Auto Loan Rant!!!

[Anonymous]

Sorry in advance for the venting but I don't have anybody to talk to about this. 

My wife and I purchased a 2016 Mazda3 yesterday but I wasn't automatically approved a loan through USAA onine. It showed that the loan application needed manual review. I figure no big deal. I could always secure a refi loan through a better bank. The dealer offered me a 16k loan at 2.99% APR (through Chase) for a 60 month term. Truthfully, I'm not 100% comfortable with using Chase for my auto loan since they seem to have a lot of nightmare stories and fees around every corner. 

I finally got my approval back from USAA today. 16k at 5.15% for 60 months. What the blazes?! My wife and I have 780+ credit scores, no debt, no baddies on our reports, and over 100k income. I called and they told me 5.15% was the best they could do and there was nothing I could do to get a lower APR. They weren't budging.

The strangest thing is that we had an auto loan through USAA in 2013 for 15k at 2.75% and paid it off no problem.

[Anonymous]

Chase is Mazda's "captive" lender, so it's not that surprising they got you financed through them at a promo rate, easily with your scores.

USAA is not as large a lender, so their terms just may not be as good right now, even with your history with them.

I've had 2 Chase auto loans in the past, never had a problem with them - one late fee I totally earned, I was over two weeks late on the payment, but nothing nightmarish or unusual.  They rolled a couple of payments for me when I was laid off and needed a little help (rolled the payments over to the end of the loan, can't remember if they had a fee for this but if they did I was okay with it, since they were deferring payments for me).  Paid the loan off early when I traded the car in on another, no problems or fees there either.  Second loan, no problems, paid it off over a year early, no fees.  I do bank with them, but I don't think that got me anywhere preferential with the auto lending.  Just made monthly automatic payments easy to set iup.

[Anonymous]

Thanks for the helpful insight. I think my main concern is just being able to pay the loan off early. As long as I can make large payments every month that apply to the loan principal without fees, I'll be happy. 

I don't have any family to talk to about this so finance stuff is always a new territory for me. With all the fine print surrounding loans, I just want to make sure I'm not messing up anything. 

[Appleman]

You need to applly at Penfed, they will give you the new car rate for first 12 months/12K miles I believe.

I am a long time USAA customer and supporter but they really need to catch up to the likes fo NFCU, PenFed and DCU.

1 EQ HP for PenFed....

[Creditaddict]

Wait, a New Mazda??

New Mazda you should be able to get 

PURCHASE OFFER

0.0% APR

0.0% APR for up to 60 MONTHS.

why are they offering you 2.99?!!

[Anonymous]

We were offered the 0% APR but were told it would exclude a customer cashback and rebate offer. 

[StartingOver10]

---

@Anonymous wrote:

We were offered the 0% APR but were told it would exclude a customer cashback and rebate offer. 

---

^^^I agree with you here. Those 0% APR loans are not all that they are cracked up to be - especially if the numbers work to your advantage with the cashback offer and rebate offer.

I had a Chase loan and they are very, very easy to work with. You can easily make a principle payment online - there is a designated line for it. I have never had posting issues with them for the vehicle loan. No pre-payment penalty either. You can set your payment to either pay ahead (the next month or two) or to pay down principle - whichever way you prefer to apply it. 

[sccredit]

I had Chase through Subaru (also their Captive) and had no issues.  Made larger payments every month and never had an issue.  

[jeffm4688]

Chase online has a nice option for you to include either A. extra payments in advance or extra principal each month.  I was able to pay ahead with no problems on my loan.

USAA has never offered me or anyone I know a good rate for some reason, where as I've never had/seen problems with other lenders. USAA recently approved a buddy of mine for a 12% apr motorcycle loan with a 720+ fico but he got 3% through honda. I usually don't even bother with them anymore.

[Anonymous]

Thanks for all the good info, everybody. I have one more question. I'm still waiting to receive my loan paperwork from Chase (little payment booklet and whatnot). It's been about a week. Anybody know how long it takes to receive that stuff?