This is my first time using them, but in general it is hard to go wrong with a credit union. I work for a national lab (connected with the University of California) and we have a couple credit unions. In fact, I checked those rates first but the Pentagon credit union came out on top.

Cheers-

 

I have minimal credit as well, is there any where I may get a free credit check? Or if Penfed will finance with a college student..?

 

becareful checking your credit rating you only get like two before they take points off for checking. so checking can lower your rating.

 

chinq6t, I just graduated..they approved me while I was a student. I say go for it.

 

nice! thanks

 

Nope, that's a myth... http://money.cnn.com/2005/03/16/pf/debt/creditscore/

 

Thanks for that link Weinerdog....cute dog!

Also thanks to whomever posted this information. I might just have to apply to see if I can get this low low rate and then go back to the dealership and see if they can match or lower it :D
I like this place already!!!

 

Actually the answer is - it depends. I read the article which lists 8 myths about your credit score. Five of thier eight 'myths' actually have some truth to them or are outright false. The case here - checking your score can reduce your credit rating has some truth to it. When a credit analyst gets your credit report, they don't just get the FICO score. They get all the details. And in fact they might NOT get the FICO score. There are literally thousands of possible calculations, FICO just happens to be the most popular. Anyway, while FICO is not affected by credit checks, the analyst will see them and may decide that you are doing a bit too much looking for credit and turn you down. What they are really looking for is evidence that you may be interested in taking out a house loan, a car loan, 14 new credit cards, and so on. Thus you could be trying to take on too much, too fast. But if all your checks are for auto loans, they understand you are just shopping.

 

Penfed is offering rates that are hard to touch all around. I'm trying to decide if I will have my HELOC through them as they crush my local bank.

 

+1 Amen to that. The closest BMW could get was 4.95 vs 4.25% for mine

 

Well we shall see what the new rates are come June 1st....Unfortunately I can't get this rate (4.25%) until I have a VIN # and final bill of sale and that won't be for about another month or so.....

hopefully the FED will cut rates and not raise them!

 

Same for me.....but I don't think I will be getting my car until July. Cross your fingers!!

Ok I have what might be a stupid question. It's been a long time since I bought a car, in fact this is my first brand new car :D. Say I have a 6 year loan but pay it off early will that save me money? Someone told me that they take the interest out first when you make payments....so the first year of paying off your loan is only going towards the interest. Is that true? I'm a bit overwhelmed at the moment.

 

If you are looking to pay it off early you will not only save some money on the interest but increase your credit score as well. When you pay back a loan you pay off the new interest that has accrued and whatever is left over is applied toward the principal but every month you've paid off more of the principal (just a little) so the interest is not as high as the last month's but your payment is the same so you pay off more principal etc....at least with a car loan you see the principal lowering....my 30 yr fixed mortgage doesn't ever seem to move!

 

Thanks! This is what I thought. Good to know. I plan on paying mine off early.

 

Paying off your loan early will save you money. No the first years payments on the loan do not go to interest. They go to both Interest and Payment. Here's what happens: You borrow $10,000 (the principle) interest starts building on it from the day you sign the loan paperwork. When you make a payment the interest that has built up is subtracted from your payment, and the remainder is subtracted from the principal. Then interest begins building based on the new principal amount. Example: (#s off the top of my head) You send in a payment of 400$ 30 days after you take out your loan. Lets say the interest is 100$ the left over amount of $300 is applied to the principal. The next month when you send in 400$ because your principal went down so does the interest that could have built up. They take out 97$ in interest, and 303$ goes to the principal. The Next month 95$ goes to interest.... ect.... If you want to pay off your car early the best way to do it is to know what your regular monthly payment amount and always send in more. That extra money should be going to your Principal amount. If the loan company sends you a bill for less than the monthly payment, always send more. I used to work at Ford Motor Credit and we always applied the overpayment to the principal, however we sent them a bill with the over payment amount subtracted from the next months amount due. If the customer paid that lesser amount they just undid some of the good they did by sending in the extra money. (big block of text, sorry, will need to figure out line breaks later need to go now....)

 

Thanks, that made perfect sense!

 

Good information!
Here's a site that might help:
http://www.bankrate.com/brm/calculators/autos.asp

On the left side of the page is an auto loan payment calculator. Not only can it tell you how much your monthly payments will be (based off what you enter) but it also tells you how much the interest is month by month for the life of the loan. And you can also plug in different dollar amounts to see how much you will save if you increase the payments a little. Very useful-

 

Have I said enough times how much I like this place? Thanks! Very useful!

 

This is a great place. Not only do we have the coolest cars around, but we share the love too!

I just used the calculator to add $115 extra to my monthly. It showed I would pay the car off a year early and save $695!!! I plan to add more than that so will save even more.

 

Thanks mysticturner for the feedback. Did I mention your car rules There was a bit on CNN about this last week also. I didn't know about how they can penalize you for consolidating your credit cards onto one card, or essentially downsizing your options. Example: You have 3 cards with a 10k limit each and $4,500 in total charges. So you try to be responsible and consolidate them into one and cut up the other two. Well, they supposedly see that as you being much closer to being 'maxed out'(only $5500 in available vs. $25,500 of course), therefore your score is presumably lower. Seems ****-backwards to me, but oh well. That's why my better half handles all the $$

 

The answer is, like many things, it depends. Metalsmith's description above is how 'simple interest' is calculated. And his statements regarding overpayments are correct as well, but there's another twist he didn't mention. Where the whole 'pay interest first' thing started was a bunch of years ago the accountants implemented a different way of calculating interest. Called the 'rule of 78s' or 'sum of digits', this method of calculating the interest is a sneaky way of screwing the consumer. Especially if you prepay. The bankrate site listed above as well as Wikipedia have info on the rule of 78s if you want the details. Because consumers have caught onto this rule, most loans are now simple interest (what Metalsmith described). But some try to do another twist. Using Metalsmith's ex., if your payment is $400 but instead you pay $500 each month. Instead of $300 / month going to principal, you are paying $400 and every third month you've paid an extra full principal payment. So they advance your due date by a month. Now the unthinking person thinks they can skip a month. Some companies will even put in a notice, 'congratulations - your great credit has earned you a payment holiday!'. Don't buy into it. Keep your payments the same. You'll be happier.

 

The reason you are penalized in this situation is that only one bank is risking all your debt. Stats do show that you in fact become a greater risk. People are more likely to default on one big payment than 3 smaller ones that actually total up to more than the single big payment. People see it as easier to tell one person no than 3 people.

 

Did anyone apply for the platinum gas rewards card?

 

It should be noted that I joined the PFCU and they ran a HARD credit report on me BEFORE I even applied (haven't applied yet) for the car loan. All I did was gave them the $5 to put in the account. I have Triple Alert Redemption and got an email showing that they made an inquiry.

Just throwing it out there!

 

I got the rewards gas card a few days ago and used it yesterday, 5% cash back sounds great to me, + 2% on supermarkets? It's wonderful !