I would rather not have my dealer find me financing. My credit is fine, but they never get a reasonable interest rate. Anyone have some advice on places to get reasonable auto loans?

 

Credit Unions.

 

Hi,

This has been covered extensively on different threads. You might want to try searching older topics.
Sorry I can't help you search, but I am currently at work.
Anyway, I personally found that local credit unions tend to give the best rates. Also, check with Capital One financing. They tend to have good deals too.
I got a 4.59% financing rate with my local credit union.

 

I just locked in yesterday with Capital One for 5.9% x 60. They advertise 5.65% x 60 but that's only for like the top 1% of credit applicants. I did it quickly because the fed just raised rates again, which may affect auto loans soon. I used lendingtree.com first just to see what other banks would give me, and Capital One was the best. They also give you a blank check good for up to your maximum loan amount, while some other banks want to know the exact amount (difficult to know this before negotiation).

 

I have pretty good credit, and recently purchased. I used these guys:

http://www.hsbcusa-autoloans.com/CarLoans/FrontPage.jst

They gave me a 60 month loan at 6.0%. I then went to Ford, with their loan in hand. I told my rep, if Ford wants my money, beat that rate. They gave me 5.9% even though before I got the other loan, their best rate was "6.9%"

 

Good rates are still out there...

Chartway FCU

 

What I did was applied for the Capitol one loan, got 6.5% then credit union was way out there, I laughed at them. So I went to dealer to pick up the car with my capitol one blank check and offereed the dealer to beat my rate. Well they did by .1% lol. They were great through the whole process so I let the dealer do my financing. @ 6.4. And never asked to see proof of my previous loan.

 

4.5% thru credit union. Dealer didn't even attempt to touch that. There are several credit unions you can join for cheap. Mine only cost $5 and all I have to do is keep $5 in an account to keep membership

 

Many of the responses are right on the money. Timing is the issue, I joined a credit union in TX back in September and got approved for 4% and 72mos before the last two fed rate hikes, and they gave me a buyer's check that was good for 90 days. Moral of the story is work financing early so that when you are ready to pick up the car, it's a breeze. By using that method (which the dealer flat out couldn;t even come close to) my buying process was wonderfully free of all the regular BS you get when buying a car (like vin etching and protectant scams). Some credit unions even offer good extended warranties to help drop the rates...I got gap insurance and a 72/100K extended bumper to bumper with National Auto added into the cost and that dropped it .5%. I had great credit and the whole process took 72 hours by mail. 60 days later I picked up the car.

I had looked at e-loan, and darn near every bank and credit union in my area, and turned out my wife's credit union from three years back had the best all-around deal. Nowadays you are probaly looking at 5-6.5% if you are lucky, but the sooner the better, because the Fed hikes directly affect these rates. Finally, I'm not sure I would go with the dealer financing unless it was REALLY good, because with their current stock rating, they can't get good loan rates to cover these things themselves, so the increase is passed to you.

my $.02

-Darth

:jedi:

 

I just did Capital One online and got a blank check up to 30 grand. I picked a 72 month loan. I got a 5.8% interest rate. I think I had a loan approval in about 10 minutes.

T

 

I am looking right now too, My credit union is at 4.25 for 36 which is the best I have been able to find. A good site for checking rates is bank rates

 

I got 5.05 for 72mo from my credit union, my first loan so I was pretty pleased with the rate.

 

I also got 4.25% from a local credit union for 60 months.

 

Like others have said, Capital One Auto Financing. You get the loan approval in less than an hour (I too got approved once in 10 minutes like mentioned earlier). They can overnight you a check as well. You walk into a dealership with a check good up to a certain dollar amount, no haggling. You settle on price of the car, and I GUARANTEE you that the finance guy will come out and ask you if he can try to beat your rate. Let him, and if he does (he will, trust me) you can take his loan. If not, you already know you are in the 5% to 6% range with Capital One.

I have bought my last 4 vehicles this way, and I'll never do it any other way again.

Also, make sure you go to http://www.carbuyingtips.com before you go to the dealership. The guy who built this site is amazing, all the information is free, and it has saved me over $20K on my last 4 vehicles combined (yes, I keep a running total).

Sean

 

USAA has great rates for Military people

 

I got 5.5%/60 months from a local bank yesterday. Good luck hunting!

 

Credit union gave me 3.45% for 60 months, this is my first loan I was really surprised they gave it to me. =)

 

I got 0% financing! Woohoo!! Only had to put $34,786.03 down!

 

 

I have very good credit, but after looking at my credit union's rates in Sept/Oct, I decided to apply for one of those Capital One Auto Loan's because they beat my credit union by more than 1pt. Credit union's usually have very competitive rates, so I was happy until I brought the Cap1 check in to pay for the car and they would not take it.

They made a quick call to their Ford credit place and got me approved at an even better rate than Cap1 Auto. For about 3 minutes, prior to that phone call, you can imagine what kind of self-control it took to keep from sending them back to the stone age