Refinancing Your Auto Loan Can Save You Money

Record Low Interest Rates Makes It A Great Time For Auto Loan Refinancing! It is no wonder that auto loan refinancing has suddenly become a hot topic of conversation. Record low interest rates generally leads to record high refinancing. However, when many people think about loan refinancing for a lower interest rate, they only think of their home mortgage loan.

While your home mortgage loan is the largest debt you will ever carry, and refinancing it to a lower interest rate will undoubtedly save you the most amount of money, this does not mean that it might not also be a good idea to refinance your auto loan.

Today's automobiles are not cheap; therefore auto loans today are usually large enough to make it worthwhile to consider auto loan refinancing. The average auto loan taken in America today is $20,000. Refinancing a loan of that size to a lower interest rate can save you a sizeable amount of money paid out in interest.

At the end of the year 2000, the average interest rate on auto loans was 9.25%. If you took a $20,000 auto loan at 9.25% interest and refinanced it with a new loan at today's rate of 6.9%, you will save $1,500 over the life of the auto loan. That's a huge savings!

One of the reasons that consumers don't think of refinancing their auto loan is because they are usually short term loans. The American economy, and the interest rate being offered, is not usually volatile enough to change much during the life of an auto loan.

However, more expensive autos, and larger auto loans, usually means longer terms to the loan as well. The longer term, combined with the current volatile market in America, means that more consumers will be holding an auto loan during a period when interest rates have decreased enough to make refinancing your auto loan a great choice.

Chances are good that if you have been holding your auto loan for more than a year, you might be able to refinance the loan to a lower rate, saving you money on your monthly payments, as well as lowering the total amount you will have paid for the auto by the time the loan is paid off in full.

Whether you are considering refinancing your home mortgage or your auto loan, it is important to realize that refinancing is never free. Therefore, you must always compare the costs of refinancing against the savings you will realize from the lower interest rate.

When refinancing a home mortgage, there are a lot of costs that have to be factored in. While refinancing an auto loan is not as costly, there are still some costs to keep in mind.

When getting quotes from lenders on auto loan refinancing, be sure that the quote also includes any lenders fees and costs. In short, it's important to have all of the information before determining if auto loan refinancing is the right choice for you.