It is very important to understand how your credit history affects the auto loan rates that you are able to qualify for, since not understanding the process can cost you significant amounts of money over the life of a typical car loan. So here is an explanation of how you can get the best auto loan rates by knowing all you can about your credit history. Let's start out by understanding how your credit history is compiled.

There are three major credit bureaus that collect and store information about all of your credit purchases. They are Equifax, Experian, and Trans Union. Whenever you borrow money to buy something they are informed by your lenders on a regular basis about how much you borrowed and how diligent you have been on paying back that amount in the form of your monthly payments. All of this data is received by those three companies and stored in massive databases where it is packaged into an overall credit report, which is also called your credit history.

So if you are shopping for used car auto loans for instance, your prospective lenders will access that credit report and review it to determine how much risk they think will be presented by loaning you the amount that you need to buy the car you want. The number that most lenders usually refer to to get a quick and overall idea of how good your past credit history has been is called the credit score. It's a calculation of several things including your payment history, the amount of outstanding debt you currently have, how far your credit history goes back in time, and so forth.

Obviously then, the better job you have done in paying all of your bills on time and in full, the better your overall score should be providing that you haven't overloaded yourself with debt. When the auto loan lenders see your credit score, that enables them to decide what interest rate they will charge you for giving you a used car auto loan. The better your credit score, the better interest rate you get, and therefore the less money it costs you to get the loan.

One very important thing that you should also know is that you can get a copy of your credit score from each of the three credit bureaus and review it to be sure that it is indeed correct. Actually it is fairly common to find errors that have been made that are not in your favor, so it's a good idea to regularly review your credit history to keep it up to date. If you find errors you can begin working with the credit bureaus to have them removed as soon as possible.

So if you want to get the best auto loan rates, you need to pay close attention to your credit history and guard it very carefully. If you review your current credit history every three months or so you should be able to stay up on any changes that will need to be made and can keep errors to a minimum. Then when you are ready to start shopping for used car auto loans you can get the best auto loan rates that are available and save lots of money.

Jim Johnson writes on many consumer related topics including autos. You can find out more about used car auto loans and the best auto loan rates by visiting our Auto Review website.