Wednesday, 16 February 2011

Looking For Car Finance? Be careful!

On my travels around all things costly I found that car finance or auto finance if you will, varies hugely depending on certain criteria. The aim of this lense is to highlight some key area's when choosing car financing and show you a Car Payment Calculator so you get the best deal for your hard earned money. I hope you find it useful.

This is my family and I and it was only because of serious financial hardship that we started to really pay attention to what we spent and how we could spend less for the same service.

Get The Best From Your Auto Finance Loan

When it comes to getting the best car finance loans there are some things you need to keep in mind which will eventually help you. One thing is for certain and that is that there are lots of car loans out there that are not ideal deal for you. The following tips will however make it simpler to find the very best car finance for your needs.
An Car Payment Calculator will really help to make sure you are being realistic about what you can comfortably afford to repay.

Auto Finance Credit Rating

Your credit rating will also play a huge role in the car finance you get. Individuals with highcredit scores will qualify for lower rates than those with bad credit. Because of this those with great credit scores should do even more research to get the best possible rate because they are more likely to get an incredible deal. Those with bad credit rating will need to search for a car plan offer they qualify for that does not rip their wallet open and pull dollar bills out like they are candy sticks in a sweet shop.

It is so easy in desperation to pay more than you need to for your car finance because fewer lenders will lend to you due to adverse credit. I have personally let myself in for terrible deals without checking around fully at what is available. It is even harder now with the 'credit crunch' to get decent deals even when you do have a good rating let alone a bad one.

the key is to do your homework and shop around. There are many good brokers who will hunt a deal out for you. But as stressed earlier check what you can afford on a car finance calculator and never over commit.

You can also try to repair your credit but this is more of a longer term remedy to the issue.

A Car Finance Down Payment Will Help

Another thing that will help your credit is your down payment. Generally, the more you put down, the lower rate you will get. Plus remembers the lender is always looking to reduce their risk so the more money down the lower the interest as the risk has been reduced. This is something to consider because while you may like the idea of not putting any money down you will actually spend more over time due to a higher charges.

We found it was worth trying to save for a while to build up a deposit and put ourselves in as strong a position as possible. They lender wants to feel safe in lending you the money. That's why they charge so much in rates if you are more risky as they think that if they are taking a bigger risk then they want to make a lot more money for that. Makes sense really.

Try hard to have a down payment of at least a 2 - 3 thousand dollars. This will lower your monthly re-payments and help you with the rate. Plus it will help with actually getting approved for the Auto Finance in the first place.

In summary to have some sort of a down payment will really help your case for lower rates and successful car loan approval.

Compare The Car Loan Interest Rates (but that's not all)

Now that you have a down payment in place the next thing you need to do is compare is the interest rate on the car loan. You will find that there are many lenders out there offering competitive rates to those with, as stated above, good credit and some money to put down. There are companies though who will just charge the earth and not blink a bit so don't fall foul of unnecessary higher interest rates.

You will want to short list 3 lenders where you fit their approval criteria and go through each detail to truly compare what they are offering.

Just because a lender lends an amount at a low charge it does not necessarily make it the ultimate plan for you. This is a very important aspect to consider, but it is just one piece of the puzzle. We took the best deal but didn't read the small print and we missed one payment through no fault of our own and the charges that were added on were INCREDIBLE!.

Please please don't make the mistakes we have made. Check every detail of the loan and always check your repayments with an Auto Financing Calculator.

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