Posts Tagged ‘refinance’

What To Do BEFORE You Shop For Bad Credit Auto Financing

February 24th, 2010

Steps You Should Take Before You Start Shopping For An Auto Loan Quote Online!

Searching for a good used car is hard enough, but if you are looking for a bad credit car loan on top of that it can become a extremely difficult! Usually its pretty easy to spot a worthwhile deal at a local dealership. Just make sure that if you are getting an auto loan and you have bad credit that they don’t try and sneak in a few extras that you truly do not need. These types of maneuvers are how some dealerships get you to spend more money than you actually want to spend.

Having poor or a bankruptcy can be a somewhat discouraging when your dealer comes back to you with an extremely high interest rate on your auto loan. It sort of makes you believe that there is no way you can get a good deal on auto financing if you have poor credit.

One thing you can do is keep in mind that car dealerships are in business to make cash. If for any reason you feel like the dealership is not looking our for your best interest, you can walk away and tell them that you would like to think about it and take your business to another dealership. My goal for writing this article is to give people some insight of how to get prepared to get the best possible deal on an auto loan with bankruptcy, before you step foot inside the car dealership.

One thing that you should do ALWAYS before you step foot inside a car dealership is, get your credit score. If you know exactly what your score is before entering the dealership you will have better negotiating power when the time comes. The majority of people go find the car they like first, then then speak to a representative at the dealership, then the person breaks the news to them that their credit history is very poor and they managed to push the deal through with the bank but it has a high interest rate. In this case you have set yourself up to get overcharged on your loan and interest rate, which will wind up costing you literally thousands of dollars more over the life of the auto loan.

The first thing you do should be to go on the internet and find a company that offers credit reports with FICO Scores. Get a credit report with scores from all the three major credit reporting agencies such as Trans-Union, Equifax and Experian. All three credit scores will vary a little bit but you can use the highest score of the three to your advantage if you have to! Also remember that if you contact the credit bureaus directly, they offer you a free credit report once a year. This is something that everyone should take advantage of, and is very important if you want to get a good deal on your next car loan after bankruptcy.

The most important part of a credit report used for determining your credit worthiness is your FICO Score. This score is determined by a calculated formula used by the credit reporting agencies. Usually your credit score can be as low as a 400 and as high as 850 to 900 in some cases! As the score gets higher typically over 700, thats when you start to reap the rewards of getting a good deal. If you do not know your FICO score, you may be led to believe that with your credit history this is all you qualify for. This way they can charge you more interest and in the long run you can end up paying thousands of dollars more over the life of the auto financing. Remember dealerships are in business to make a profit, and given the chance, that is exactly what they are going to do. Don’t get me wrong, auto dealerships do deserve to make profit or they could not stay in business and pay their bills. But consumers also deserve to get a good!

A few years ago, finding a car loan after bankruptcy was not an easy task. Thanks to the internet, now you can get an instant car loan after bankruptcy in less than a few seconds. GuaranteedCarLoan.com is considered a leader in this type of auto loan!

categories: consumer,loan,lending,leasing,personal finance,debt consolidation,bankruptcy,students,military,armed forces,mortgage,refinance,family,vehicles

Effective Student Loan Refinancing Tips

November 30th, 2009

The majority of college students will agree that getting a secondary education is never cheap. By the time graduation rolls around you can find yourself in thousands of dollars of debt from student loans. The good news is that most lenders, both federal and private, do offer a 6 month period after graduation before you must start repaying them. This is put in to place to allow new graduates to have enough time to find employment. Even so, most people will still choose to use student loan refinancing for their private loans. The good news is that this process is pretty simple if you take your time and research things properly.

The very first thing with this process is being fully aware of your own credit rating. This is because the interest rate you get will be determined completely upon how good your credit history is. It’s always best to check your score and history on your own, before you even apply. This way, if their are problems discovered you have time to fix them to prevent any problems from coming up later.

What you need to remember is that many college graduates don’t have a single loan they are dealing with, but actually multiple loans they had to be taken out. Federal loans offer much lower interest rates too, so never refinance them together with private loans even if the company you choose tries to get you to.

Many lenders will have a set minimum balance required before they will refinance a loan for you. This balance can range from a couple thousand dollars to well over $15, 000 or more. Always check with the lender first to see what their minimum requirement is before you jump in and start the application process. This can help you to avoid a lot of problems in the process.

Make sure you always choose a lender that specializes in student loan refinancing. Some lending institutes have an entire section of their business for just this purpose, but some do not.

The lenders with sections dedicated to this usually have much better options to offer you and tend to have more extensive knowledge on the subject as well. They can easily review the specifications you have set and give you a number of refinancing options that will be right for you.

Another thing you will want to do is shop around for companies to refinance your loan through. Never make quick decisions during this process. Suggestions from people who have already refinanced student loans in the past are very helpful, but even then you shouldn’t jump at the first opportunity you see.

Should you refinance your student loans or consolidate private student loans? Consolidate college loans – fixed rate or adjustable rate?

The Basics Of Refinancing Student Loans

November 26th, 2009

On the surface, refinancing student loans seems easy enough. But you have to focus on the details so that the whole process doesn’t end up too complicated for you to understand. If you want to refinance your student loans, you should get to know some tips before you actually refinance.

As you may already know, there are two types of student loans – the federal granted loans and the private loans. Federal student loans have a considerably lower interest rate when compared to private student loans. It is a must that you compute the difference of your payments before you consolidate your loans and after you consolidate them to see if it will be worth it.

The second thing you have to remember is that refinancing your student loans is similar to getting any other kind of loan. Therefore, be sure to preserve and clean up your credit history before applying for one. Lenders will use your credit history to determine your eligibility. It is best if you start cleaning up your credit history several months before you refinance your student loans so that you can make corrections as needed. With a solid credit score, you get better rates and reduced fees.

Interests on federal student loans change only once a year. Thus, if you want avoid a hike in interest rates; be sure to refinance your loans before the rate change occurs. It would also help a lot if you verify the eligibility requirements before you apply to a certain lender. Lenders have their own set of requirements which have to be met before you get eligible for refinancing student loans.

Refinancing student loans is a big responsibility to take. Therefore, you have to be very careful before signing any agreement with your lender. Take time to read and reread your policy to understand all your rights and responsibilities as a borrower. Don’t miss out the fine print of the agreement because the surprises are usually stated there. If you have other ways of reducing your student loan repayments aside from consolidating them, consider each one carefully and know its pros and cons.

Most lenders also have discounts and incentive programs for well-paying borrowers. You can take advantage of this if you are an early payer, have enrolled your account in a direct debit plan, or make on time payments. Combined, the rate discount that these incentives provide you can total to a full 1 percent or even more.

Refinancing student loans is not rocket science but you need to spend some time to understand how it works and what benefits it can give to you. When you understand the basics of refinancing student loans, you are given the peace of mind that you’ve actually taken the right step in consolidating your student loans with the right company.

Student loan companies offer solutions for refinancing student loans. Have you considered to consolidate federal student loans?