Loan Shopping/Rates Help....

[Patfan1987]

Im putting $14 grand down on my 2LT/RS with auto:transmission and sun roof on my Camaro thats quickly approacing. Tomorrow i start looking for loans and its the first time ive really had to (school loans dont count)

Im looking to get a $18,000 dollar loan.

I havnt decided if i will get a 60 or 72 month loan yet but from what i can figure out there is a $935 or so difference in the total loan payment for the extra year (am i right on this?)

How would you go about getting your loan, i have a 740 credit score and dont know if i should just apply a lot, or go with a select few??

AAA has 60 month 3.49 72 4.49
capital one has 60 month 4.25 72 5.25
Credit Union has 60 month 4.75 72 5.5

Those are all ive looked at so far. Any other comments or questions would be great!

Thanks

[Heelhook22]

You must mean 840 not 940 since the 850 is the highest FICO score you can get. When I was shopping for loans I didn't see a 3.49% interest rate (I have an 849 score and got 4.5% for a 60 month term) so definitely go with that if you can make the monthly payments.

Good luck,

Heelhook

[Patfan1987]

Originally Posted by Heelhook22

You must mean 840 not 940 since the 850 is the highest FICO score you can get. When I was shopping for loans I didn't see a 3.49% interest rate (I have an 849 score and got 4.5% for a 60 month term) so definitely go with that if you can make the monthly payments.

Good luck,

Heelhook

LOONG 64hr work week, 740 and not the 940 i mistakingly put up there, thanks for the catch.

[Kamaro_K]

I know Bank of America has 3.4 (up to 60) and 3.84 (61-72). My TPW is the same and I'm gonna try to go with BofA. My credit score is around 760.

[jleinaweaver]

Originally Posted by Patfan1987

Im putting $14 grand down on my 2LT/RS with auto:transmission and sun roof on my Camaro thats quickly approacing. Tomorrow i start looking for loans and its the first time ive really had to (school loans dont count)

Im looking to get a $18,000 dollar loan.

I havnt decided if i will get a 60 or 72 month loan yet but from what i can figure out there is a $935 or so difference in the total loan payment for the extra year (am i right on this?)

How would you go about getting your loan, i have a 940 credit score and dont know if i should just apply a lot, or go with a select few??

AAA has 60 month 3.49 72 4.49
capital one has 60 month 4.25 72 5.25
Credit Union has 60 month 4.75 72 5.5

Those are all ive looked at so far. Any other comments or questions would be great!

Thanks

Use this calculator
http://partners.leadfusion.com/tools...uto05/tool.fcs

Enter purchase price, loan term, interest rate (you can zero out the other fields, purchase price being the amount of your loan). Click get your results, then click on the "tables" tab. At the end of the table, you will see cumulative interest paid.

Looks like the difference between 60 and 72, for an $18K loan at 4% is about $400

In your case, it looks like AAA gives the best rate, see if they will give you a pre-approved loan. This locks in the interest rate for something like 30 days. Then at the dealership, after you negotiate the price and value of the trade, ask them if they can beat AAA's rate. I've made three purchases in the past two years, they always try to beat it (I'm sure they get some sort of kickback from getting the loan so they have some incentive). In my case, they beat my credit union 2 of 3.

Another thing to consider, you can always refinance your car if you find a better rate or want to change the length.

[Bert]

around 3.5% is a really good rate these days . . . but personally 60 or 72 months is too long for a car loan, 48 months max or 36 even better, but that's just personal preference . . . I don't like to be paying for a car for that long, and with the shorter term loans you pay a lot less total interest and it's pretty much impossible for you to be "upside down" (owe more than the car is worth) at any point during the loan

[Patfan1987]

Originally Posted by jleinaweaver

Use this calculator
http://partners.leadfusion.com/tools...uto05/tool.fcs

Enter purchase price, loan term, interest rate (you can zero out the other fields, purchase price being the amount of your loan). Click get your results, then click on the "tables" tab. At the end of the table, you will see cumulative interest paid.

Looks like the difference between 60 and 72, for an $18K loan at 4% is about $400

In your case, it looks like AAA gives the best rate, see if they will give you a pre-approved loan. This locks in the interest rate for something like 30 days. Then at the dealership, after you negotiate the price and value of the trade, ask them if they can beat AAA's rate. I've made three purchases in the past two years, they always try to beat it (I'm sure they get some sort of kickback from getting the loan so they have some incentive). In my case, they beat my credit union 2 of 3.

Another thing to consider, you can always refinance your car if you find a better rate or want to change the length.

Originally Posted by Bert

around 3.5% is a really good rate these days . . . but personally 60 or 72 months is too long for a car loan, 48 months max or 36 even better, but that's just personal preference . . . I don't like to be paying for a car for that long, and with the shorter term loans you pay a lot less total interest and it's pretty much impossible for you to be "upside down" (owe more than the car is worth) at any point during the loan

Thanks you guys for the advice. Question: with your loans do they usually let you pay them off early? or is it rare that they will charge you extra to pay it off early?

[jleinaweaver]

Originally Posted by Patfan1987

Thanks you guys for the advice. Question: with your loans do they usually let you pay them off early? or is it rare that they will charge you extra to pay it off early?

The loans I have had let you pay them off early. When I dealt with Wachovia, you could get a 15 day payoff quote. The quote represented the principle amount plus 15 days interest. Basically they figure it will take 15 days for you to send the money and for them to process it (think of it as a buffer). My local credit union does the same, though theirs is a 10 day payoff. If they process it in less time, they kick the extra days interest back to you.

So for me, there really was no payoff penalty other than having to provide a 10 or 15 days of interest to allow them to process.

You can also make principle only payments, sometimes this appears on the payment coupon, you can add money to the payment. Others might have you send a check with a note saying its a principle only payment.

Anther thing about loans, the interest is front loaded. If your monthly payments were $400/month, the very first payment might be $350 principle and $50 interest. The next might be $352/$48. The last could be $400/$0. So your early payments will include more interest.

just a disclaimer, there may be loans that have prepayment penalties and might have principle payment restrictions - I have never come across them. I imagine there are different state laws in play as well. If you talk to a bank, ask question about paying off the loan early and principle only payments.

[CBR1000RR]

Chase