Anyone else disappointed with financing?

[jogosub]

Originally Posted by Se7enLC

I think my flexibility ended up being my downfall for this one. If I'd been overly concerned with the loan, I probably would have paid more attention to the process and nitpicked a lot more. Dealers LOVE to work with monthly payments, because it's easy to mask the total price for a car when you take trade-in, down-payments, and loan terms into account. Because I had the money to just pay outright if the loan wasn't favorable, I was able to keep the discussions on the total price of the car, rather than the financing. When it finally came down to the financing, I think they knew that it wasn't going to make or break the deal for me no matter what they offered. Why not take the incentives at that point, I guess. I should have cut them a deal and split the incentive with them :-P.

One common mistake that most buyers make: fall in love with the car! Once it is obvious to the sales person and sls manager, they know how to get the most out of the deal. Most of the talk is about monthly payments. However, you did right, concentrating on the price of the car itself first. One has to always focus on the 3 profit centers that all delares have: salesperson; sales manager; finance & insurance manager. The best these days is to negotiate everything over the internet. You have it on the paper black and white. And then just come down to the dealer to sign the papers and pick up the car. More and more dealers now have "internet sales managers" (not all though) and they are specifically trained for that purpose. My last few purchases were done all over the internet, including financing.

[OBnube]

Se7enLC , While your situation is not what you expected I would not be anxious to pay down/off the loan too quickly. The good news-- You've got a great car, great terms and the loan money is cheap. Hang on to your money till you have to give it up.

While online banking is way too easy a few months down the road the hassle of writing a check will become habit and no big deal. How often if ever do you need to contact the bank anyway? See if the local branch will accept "courtesy payments" where they accept the payment, give you a receipt and forward the payment to their other division as a courtesy.

Life is short. Writing a check and a .50c stamp aren't worth stressing about. Did I mention the cool car???

[jogosub]

BObnube - and that is where 100% internet bank, like Ing Direct, makes sense! Once you get used to totally internet banking (without having any branches whatsoever) you will soon find out that the conventional banking is obsolete!

[Se7enLC]

Originally Posted by jogosub

BObnube - and that is where 100% internet bank, like Ing Direct, makes sense! Once you get used to totally internet banking (without having any branches whatsoever) you will soon find out that the conventional banking is obsolete!

^^ This.

Internet Banking means that I can do my banking on my schedule - when I'm sitting at home at 11pm, I can log in and check on things. I don't have to wait until 9-5 M-F to call and talk to a person. I don't need to have them mail me a statement, or read off my numbers over the phone. Better yet, I don't need to read my social security number or account number over the phone.

If I'm about to be late on a payment, I can just log in and hit a button. Or really, I won't be late, since I'd have set up auto-pay. But I'm not going to set up auto-pay with a company that doesn't give me any way to easily see my statement. I want to know when the automatic payment is going to be made, and I want to see that it has been made.

Since I've learned it will be at least hundreds if not thousands of dollars more to get my loan refinanced with another bank, I'm going to suck it up and deal. I set up automatic bill-pay with my primary credit union. THEY have a web interface that is usable! They will MAIL a check to the address I specified monthly. But now I have to just cross my fingers each month that they receive the check and credit my account. And the only way to find out if they have is to either call them or wait until the next statement to show up in the mail. I'm already worried my first payment won't get there in time. It's still a few days out and the check is already in the mail, but it just never occurred to me that I'd have to consider mail delays when everything is an instant bank transfer online!

I think I will still pay it off quickly. 1.9% is a very low rate, but even "high yield" savings accounts aren't doing all that great, lately. I'm getting an "amazing" 1.05% in my online savings account. That still means I'm losing more each month to the interest on this loan than I am gaining by keeping money in savings. I was joking with a friend that I should set up daily auto-payments (physical mailed checks) in small amounts (like $1 or so each). That just makes more work for me to keep track of them all, though, and the people that actually see the checks won't be the ones that have any say in how the bank as a whole operates.

[hallux]

When I spoke to the financing manager at my dealer he offered to check around for a better rate, as long as my credit was good. The Subaru rate was 2.9%, by the time I came back to pick up the OB (5 hours later) he had found me 2.71% with Citizens Bank and I signed on the dotted line.

[vr4Legacy]

Originally Posted by hallux

When I spoke to the financing manager at my dealer he offered to check around for a better rate, as long as my credit was good. The Subaru rate was 2.9%, by the time I came back to pick up the OB (5 hours later) he had found me 2.71% with Citizens Bank and I signed on the dotted line.

Yes, but he fully informed you that Subaru offered financing and that he also looked into other sources. I think that's the OP's biggest gripe here. Especially considering he didn't even get a better rate, just the same one.

[2013OB]

Chase (my Mortgage lendor of 11 years and had 2 car loans through) offered me 3.74 and I told them to go pound sand.

I have 2.49 through Security First Credit Union (one of the lendors my dealer works with). I thought I was getting 2.99 but I have great credit so I qualified for a lower rate.

Im quite happy with 2.49 on a 60 month loan. Im a principal pounder so 2.99/2.49--not much to blink an eye at and would have been just fine either way.

[Jeepwatchman]

We just picked up our 2013 OB Ltd 3.6R 2 weeks ago and were able to finance it through Subaru(Chase) for 1.90% for 60 months.

Pretty happy with that since my credit union that I have 2 other vehicles financed through quoted me 2.74%. When I told them the rate I got through Subaru, they just said that was great and they couldn't match it.

[Se7enLC]

Originally Posted by vr4Legacy

Yes, but he fully informed you that Subaru offered financing and that he also looked into other sources. I think that's the OP's biggest gripe here. Especially considering he didn't even get a better rate, just the same one.

Yep, exactly. If the finance guy had said "well, we can go with Local Bank or Subaru Financing through Chase, which one would you like?" Surely I would have asked "Well, what's the difference?". He would have to say "Well, they are the same rate, but this one is Chase and this one is Local Bank".

I'm pretty sure I would have gone with Chase. Actually, I know I would have. My primary credit card is Chase, and I've had nothing but good experiences with them. I'd actually have been able to use the SAME LOGIN for both! Whereas now, my "login" is calling an 800 number and reciting my name, account number, social, full address with city and zip, and phone number "for verification purposes" any time I want to do something even as simple as checking balance.

In reality, "Local Bank" is mostly a lie. There is a local bank with the same name that's on my bill, but the local bank has nothing to do with car loans. My loan is handled solely by an 800 number and a mailing address in a different state. No webpage, no physical location. I'm actually reasonably sure that if I went into the local branch of the bank-with-the-same-name with loan-related needs, they would refer me to the 800 number.

In the last 3 days, I have made about a dozen phone calls and spent over an hour on the phone. I had tried to set up bill pay from my credit union to handle this abomination of a bank. But "Bill Pay" just means that my bank physically mails them a check for me. Due to some confusion on my part on the setup, I put my CU account number where I was supposed to put car-loan account number. So now I'm trying to get anyone to track down the check and either send it back or apply it to my account. If this stupid bank had a webpage, I'd have just made an instant transfer payment and been done with it.

[fatabbot]

Why not just refinance with the bank of your choice? You'll still be able to get new car rates.