Auto Loans

[CaliforniaGirl01]

Here is my situation. DH and I just recently closed on our very first home this week. Our next goal was to trade in our 2007 Nissan Xterra for a mini van because of our growing family. When we first bought the Xterra back in July 2010, our credit was around 570 or so. We found a lender who was willing to lend to us with a 22.49% interest rate because of our low credit score. DH credit score is now 676 and we now owe about $13,000 on the vehicle. My question is, should I trade in the vehicle for the mini van or refinance it with our bank USAA and than trade it in? Thanks for any reply!

[pizzadude]

Congrats on your new home !!

Any idea how much you might get for the Xterra, do you have any offers ??   Looking at KBB it shows ballpark 10K ~ 12K on trade in  ?  How many miles, what condition ?

It's very possible that you wouldn't get much of anything out of the trade.  

[GrowingCredit]

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CaliforniaGirl01 wrote:

Here is my situation. DH and I just recently closed on our very first home this week. Our next goal was to trade in our 2007 Nissan Xterra for a mini van because of our growing family. When we first bought the Xterra back in July 2010, our credit was around 570 or so. We found a lender who was willing to lend to us with a 22.49% interest rate because of our low credit score. DH credit score is now 676 and we now owe about $13,000 on the vehicle. My question is, should I trade in the vehicle for the mini van or refinance it with our bank USAA and than trade it in? Thanks for any reply!

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If you can wait for some time than I would say refinance it ASAP and you can save some extra money for your next car DP. Or else after refinancing you can keep paying the same amount and your car would be paid up soon.

[CaliforniaGirl01]

Thanks for the reply. It has about 80,000 miles on it and car is in great condition. There is no problems with it and I took really good care of it. DH looked into the trade in value and it shows that we would probably break even or us owing a little bit more. He said he wants to refinance first and than trade it in. But I am not sure if that is the route we should take? We are expecting twins sometime in August and that is why we wanted to get a new vehicle before than.

[pizzadude]

Congrats on the twins on the way !

If you can refi and lower your payments, keep paying the same amount each month and maybe you can knock more of the principal down.   Your kids won't be moving around on their own much for the first year or two, at least you'll be getting them in/out of the carseats, so as long as you can do this in the Xterra and have room for strollers, etc... then maybe you can pay the loan down while you look for a replacement.

[GrowingCredit]

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pizzadude wrote:

Congrats on the twins on the way !

If you can refi and lower your payments, keep paying the same amount each month and maybe you can knock more of the principal down.   Your kids won't be moving around on their own much for the first year or two, at least you'll be getting them in/out of the carseats, so as long as you can do this in the Xterra and have room for strollers, etc... then maybe you can pay the loan down while you look for a replacement.

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+1

[webhopper]

OP, whats the size of your family now, do you and the DH already have kids?