Auto Financing Help

Buying a car is typically one of the largest purchases that most people make. When buying a car, many people use financing to help make the purchase a little easier. If you are in the market for a new car, there are a few things about financing that you need to keep in mind.

Separate the Process

Many people bundle the process of buying a car with the financing. They go into the dealership, choose a car and then finance the purchase with the dealer. When you begin the process of buying a car, you need to separate each component. Focus on the financing, the price of the car and the value of your trade-in separately. Dealers generally try to bundle everything together, and it often ends up working in their favor.

Shopping for Financing

Just because you are working with a particular dealer to buy a car does not necessarily mean that you have to finance the car through them. In fact, you can generally get a better deal by shopping around with multiple lenders before agreeing to the deal. You can go to local banks in your area to get quotes on interest rates for car loans. You can also check out online auto lenders before you go into the dealership.

Credit Report

Before you start shopping around for interest rates, you may want to look at your credit report first. You can get a copy of your credit report from each of the three major credit bureaus: Experian, Transunion and Equifax. Once you look at your credit report, you can see if there are any errors or omissions on it. If your credit score is not as high as it should be, it could end up costing you more in interest.

Dealer Incentives

When you seek out financing from the dealer, you may also get access to incentives. For example, for qualified buyers, the dealer might offer 0 percent interest. In other cases, you may get a rebate if you finance the purchase with the dealer. If you are offered some type of incentive, you need to make sure that you do not pay more for the car than you would without these incentives.