Car Finance
These days when you step into a car showroom, there will be two
major things that the dealer will be offering you. First he will
be offering you cars, and secondly he will be offering you
finance packages. This is how you should look at it. The fact of
the matter is you may probably wouldn't buy a car from your
bank, even if they started offering them, so you may wish to
apply the same scrutiny to the finance packages available at the
car dealership and choose to buy only you car there and the
finance package elsewhere. It may be that there is nothing wrong
with the finance being offered at the car dealership and in many
cases this will be true. However, you must be aware that just
because you buy your car there, does not in any way imply that
you have to use the finance options and terms that they are
offering. You are always free to take a loan from somewhere
else, such as a bank, and pay for the car outright, and then
simply make the loan repayments to the bank as with any other
loan. You should be careful to find out exactly how much you are
being charged for car finance. The primary way to calculate the
charge of any credit is by using the APR or annual percentage
rate. This calculates the cost of the loan using a standardised
formula and all lenders must use the same method of calculation.
However, just because a car dealer's APR looks attractive does
not mean your search is over. You should also, always find out
how much the car would cost if you paid in cash. Remember that
providing a cash discount is exactly the same as charging extra
for credit. If the cash price is lower, then you may be better
off getting the loan from elsewhere and paying for the car with
cash, this will take advantage of the better price and you will
have a smaller amount to pay back to your lender. The other
thing you should look out for is down payments and closing
payments. These are payments that are paid at the beginning or
end of the term of the loan, and while the monthly payment terms
may be attractive, it could well be the case that there are
large additional payments to make and you should not forget to
calculate these in when pricing the finance. Car finance can be
almost as important as the deal you get on the car itself and
you should always regard getting a good deal on the financing as
part of the process of getting a new car.