Anyone Finance A Car?

[matlock]

So I have a question to see if anyone in here has financed a car. I don't have bad credit I just don't really have credit do you know of any easy ways for me to finance A car. I don't have a co-signer, but I do have a down payment or trade in. Maybe someone has some insight. Thanks

[ZK]

I financed my previous car. It was new and I bought it from the dealer. Having no credit history is like having bad credit history but not quite as bad... they will stick you with a super high interest rate because they don't have any idea if you will pay off the loan or not. I would not be surprised if you get a 12% interest rate or something worse.

Since you have a down and a trade-in your best bet would be to go to the dealer and see what kind of numbers they will give you. They have some 0% APR and 1.9% specials at some places but those are for people with excellent credit which is rare. If you have a credit union you can go through for your work they migth give you a good rate since you are an employee of the company. Otherwise, they have special new college grad financing and will get you into a car at a good interest rate if you recently graduated and am working. That is the program I did when I bought the car. Also, do not expect KBB trade-in value on your car - they never give that. This is only for NEW cars as that is the only car financing I've done before.

[sr240mike]

I started with a Macy's card, then a Visa and built up to a $5000 credit line in a year. Hold off on the car and get a credit card or two first. You will get raped by high interest rates, most likely higher than 12% if you buy the car now, also with financing you will need full coverage auto insurance.

[mk20116]

I was able to finance my car though a creditcard.
I had two creditcards with high limits, and was able to purchase the car on the first card. THEN, I called my second credit card and transfered the entire balance over to the second one. [email protected], 0% interest until balance is paid off, or I think until 1 year. By that time I can transfer back to the other card again to get 0%-1% interest rate.

[mk20116]

oops. back to original question, would depend on type of car. some companies do not care as to whether you down payment or even trade in. american cars are a bit easier to finance in my experience.

[MakotoS13]

don;'t buy a car until the last month of the year when they're practically throwin em at ya. i'm waiting till next winter to buy my new F150... but i have a truck that'll be like a 4 grand trade in. the trick is to keep something worth trading in for when you need a downpayment that way you aren't trying to save every penny for it. plus, it makes your actual payments lower.

[matlock]

Thank you all for the input guys, I would be trying to finance a used car from the dealer. I will see what I can do to get started in the right direction.

[biggie]

I would also try a credit union. I refinanced my Pathfinder at below 3% for 4 years. It was at 5.9% through Nissan.

[Yoshi]

Makoto's deal is not going to be accurate for you if you're going used, in which case the month doesn't matter, but used car guys have quotas that are typically either at the end of a quarter, or individual months (so either way, go around the 25-30th, depending on if you plan to buy that day).

Trade-ins.
BAH! If it's a lot that's ONLY used cars, then that might be an option, but dealers will rip you off on your trade-in value 90% of the time. If you know when you want ot buy, try to sell your car on your own, I can practically guarantee that you'll get far more back that way.

Financing.
Try to build some credit if you haven't already. You prolly already know, but recent federal law states that you can get 1 credit report free of charge from any of the 3 major credit reporting agencies. Get one here: www.annualcreditreport.com
Find out your FICO score... some credit cards do this for for you at any time (providian is my fav). NEVER go with the financing from the dealer if you can possibly avoid it, they're kings of bait-and-switch tactics. Example from my friend buying his GSX: price was decided on, along with a given APR from the dealer... he goes to talk to their financial consult who promptly tells him that he cannot have that same APR OR must meet raise the sale price to $X in order to meet certain criteria... blah blah blah. My friend had to argue about breach of verbal contract before they backed off. It's really not worth the hassle for a loan that's going to suck anyhow. If you have the ability to join a credit union, they typically have the best rates (on average). Lending Tree, and other online lenders are an option too, but usually will screw you on the APR unless you already have a lot of equity or large collateral (ie house) and the income to match. IF it turns out that you're forced into a craptastic loan because it's the only way, IMMEDIATELY try to start an account with a credit union if u can, and find out what it takes to refinance.

There u go FWIW, I learned most of that from my brother in law, who until recently, was a (get this), Mercedes/Suzuki/Isuzu salesman (then later became the manager of the parts dept), and from my sister who works for Experian.

[MakotoS13]

oh and talk those suckers DOWN. they will try to rip you off and you HAVE to have it in your mind that you dont give a crap and will walk. you have to believe it cause a good salesmen will fuggin smell it.

[matlock]

Wow thank you for all the tips guys I am going to look at cars this weekend. So best of luck to me haha.