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What is best to do? Go out on your own to different lenders and try to find the best interest rates or let ford send your credit application to different lenders and handle it for you.
What I have people do is this: shop the local banks and your credit union. Get your best rate and bring it to the dealer. If the dealer can match or beat it, great. If not, then you know you've got the best rate you can get. Just don't talk financing terms or negotiate payments with the dealer up-front; set the price of the truck first, tell them what rate(s) you can get from your own finance source, and work from there.
MSU fan, I did exactly what 1956MarkII said. I went to www.capitaloneautofinance.com and got a quote. They had the best rate at the time, better than the local Credit Unions. I had to agree to have a payroll deduction type process and had to fill out the application over the internet. They called a couple times with questions, but was approved that day for the amount I wanted at 3.85%. They sent a blank check, you are not obligated to anything until you write the check and dealer cashes it. When vehicle delivered and I went to the Ford Finance Department the guy saw I had a blank check. He gave me i higher interest rate than my 3.85%, but if I used Ford Credit I got another $500 rebate. My payments for 5 years from Ford and Capital were identical. I took the Ford offer because our TTL is figured off the price of the vehichle (so since I got another $500 rebate my TTL dropped). The second reason I chose Ford is because I didn't have to do payroll deduction for their rate. Shop around, it is worth it.
no, do it yourself.
they are paid a commision for sending the lender your business. the commision comes from you paying a higher interest rate.
There are pros and cons to everything. If you go to each individual bank yourself and apply for a loan, then each one is going to run a credit report on you. Each time they do that, it lowers your credit rating (banks and credit bureaus get nervous when they see you out shopping for loans). When you go to the dealer, they will run ONE report, then shop their bank's requirements to see what works best. So, shop your local banks for rates ONLY- do not apply for the loan unless you've decided that's the bank you're going to do business with. Take those rates to your dealer to see if they can match or beat them. If they can beat the rate, aren't you ahead? Even if the dealer earns a commission for writing the loan, aren't YOU still ahead with the lower rate? If the dealer can't beat the rate, then get the loan yourself. Either way, you win. Why it's important to know how much the dealer is making on the loan is beyond me. If they can get you the best rate (and I did say IF), who cares how much they make? Or am I missing something here?
The Toyota dealer that "60 Minutes" went after was charging unconscienable rates, and targeting minorities for even higher rates. That's wrong and it has to stop. There's more to the story than what they told, I just don't know if there's time to go into it here. But my point is this: dealers make money on the financing. We wouldn't arrange financing if there wasn't something in it for us. But if you've shopped the local banks and the best you can do on your own is 5%, and your dealer can get it for 4.5%, aren't you going to go with the dealer's financing? Even if he's making money on it? Does it matter at that point if the dealer's picking up some extra income? You're still getting a lower rate than any bank offered you.
The Toyota dealer that "60 Minutes" went after was charging unconscienable rates, and targeting minorities for even higher rates. That's wrong and it has to stop. There's more to the story than what they told, I just don't know if there's time to go into it here. But my point is this: dealers make money on the financing. We wouldn't arrange financing if there wasn't something in it for us. But if you've shopped the local banks and the best you can do on your own is 5%, and your dealer can get it for 4.5%, aren't you going to go with the dealer's financing? Even if he's making money on it? Does it matter at that point if the dealer's picking up some extra income? You're still getting a lower rate than any bank offered you.
I Agree 100%. When the consumer saves money and the dealer makes some, everyone's a winner! (And as I remind the folks where I work, "profit" is not a four letter word!)
i agree if the dealer can get you an equal or better interest rate use them. if they make money and save you money i would have no problem with that.
the senerio i was refering to was a customer who would qualifiy for X.X% at local bank but uses dealer at a higher rate. the banks make plenty off loans i see no problem with the dealer getting "a piece of the pie" if it cost the consumer no more $.
we all know that the majority of the time the buyer overpays when dealers arrange financing. the average consumer struggles through the deal with the salesperson only to be thrown to the f&i office where the real fleecing begins.
...we all know that the majority of the time the buyer overpays when dealers arrange financing. the average consumer struggles through the deal with the salesperson only to be thrown to the f&i office where the real fleecing begins.
No argument here. Makes me grateful we don't have a F&I office.