Another Military CU is offering a lower %. Navy Federal CU is offering 1.9% for 60 mos on new vehicles.

 

To anyone still interested in using PenFed's Payment Saver's MINI Select-like loan, they just lowered the rates to 2.74%!! D'oh!

 

Question for those of you who have used Pen Fed... I'm interested in their traditional 2.49% financing, and plan to join & apply. My question is- how does the timing work? My CM is at the port/ VDC today, and I'll likely take delivery on Monday/ Tuesday. How do I go about setting this up? Do I first have to finance through MINI and then have Pen Fed pay it off, or can I just give them the VIN, etc and set it up straight through them? Sorry in advance if this is a dumb question!

 

Timing was HORRIBLE - it really was a communications nightmare getting information coordinated. The people on the phones were always real nice, but the info they relayed didn't line up with what their automated systems were feeding me via email.

There is an expedited delivery option - you must have enough in your PenFed account to cover the cost of express shipping. If this is your first car through them, I would be surprised if you had your money in hand before at least next Friday. (It was my first one.)But perhaps you will be lucky.

But you don't need to do anything with MINI finance - apply for the loan on the PenFed site, you will get an answer back quickly. You will likely need to have the last two pay stubs that you can fax/email to them, the VIN of your incoming car, and perhaps more.

Everyone I know who uses them says good things about them, but they were frustrating.

 

Thank you so much for your reply!! (and congrats on your new CM!) Sounds like a hassle in the beginning, but I guess it'll be worth it to save quite a bit of $$.
So basically it would delay me being able to pick up my car if I didn't get the check from Pen Fed until the end of the week, correct? That could be a problem, as I'm handing over my current car to Auction Direct on Sunday and may need a way to get to work next week! Hmmm, what to do...

 

Some additional things - remember, two separate stages here.

1. Join PenFed and get all that established. Put at least $50 bucks in that if you want to have enough to cover expedited shipping of your loan.

2. Once you are a member, then apply for the car loan. If you want it shipped more quickly, ask for that at the end of the process. Or you can call and ask over the phone.

They send a two-party check to you, made out to your dealer and you. You sign it and give it to the dealer with whatever down payment, and that's it.

Lucky for me I was traveling a lot and was able to deal with this, but it took me 9 calendar days from loan application to check in my hand! LOTS of confusion. And that was with expedited shipping!

 

I have a quick question about the PenFed and Mini select loans. Do you added state tax on top of what the calculators show? On my leases I pay $48.72 in taxes of my $508.09 lease payment. So when I build my Mini with $1000 down my payment is $353 for 60 months, is that my actually monthly payment? I'm in CA btw. And PenFed's numbers look to good to be true, I used zag.com to get my car cost then added 10% to cover tax and fees and my payment comes out to $308.33!!!!! for 60 months {:^O

Thanks for all the good info in here.

Cheers

 

The Mini Select and Pen Fed Payment Saver are loans with balloon payments at the end. Since they are loans, no sales tax will be added to your payment amount. However, you will have to pay the entire amount of the sales tax on the purchase price upfront when you license your CM at the DMV. One advantage of leases is that sales tax is typically added to the lease payment rather than making the driver pay it all upfront. Probably wasn't the answer you were looking for but hope it helps.

 

Ya that helps, thanks. So their like traditional loan in which you have to pay for the tax up front. I'm gonna punch those numbers to see if it saves money compared to a lease if I keep the car less then 3 years.

 

After reading this thread, we joined PenFed and applied for the 60 month 2.49% loan late at night. By the next morning, the funds had been distributed and we received the check 2 days later (with expedited shipping).

Now, my MA tells me they have 1.9% financing for 48 months. So, we may go that route instead. Our CMS is due at Port Heuneme on 6/8 and should be at the dealer by 6/12. I'll let you know what we decide!

 

I've been meaning to update my experience with Pen Fed-- I applied for the 60 month, 2.49% loan on Saturday, May 7 and received my check in the mail on Tuesday, via regular mail. My dealership claimed they could match it, but when I actually went in on Thursday that week, they told me that the lowest they could get was 2.9. I happily handed over my PenFed check, and sent PenFed the paperwork they needed the next day. It was probably the simplest bank transaction I've ever made, especially for this amount of $$! So far, I highly recommend this bank and loan.