Hi all!

My MA called yesterday to let me know that I'm about a week out on receipt of my '10 MINI. He told me that the best rates I would probably be looking at with MINI financing right now would be around 5.25%, which isn't too bad, really.

However, since I know BoA has been offering some pretty competitive rates, I wanted to try through them, too. My MA told me that if I found a competitive rate with another bank that they might be able to try to match it at the dealership -- no promises of course, but they'd try.

So I've been approved with BoA with a comparable rate, and the next step would be for BoA to send me all of the closing paperwork.

My question: How would I handle the paperwork on this? Since I know MINI also works with BoA, could I just take my BoA rate quote into the dealer and, even if MINI Financing might not be able to match it, would they be able to get the exact same quote in house through BoA and take care of the rest of the paperwork for me there (possibly saving me a $200 doc fee).

I want to make sure I have everything in order so that I can take delivery of the car, but am not sure if that means I need to finish the paperwork and have the actual check from BoA, if I just need a rate offer, or what. I'd prefer to finance at the dealer, for simplicity, but will obviously have to take the best rate. This will be the first time I've financed a car so I'm kind of a noob.

 

When I got mine, I had a lender lined up and had a check in hand from them so I could make the payment to the dealer. I would think BoA should be able to provide something similar.

I ended up just using the approved financing to get MINI Financial to beat the rate and squeezed a few basis points out of it. What the dealer was able to do in-house, knowing they were competing with something I already had in hand, was much better than what I got quoted through the MINI web site. I figured that would be the case - just wasn't sure how aggressive MINI might be in beating a competing offer.

 

if your dealer is a preferred dealer for BoA's auto loan, you may not need to pay thw $200 fee. you can check it online at BoA's website if your dealer is authorized.

 

When I purchased my MINI in 2007 I went in to the dealer knowing that I was going to finance
it through my company credit union.
I wanted to finance it through the credit union because they do it fast and payroll deduct it.
When I got to the MINI dealer they said that MINI finance would like the opportunity to beat
or match the credit union.
As it turned out MINI Finance beat my credit union and so I went with MINI finance.
They didn't ask for any proof other than to ask me what rate the credit union was offering.

 

That is such cool news, thank you all!

I was really hoping I'd be able to just finance with MINI for the simplicity of getting all of the documentation done in one place, and it's really looking like that will be the case. I knew my MA mentioned that MINI would try to beat other rates, but I figured they'd just run my credit score, see what came up, and if it's a higher rate, then eh, sorry. But it sounds like they're really pretty competitive about it, and that it's more than just a courtesy for their customers.

My dealer is a preferred dealer for BoA, too, so if nothing else maybe I can avoid that doc fee or even just leave the rest of the documentation and details between the dealer and bank. I called BoA this morning to ask a few of these questions, but they're having pretty long hold times, so I'll just give my MA a call and see what he can tell me.

 

Bummer the rates are so high.

Here in South TX most credit unions are offering 3.5 to 3.75 for 60 months.