Cars have become an integral part of our lives that we find it difficult to live without any. You will want to take your kids every day to school to be sure of their safety or travel anytime at your own convenience and will. There are lots and lots of ways cars help us but this becomes difficult when you do not have one or you have one that is not reliable. Always leaving you in the middle of the street or just does not want to respond at all. This is embarrassing right?  Imagine embarking in it to take your anxious children out to the play ground you promised them a month ago and the car refuses to start at all. Your kids will not understand that.

With all the stress of having an unreliable car or not at all might make you decide to go in for a car loan to get one you can count on every time. If you have taken that decision and you are here, you are welcome. It is just the right place for you at this moment. Whether you are still nursing the thought or you have nailed the final nail on that topic, you need to arm yourself with some few tips and tricks you will need before sitting in front of your lender. It is better when you start saying anything at all about borrowing money to your lender when you must have armed yourself to the teeth with some info in that light, this way you won’t be clueless and you will know how to go about it.

Decide on the source of your loan

It might seem so easy and more like a very good idea to get directly to the car dealer for a loan especially as he is a one-stop shop for your car needs. One thing about this is when you go directly to the car dealer, you have little or no room for negotiations. What he gives you is approximately what you will take. But a lender gives you the flexibility of bargaining for the car.  While this might look ideal, what about a car dealer who is proposing an irresistible offer? Well, you will need to sort this out. Prepare yourself before you head in to this.

Fix your rates with the lender

It is recommended that you bargain and secure fix rates of repayment the moment an opportunity shows up, this way your rate will be reasonable and fix every month. This will help you in budgeting for other things too as you know exactly how much is going where. When you know what you have, there are few chances you will lack something in your pocket except you decide to increase your expenses. If you go in for a variable rate, you will find things difficult because there will be fluctuation ions in your monthly financial plan because of the car loan repayment.

Avoid special offers, they are a trap.

If you are going in for a loan and jump into one because they had a “special offers” in a limited time, then you just walked into a trap. For instance, you will see a dealer offering free service for three years or five or even up to eighty thousand kilometers. Well that looks really interesting and enticing especially if you are going in for a very nice ride that will need you to spend about $500 or more per service, meaning that in three years of free servicing you will be saving about $3000 or so. Will it not be better you just negotiated the three thousand bucks off the car and service it for $150 at an independent mechanics? This way you will instead save more than seventy percent of that “special offer” and for “a limited time” they add to the offer to make you run for it. When you get there, forget about the special offer attached to the car. Negotiate the car that you want at the price you can comfortably pay for. You will be doing yourself a great favor.

Car loan fees

When applying for this loan, you will be required to pay for an application fee which is normal but if you are ask to pay any other fees like a monthly service fee, well, whatever that one is for I can’t tell. You are not to pay any monthly service fee to any lender who demands such fees because the “excuse attached” to most of these fees is that it will be used to pay workers to remind you to pay your loan. You are not the one to pay their staffs to do their job. In case you happen to meet this type of lender, drop him. Look for one that do not have such fee attachment to the normal application fee. There is no way you can miss repayment that has been set.

Pay fast, pay cheap

How does this work? All the extra cash bonuses you get, whether at work, a gift from somebody or you are lucky enough to win the lottery, you know where that money is suppose to go to. When you pay your loan faster, whichever loan, you reduce the interest and reduce your financial burden. When you do this you will be able to save for other things like those dream trips or voyages, or a holiday in that place you have ever wished to go to for a long time and all that.

When you overtake your loan, that is you decide to say use the extra cash to sponsor other things, you are likely going to dig into your credit card which will increase your long term debt and you will be indebted for a very long time. So leave that trip till you are done with your car loan or for later and work on your car loan till you are sure your financial situation is almost balanced.