Car loans were created for the same purpose as with any expensive items–to help average people, or those without large sums of money, to be able to purchase these items. The consumer could put up a small amount of capital, and establish ownership of the
item, and then a lender would hold a secured note for the remaining balance, under certain terms. The most important parts of the terms include loan amount,interest rate, payment, and duration or ammortization of loan. So, I’m getting a $10,000 loan, at 9% interest, with a monthly payment of $207.58, and the loan is for 5 years. Make sense? Good, we’ll come back to this. Understanding terms is extremely important- how can you know your getting a good deal without understanding the terms?
If your feeling overwhelmed, don’t worry, we are here to clear up your confusion and arm you with everything you need to make wise decisions. Just relax and read on…
Here’s some History…
Cars became more and more expensive over the last several decades, so, naturally, more and more people needed to use financing to enable there vehicle purchases. This worked out for the banks and other financial institutions because they could make a lot of money producing and holding these notes.
Decades ago, the process was fairly simple. You’d shop around with banks for the best interest rate, borrow the money from them, go to the dealership, and pick out your new car. At some point large car manufacturers realized how much money the lenders or banks were making, and decided to try and cash in themselves. So what did they do?
The big names in car manufacturing decided to create a lending system so they could provide their own loans. In this way, their dealerships could offer their own in-house financing to car buyers. They would make the money from the purchase, as well as the interest on the loans, and sell more cars because of the convenience of offering financing. This system is still very common today.
In recent years, due to the widespread use of the internet, consumers are more commonly going on-line for their auto financing needs, using consumer sites like AutoFinanceReview. This puts the consumer in control, and people are increasingly favoring this route. More on this later…
So, let’s talk a bit more about dealerships…
Your at the dealership and have picked out a car. Let’s use Car Max auto finance as an example. Car max will want to first figure out how much you can afford to pay monthly. You will then be asked to fill out an application. This application includes all of your info, including income, credit history, residence, and employment history.
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