Refinance or Lease?

Anonymous · ‎08-12-2015

I've been paying off my first car loan for about 18 months now; started February 2014. While I am able to keep up with my payments, it would be nice if i could get them lowered in order to focus on paying down my credit card debt and start saving a bit more. My question is: what makes more sense?

1) Refinance with DCU for a lower rate/monthly payment.

2) Trade in the used car and lease a new car for 2 or 3 years. Hoping to take advantage of model year end sales.

Car Details:

CREDIT SCORE: 700+ (from credit karma. Haven't pulled my Fico Score yet)
CUSTOMER STATE OF RESIDENCE: FL
NEW/USED: USED
YEAR OF VEHICLE: 2012
MAKE: Toyota
MODEL: Camry
MILEAGE: 16,000. Currently has 29,000
RETAIL/LEASE: Finance
AMOUNT OF LOAN: $18,000~
TERM CONTRACTED: 66 months
APR/LEASE RATE: 8.49%
MONTHLY PAYMENT: $347
ANNUAL INCOME: $32,000~

dabrian · ‎08-13-2015

Definitely refi. But I absolutely hate leases so I'm pretty biased. If you have over a 675 you should be able to refi to 1.99 with dcu.

NFCU Sig Cash-20k/ Amex BCP-19.4k/ Amex Costco-1.2k/Chase Marriott-12k/CSP-13.4k/ Freedom-5.5k/ Discover IT-14k/NCSECU-5k/Walmart-10k/Lowes-25k

Creditaddict · ‎08-13-2015

If you like your car I would just refi

Anonymous · ‎08-13-2015

I defintely like the car. I like the idea of making it an asset once the loan is paid off in 4 years.

I will put in an application with DCU. If i'm approved and my payments drop below $300, I will continue to pay my $350. That way I should be able to pay it off sooner.

Anonymous · ‎08-13-2015

DCU application submited. Now the waiting game.

Anonymous · ‎08-19-2015

Looks like I've been approved! Uploaded my pay stub and submitted a membership application. Can someone explain the refinance information form? What are the last three fields I need to fill out: 10 day pay off, pay off good through and daily interest.

Anonymous · ‎08-19-2015

@Anonymous wrote:
Looks like I've been approved! Uploaded my pay stub and submitted a membership application. Can someone explain the refinance information form? What are the last three fields I need to fill out: 10 day pay off, pay off good through and daily interest.

Your current lender should offer you a payoff amount. It will state that is good through a fixed date (for example 10 days)

You can calculate your daily interest by taking the principal owed x your current interest rate & then divide by 365 to calculate

your daily interest.

Principal 15k - interest rate 8.9% . 15000 X .089 = 1335.00

$1335.00 divided by 365 = $3.66

daily interest is $3.66

Anonymous · ‎08-20-2015

Refinancing is a great move here, congratulations. Anyone who has an improving score and high APR can benefit from refinancing a car loan, there are no fees so even if all you are saving is a point or two it still makes sense, I am sure in your case you are cutting the APR in half which is great. Please report the numbers when you have them

Hoya08 · ‎08-20-2015

gib_6808 wrote: You can calculate your daily interest by taking the principal owed x your current interest rate & then divide by 365 to calculate
your daily interest.
Principal 15k - interest rate 8.9% . 15000 X .089 = 1335.00
$1335.00 divided by 365 = $3.66
daily interest is $3.66

As a caveat, this is the daily interest amount before your payment due date. The daily interest amount decreases month-to-month. However, since the OP is refinancing relatively soon, this technicality won't matter.

Anonymous · ‎08-20-2015

I appreciate the info. I'll fill out the form tonight and upload it.