Tips for Getting Cheap Finance to Buy a Car

Few cars are bought fully on cash, most people have to use some sort of finance in order to get all the money needed to buy a car. The most common financial products used for this purpose are personal car loans and financial schemes offered by car dealerships. The first thing you need to understand if you want to save money on your purchase is that car dealers are not loan specialist and they can’t provide you with a competitive loan. Moreover they work in association with certain financial institutions and they receive a share of the profits. The financial institution will most certainly charge you for that cost and you’ll end up paying a lot more.

Personal Car Loans

When requesting a loan what you need to be aware of is that the lending industry is a buyer’s market which means that lenders will be competing to get clients and thus, you need to shop around to get the best loan offer available. Don’t be afraid to bargain with lenders, if you get a better offer let the others know so they can improve theirs and so on. You might end up paying far less than you thought.

The easiest way to compare loan offers is to take note of the APRs and compare them in order to see which one is the lower. However, the APR is not the only thing you need to compare. There are some fees and costs not included in the APR, beware of these as they can greatly increase the overall cost of the loan. Watch for prepaying penalty fees, closing costs, and any other loan term that may affect you.

The best place to look around for car loan lenders is the internet. You’ll find many lenders dealing with car loans. There are lenders willing to approve car loans for people with bad credit, no credit or even bankruptcy. You need to request loan quotes from them and make sure they won’t pull your credit report till you are certain to get approved. If you are unsure whether you’ll meet their requirements or not, don’t authorize them to check your credit history because too many credit checks or declines can affect your credit score negatively.

Raise your Credit Score

It’s important to have a good credit score since a good credit score equals to lower interest rates. If you are about to finish paying an outstanding loan and you’ve paid the installments on time, it’s better if you just wait to cancel it completely before applying for your car loan. This will increase your credit score substantially.

Don’t pay late and never miss payments. Prepay any small loan you may have as this will increase your credit score. Too much outstanding credit, even if not used, affects your credit score. So, you should close store cards accounts and credit card accounts you don’t use. Bear in mind though, that you shouldn’t do so with all the accounts at the same time as this might be misinterpreted.

Make a down payment

Finally, another great way for saving money by getting a better deal on a car loan is to put aside as much cash as possible and make a down payment. This will greatly reduce the interest rate you’ll have to pay for financing and thus, you’ll save thousands of dollars over the whole life of the loan. Down payments show the lender you have the capacity to save money and that you’ll be able to repay the loan. Thus, the risk for the lender is greatly reduced and the interest offered will be substantially lower.