Auto Refinance

[johnma]

Hello, so in June of 2013 I bought a Nissan Altima 2010. Unfortunately as a first time car buyer I made a couple of mistakes.

The first was that being freshly out of college I had little credit history. I believe my credit score was around 650. The second was agreeing to an APR of 10.65% not extremely bad, but could be better.

I am hoping to refinance my auto loan in the next month or so now that it has been 7 months and have a few questions.

What would my credit score have to be to qualify for the promotional rates that are in the 2% range. My current credit score is 668 and I anticipate it to go up a bit more when my credit cards report a utilization drop from 52% to 8%. In addition I have a cosigner with a credit score in the 685-705 range. In addition when I bought the car, income reported was 3000 a month, we would now be able to report income of 4700 a month if that matters.

Also I am currently upside down on my car for around 5,500, now I know that I will have to bring cash to refinance and currently have around 4k. By reading the forums some people have mentioned some CU offer refinance loans at 110%  I was wondering if there is any CU suggestions for this? If not then I will have to just bite the bullet and wait a couple of extra months. 

FInally if I do indeed need to wait a couple extra months to lower my principal, I know from a saving money stance I should just pay the 4k now to lower principal and get there quicker, but does it matter then if I brought 0 downpayment when it came to refinance?

Thanks for all the help.

[Hoya08]

Before you drop that 4k towards the loan balance, start contacting CU's about their refinance programs (LTV max, etc), interest rates, and credit score requirements.

[Creditaddict]

Are you member to any CU? Find some around you that you qualify to join.

who do you bank with?

[johnma]

Thank You for the responses. I currently bank with a local credit union (CU of Southern California) that only does 100% LTV of blue books. I will be contacting other CU to see if any have better terms.

[SamsungHDTV]

I would drop the 4k on the loan asap and save the 10% on 4k. And yes find other CUs to apply with. Most should be happy to see your current payment history.

[StartingOver10]

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@SamsungHDTV wrote:

I would drop the 4k on the loan asap and save the 10% on 4k. And yes find other CUs to apply with. Most should be happy to see your current payment history.

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Yes. Besides if you pay the $4k on the vehicle loan now, the dollar amount of interest on each payment is less. It's like reverse compounding (it works for you and not against you).

[johnma]

Thanks for the advice. Currently paying the 4k down on my current loan and plan to be applying to more CU sometime this weekend. Hopefully the offers I get are not affected by having no downpayment, but hopefully an increase credit score/payment history will get me a better rate.

[p-]

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Jennyknight1 wrote: ...You can apply to credit unions yourself, but I would use a service that specializes in credit union auto loan placement. 

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What?  You're kidding, right?  I did a straight refi with Penfed for 1.49 percent at 60 months with no fees whatsoever.  The app was done online and took just a few minutes, including the time to get a payoff letter generated by my previous lender.  Why would I pay a service to do that for me?  Most CU's post their rates online these days anyway.

I've used Penfed as well as USAA for car loans in the past few years (including when my scores were barely over 700) and it was simple, straightforward, and I had a check in my hand the next business day.  

Your second link dead ends, and your first one is for a site that has terrible reviews, allegations of cramming warranties and gap, and is listed as a rip off in countless reports.  

Based on that, and your tiny post count, I hereby declare shennanigans.  You, "Jenny" are a spammer.  Go away.

[Anonymous]

That is a great Rate. A service would probably match the rate you got and would not cost you any extra fees. Not everyone has the luck or time that you had. Also, we are making aware of some very good information that can be used by many. If you want to call it SPAM that is your words. Thanks for the response, Jenny Knight

[p-]

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Jennyknight1 wrote: If you want to call it SPAM that is your words.

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Not just my words, apparently your 8 or more posts pasting the exact same BS message just got deleted by mods.  Go try it somewhere else, you're wasting your time here.