Anyone ever done it?

I bought a car back in September for a 10% interest rate, because I had very little credit, so my car payment is over 300 a month.

I was thinking about re-financing to see if I could knock 20 or so dollars off a month.


Any advice?

6/7/2007 12:59:46 PM

Go to your bank or credit union and see what they can do you for. They should be willing to take it and give you the prime rate as long as you have a <40% debt to income.


[Edited on June 7, 2007 at 1:03 PM. Reason : and if you don't then contact a lender like hsbc or citi etc]

6/7/2007 1:01:55 PM

i read that its best not to go to your own lender. why would they want to help?

6/7/2007 1:42:48 PM

do you really think that enough has changed in under a year for you to get a better APR?

6/7/2007 1:56:52 PM

my credit score has gone through the roof in the last year.

6/7/2007 2:08:11 PM

the score doesn't necessarily mean anything. Its a good indicator, but you have to look at your entire credit history. When I was selling cars there was a few times where I had a customer who was about college age who had good scores (higher than 725) but only had one or two things on their report so we couldn't get them approved even though their score was good.

6/7/2007 2:26:30 PM

Credit unions are helpful. I got a much better rate through them, than through the bank I was using.

6/7/2007 2:26:48 PM

i did it a long time ago. I financed at 8.25% new and refied at 6% 6 months later through my credit union.

6/7/2007 2:27:22 PM

10% on a car!!

VERY sorry to hear that man, I'd look into a credit union if at all possible. I got like 4% on my '05 Jeep, but paid it off 2 months ago so I no longer have the loan.

6/7/2007 2:28:19 PM

I did it.

Got a loan @6% through Acura, then started floating it with '0% APR for 1 yr' deals on credit cards.

Now it's paid off, and I paid less than $100 interest total.

6/7/2007 2:38:36 PM

^ Only works if your CC limit is huge or your car loan is low.

6/7/2007 3:56:36 PM

true. Amex gives out credit line increases like they're candy over their website, you don't even have to talk to anyone... lolz

Citi also gives out increases pretty frequently, and they let you combine limits... So you can build up several cards to have high limits, then combine them into one SUPER CARD.


Either way, I love making Citi pay my interest for me.

6/7/2007 4:02:29 PM

Quote :

"10% on a car!! "

It was quite often we would sell someone a car at 12-15% interest if their credit was bad.

6/7/2007 11:38:37 PM

^ god i feel bad for those people hell I have a credit card with 8% fixed.

The key questions are how long have you been paying the loan off for, and do you have other lines of credit that you have no problems with?

If the answers are for a while and yes then some other bank or major lender will likely give you a lower rate, but don't extend the payments (like if you have 28 payments left don't ask to refinance for 48 months).

http://www.carbuyingtips.com/refinance.htm

[Edited on June 7, 2007 at 11:52 PM. Reason : .]

6/7/2007 11:42:54 PM

A friend of mine got a 26% rate for a Ford Focus.


yes, a Ford Focus..... She had horrible credit, bought w/o sufficient down payment, etc... Her monthly payment is like $400, 90% of which is just interest. I feel really bad for her, b/c she's a financial moron + has no clue how bad she is getting ripped off.

6/8/2007 8:58:10 AM

I did it and it just wasn't worth it

It extended my loan by 3 years and it just would have been better to pay the higher amount and get it over and done with 3 years earlier

6/8/2007 9:04:13 AM

I did it once. I think I had like a year left on my current loan. I needed some extra money so I talked to the bank that did the original loan. They worked it out where basically I had the same payment but it would just take an extra year to pay it off. Overall it was a good deal for me. I got the nice credit points for paying off two loans, and I got the cash I needed, all without a bunch of hassle.

6/8/2007 9:44:01 AM