What's my best choice

[Anonymous]

Currently have a Santander auto loan for $595 a month with roughly 24 months left. 15.9k payoff. 22% interest rate that is literally crippling me. I had a few late payments 8 months ago because of a move and wife struggling with post partum. Anyway I'm working on my credit and my Experian is currently 627 as I work on getting closer to purchasing a house. I spoke to a mortgage lender who recconended getting into a smaller auto payment for dti purposes. My trucks value is currently around 11k so I'm 4-5k upside down but am looking to maybe give 4-5k and see if I can lease or purchase something cheaper? I have no debt, no collections, just a limited credit history. What would the likelihood be of me being able to achieve this? I know dodge rams lease pretty low and heard Chrysler financial isn't so bad, any advice would be huge!!!

[Anonymous]

Also my salary is 67k per year

[JGGM]

I'm not sure leasing a truck will really lower your monthly debt obligation. Even if you put $4-5k down you're basically just absorbing the negative equity in your trade. Most lease advertisements require a couple grand down plus TTL.....so you'd probably need $4-5k plus another $4-5k. Also most leases you see advertised are ultra low mileage leases (10-12k miles per year). The other thing you need to consider is while you might be able to get approved for a lease, you might not qualify for the advertised rate. Just like when you see 0% financing on vehicles, not all customers will qualify for the lowest interest/lease rate. 

From a personal finance perspective, you would probably be significantly better off if you just doubled up on payments right now (or paid as much extra as you can). If yourself have 24 payments left you can have this thing paid off in a little over a year and then when you apply for a mortgage you won't  have a car payment. 

[Anonymous]

Alot of folks that are upside down on car loans are tempted to take on more debt to get out of the situation.  The problem with buying a car with a high rebate is the fair market of value of the car is impacted, for example I can get a Ford Escape with a $3,500 rebate, that rebate impacts the resale value of all of the used cars out there.  That is why Honda rarely uses rebates of any significant size, they realize the importance of proecting their customers resale value.  My point is you can probably work out a deal to make the negative equity go away in the short term but you will end up being upside down on the next vehicle.  The reality is negative equity never goes away on its own, only way to make it go away for real is to pay it off.  If your in a tight spot on DTI and you need a mortgage you can go with a new car etc but do so fully understanding the trade offs.  I would suggest avoiding a lease in this situation.  Leases don't have enough payments to spread that negative equity over so chances are you will get a terrible deal.  Your best shot is to work with a credit union and get a solid car loan you can live with long term without having to deal with subprime interest.