If you have bad credit car finance can be difficult to attain. Either you will be refused or, in the best case scenario, you will only be able to commit to a deal which will bleed you dry in the long run. At least this is the kind of spiel that you might expect to hear when buying a new vehicle or seeking funding for a potential purchase. The good news is that you can usually avoid car crash finance and get an offer that suits you and your finances, provided you are willing to put in the time and shop around.

The first rule of car financing is that you really need to focus if you are going to get a decent deal from the business actually selling you the car. Having negotiated a price for your intended vehicle, you will then have to barter fairly hard to secure financing which is actually in line with what you are willing to pay.

Finance deals allow salespeople to earn commission and help dealerships to increase revenues in a market where the margins on car sales can be slim. As a result, they will typically try to sell you added extras at this point, from extended warranties through to alarms and after-sales care. While those with deep pockets might find this all useful, you will often be adding unnecessary expense. You need to slowly analyse the dealership’s offer, or seek a solution elsewhere and head to the showroom with a car finance deal and a price already in your head so you are in the driving seat, so to speak.

Those who have poor credit ratings will invariably find it tougher to get finance for a car, with interest rates likely to soar if your history is less than pristine. Arguably, the best solution in this situation is simply to pay for your vehicle in cash, should you have the funds. Provided that the interest payments you would be faced with are higher than the returns you might get from investing or saving your cash, paying up-front makes a lot of sense. It also means that your credit rating will remain unaffected, while financing might compound an already complex credit file, causing potential issues with borrowing at a later stage.

Of course this is not going to be open to everyone. In the current climate, few have the cash available for an outright purchase. Some may turn to their bank or to a credit union, allowing them to deal with someone face to face. However, compared to other alternatives it can be tricky to arrange and is only available during business hours.

For many, the preferred option is to arrange financing online. Because the online market is so large you should be able to identify a competitive rate of interest. In addition the whole application process can be streamlined and in many cases completed automatically so you can get an instant answer. Even those with imperfect credit ratings should find a range of specialist lenders competing for business, albeit at higher than average interest rates. On the downside you may feel a little uncomfortable with the unavoidably impersonal nature of this service, but as with any purchasing process it is the deal itself that matters.

This entry was posted on Friday, July 29th, 2011 at 3:57 pm and is filed under Auto loans. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.