My dealer told me that you have to make 4 payments before you can refinance from Ford Motor Credit, or they will take that $500 rebate away. Is this true?

 

Check your rebate fine print, but no, generally I would say that's the dealer trying to make sure they get their cut from financing.

 

After the papers are signed and you take delivery, exactly how would they accomplish that? Dealer told me to go ahead and refi ASAP ... and I did 2 days later.

 

My original salesperson told us the same thing, wait 3 months to refinance. I waited 3 days and financed with my credit union for a much less interest rate. No harm no foul. It is a dealer advantage for you to wait but screw the dealer. They make plenty on the sale.

 

Only because they lose their finance commission if you refi within 90 days. Do it as soon as the papers are signed, you won't lose anything.

I would totally call them out on their lying right to your face.

 

Your dealer lied. Paid mine off just as my sales-guy recommended at first payment.

 

ok, sounds good, I think I will go ahead and do that asap.
thanks

 

So if you take the customer cash and refi early. Does Ford Credit keep track of that and possibly not give you loans on future trucks? I buy a new truck every 3-5 years. On my 2017 it was a $1200 customer cash, I would hate to get blackballed and not be able to get that discount on the next truck.

On the other side of the coin, I developed a small tear in my Platinum seat in less than 5,000 miles, Ford said they will not warranty it. So I'm like, I'll take my loan some where else.

 

I refinanced just as the first payment was due. So my credit union made the first and only payment to FMC. No word from the dealer and I know the general manager personally and he's never said a word.

 

You may feel different, but I personally don't care about FMCC antics. The way I see it, the interest I save financing through my credit untion is greater than the discount. FWIW, I only financed $16K, and when I did a refi at the credit union, I got 1% cash back on the refi amount ... which was an extra $160 in my savings account I was not expecting. That cash back makes my effective loan APR about 1.9% over 3 years. YMMV

 

On my '15 250 i made one payment and my '17 350 i didn't make any. Give them a couple weeks to process everything. As soon as I got the welcome to FMCC letter, I called to get the account number and payoff. I refi'd with my credit union and dropped 2.5%.

 

yes, I will go from 9.0 to 4.4 when I refi. I just want to put some on the principle before doing so. Maybe 1 payment with extra to principle or do it right before the first payment?

 

Wow, those APRs sound high. FMCC was 7% and my credit union was 2.9% before the 1% cash back.

 

its better for 60 months though

 

Finance guy told me same thing "Make sure to wait three months before you refinance." I asked why and he told me that they don't receive their kickback from FMCC unless we keep the loan for three months.

The current incentive when I bought my truck was $750 to take the FMCC financing. So I took their financing at 5.9% and received the $750 credit. 3 days later I refinanced with my credit union at 1.79%. If I would have keep the Ford loan for the 3 months the difference in interest was considerable and would have negated most of the savings benefit of the $750 credit.

Using an auto loan calculator with amortization schedule you can figure out the cost of the interest difference between the two loans. $758.09 (FMCC Interest for 3 months) - $229.64 (Credit Union Interest for 3 months) = $528.45

So the cost to me to keep the Ford financing was $528.45 more than refinancing. So like I said I refinanced as soon as possible. It has been 7 months now and no one from Ford has called asking for their $750 rebate back.

For general reference here's the breakdown of total interest paid over the life of the loan between the two options.

Amount Financed $52,000
FMCC loan at 5.9% = $9872.31
Credit union loan at 1.79% = $2881.11
Difference = $6991.20

So now you can see why Ford wants to finance your loan for you at a higher rate. The $750 that they give you is a pittance compared to the total interest.