, and they are collecting vendor fees. The CC company would of course be happier if you also paid them interest on the credit, but they cannot always have everything

 

If you are a member of a credit union, consider financing through them. Many dealers can work with the credit unions, so you can do all the paperwork there, and not worry about getting pre-approved at the CU (although there are advantages to that, so some people choose to do it).

I have a 732 credit score (didn't know that until I got the loan), and got 2.49% through my credit union. (For context: I'm 21, and I have had two credit cards for a couple years, which I always pay off on time. I have a chunk of debt in student loans, but I pay them off on time. I have nothing negative on my credit history, but I have no auto loan history, which they often like to see).

 

Sage beat me to it.

Penfed is king, also you must get their 5% off gas card at any gas station, no limit, auto cash-back. I've had it for a year or so.

up to 60 months is 1.99% right now, 72 months is 3.49%.

This will only be for top tier credit. I've not checked their fine print, but assume that's a 720+ score.

The 72 month requires 15% down. I think clearly penfed's numbers are telling us that they see a 72 month term as substantially higher credit risk.

 

I've had my new C for 9 days. (Love!) I used PenFed for my loan. Very easy. 1.99% for 60 months, nothing down. However, when the dealer saw that i was getting 1.99%, he was able to beat it with 1.59%. (Up until the time I showed them the loan papers, the best I had heard from the dealers was 3.99%. In fact, the salesman said they couldn't beat the PenFed rate and it wasn't until I sat down with the dealer's finance person that I heard about the lower rate.) The PenFed loan doesn't actually go into effect until the check is signed and cashed, so consider applying through PenFed and then see if your dealer can beat the rate. The most you would stand to lose if you wind up going with the dealer rate is the $20 donation to military families required by PenFed to get a loan...and that is both a good cause and tax deductible!

 

That is what worked for us. Came to the table with 2.49% PenFed, the best rate they offered at the time, dealer offered 1.99%. PenFed is the worlds greatest bargining chip.

 

Same, except I wasn't pre-approved by Penfed (in all likelihood due to current credit/mortgage debt, though I have a FICO around 770). Penfed was offering 2.49% in March, I believe, and prior to being disapproved, the dealership reeled me in anyway using one of their chosen credit unions and beat that prospective Penfed offer with a 2.45% 60-month loan. Blessing in disguise, even though I didn't get rock bottom financing (1.59% brings me jealousy, though ).

 

A cool one! There seems to be various calculators which would make our work easier. Find one in my signature

I have to accept that I'm becoming more dumb as i use computer for everything

 

hey, have you tried the calculator yet?