Should I Refinance My Car Loan?
Unsure if you should refinance your car loan? Don’t know what refinancing you car loan would do? How would you go about doing it? All these questions will be answered in this post.
So what does refinancing a car loan even do? Bottom line: it helps you save money. Everyone one with a car loan can do it, but few people actually know about it. Refinancing your car is similar, if not exactly the identical, to refinancing your house. So does refinancing do? It makes your monthly payments lower and your interest rates drop. This allows you to pay off the balance of your car loan even faster. You can save up to thousands of dollars by refinancing in some cases.
This is great for people who have bad credit and are probably paying a high APR. If you just refinance your car loan, you will have a lower APR and can then use the extra money to pay off your loan faster. Don’t be duped into thinking that you are stuck with a 21-25% APR for the rest of your car loan.
Here is an example: If you were loaned $16,500 for 60 months on your new Saturn and your credit was poor, you are going to be stuck paying a high APR. Let’s say you were charged 21% APR for the 60-month car loan. You pay off your car loan for a year or two, and then you refinance with another lender for a 12% APR. With such a considerable reduction in your interest rate, you will easily save thousands of dollars over the life of the loan. Remember you can refinance at any time during the loan, but refinancing is most beneficial when market rates are low.
When sending in your loan approval, you want to ensure that you won’t get rejected because of a small typo. Make sure your loan application is accurate, and the information matches what you included on your original loan application. Your new lender needs to be able to locate your old auto loan so they can pay it off and issue you a new one. You must also refinance a loan larger than $7500 because smaller loans are usually not worth the lender’s time. Additionally, you need to have accurate, up-to-date information on your vehicle for inclusion in the loan’s terms. Lastly, your auto refinance loan amount should not be higher than the value of your car for obvious reasons.
Refinancing your car isn’t just for people that have a high APR. It can also help people with a low APR, although not as significantly. So back to the question of “Should I refinance my car loan?” If you want to save money and the rate climate is right, then the answer is definitely “yes.”