(I've only ever had one car payment, and we messed that up big time - I don't really know how they work, I just need to know scenarios!!)
Say you needed to finance a used vehicle...total comes to $7,000 after taxes and fees, etc. You can put down $2,000 in cash, and you'll get about $1,000 for your current (POS) vehicle. So, you're financing $4,000. How long can you stretch that out? Is there a minimum time that they'll insist upon? Like, you have to sign up for at least 36 months? Can you extend $4000 over 5 years? Will used car places generally look to you to name your terms, or do they take charge?
I just don't know how it works! We want a new car, because ours really is crap, but we can't afford a large monthly payment. $200/mo is pushing it. What can we afford knowing that? Advice, anyone??
Typically they take charge, but you have some say. And you need to remember finance charges. I bought a car for $6995, put down $1500 plus paid about $400 extra for taxes & tags (not entirely sure of that amount..). They offered my loan for either a 24 or 30 month period. I chose 30 months b/c of the lower payment. So $300/month for 30 months is $9000 (well above my financed $5495...).
Quoting 3earthangels:
Typically they take charge, but you have some say. And you need to remember finance charges. I bought a car for $6995, put down $1500 plus paid about $400 extra for taxes & tags (not entirely sure of that amount..). They offered my loan for either a 24 or 30 month period. I chose 30 months b/c of the lower payment. So $300/month for 30 months is $9000 (well above my financed $5495...).
Jeez! What was your interest rate??
When buying a used car, it's not a good idea to stretch it out more than 2 years or so. If it breaks down and you can't afford to fix it, you still have to make your payments. After the 2 year mark the chances of it breaking down are higher.
Also remember you will have to hold full coverage insurance on the car which is a bit more.
24 year old, God loving, non-vaxing, tutu making WAH momma to Jenelle, Gracelynn, and Sapphire. Girlfriend to Rachel (not wife, because apparently some people are AGAINST two loving, consenting adults marrying).
It depends on the loan and the dealership. In my opinion if you are going to pay payments I would go as new as possible. I would much rather pay payments on a 2 year old car and pay a little longer than financing a 5 year old car that may not even last as long as the payments do ya know?
To give you an idea, we bought a 15,000 (about like 14blahblah) truck, We put 5000 down, I pay 72$ a week for three years, I actually went over my finance papers today and I only paid 250 in finance charges, not sure if that was a mistake or not but I am not complaining LOL
Ahorrid one, because my credit royally sucked when I bought the car.
Quoting Jeiao:
Quoting 3earthangels:
Typically they take charge, but you have some say. And you need to remember finance charges. I bought a car for $6995, put down $1500 plus paid about $400 extra for taxes & tags (not entirely sure of that amount..). They offered my loan for either a 24 or 30 month period. I chose 30 months b/c of the lower payment. So $300/month for 30 months is $9000 (well above my financed $5495...).
Jeez! What was your interest rate??
You usually can name your terms (like how long you finance it for) but they of course are only going to give you whats available to you. You might not have a choice depending on your credit.
You say you "messed up" on a car payment before...does that mean you didn't make the payments and it was repossessed? Do you have good or bad credit? Can you afford full coverage insurance on a car...as well as the car payment?
All these things are going to affect what is available to you.
Quoting AJmum:It depends on the loan and the dealership. In my opinion if you are going to pay payments I would go as new as possible. I would much rather pay payments on a 2 year old car and pay a little longer than financing a 5 year old car that may not even last as long as the payments do ya know?
To give you an idea, we bought a 15,000 (about like 14blahblah) truck, We put 5000 down, I pay 72$ a week for three years, I actually went over my finance papers today and I only paid 250 in finance charges, not sure if that was a mistake or not but I am not complaining LOL
Out of curiosity I worked that out and its actually about $1,700 you will pay in interest. $72 a week....times 52 weeks a year...times 3 years.
Quoting LuvmySFSGT:
You usually can name your terms (like how long you finance it for) but they of course are only going to give you whats available to you. You might not have a choice depending on your credit.
You say you "messed up" on a car payment before...does that mean you didn't make the payments and it was repossessed? Do you have good or bad credit? Can you afford full coverage insurance on a car...as well as the car payment?
All these things are going to affect what is available to you.
We were young and stupid, and really had no idea what we were doing financially, when we went out and bought the car. It got to the point where they were about to repossess it, and we then returned it voluntarily. We filed for bankruptcy shortly after...so we have pretty poor credit. I think our scores are in the low 600s.
Since then, though, I've become incredibly OCD about our finances. If I can't work out a way to keep our bank account positive, whatever it is we wanted, we no longer get. We used to overdraft our account several times a month - we haven't overdrafted our account in at least a year and a half.
When it comes to insurance, etc. I definitely go over that budget too...I just never really knew how used car places operate, and how car payments come together, so I wanted to get a few different scenarios so I could see if we really could afford something newer at this point. If it comes down to us only being able to afford a car that's in only slightly better condition than our current one, we'll obviously fix that instead - as much as we can anyway. No reason to waste money for a year, pretending we're in a better spot.
it depends but we have a car financed for about 8000 and it's for about 4 yrs. You should go to http://www.carmax.com/ Even if you're not buying a vehicle from there BUT it gives you an idea of what your payments would be how many months with taxes and after you give money down. It's a calculator. That's where we bought our vehicle and that's pretty much how much our payment came out to be so it's pretty accurate in a way..just an idea!
Hmm your right, not sure where we got that number, We have had it since feb of last year and plan on paying it off next month so maybe we based it on that? but thats still 566 a year....not sure where that number came from....oh well I am wrong.
Quoting LuvmySFSGT:
Quoting AJmum:
It depends on the loan and the dealership. In my opinion if you are going to pay payments I would go as new as possible. I would much rather pay payments on a 2 year old car and pay a little longer than financing a 5 year old car that may not even last as long as the payments do ya know?
To give you an idea, we bought a 15,000 (about like 14blahblah) truck, We put 5000 down, I pay 72$ a week for three years, I actually went over my finance papers today and I only paid 250 in finance charges, not sure if that was a mistake or not but I am not complaining LOL
Out of curiosity I worked that out and its actually about $1,700 you will pay in interest. $72 a week....times 52 weeks a year...times 3 years.
Ashley's Husband Made it Home From a Deployment in Iraq - And Then Tragedy Struck
- Jeiao
on Nov. 23, 2009 at 11:27 PM