Things to Think About when Signing for Car Financing

Here are some basics about car financing so that you can go into negotiations knowing what to expect...

Payments - THE biggest component of car finance is the amount you pay back to the bank every month. Tweaking this figure helps to shorten or lengthen the tenure of your contract depending on how much you can afford.

Interest Rates and Fees - Floating/variable or fixed rates affect how much on top of your monthly payments you are paying back to the bank. Sometimes there are additional fees to the dealer or broker as payment for their services.

Options - Check out the fine details of how your car loan works, for example Novated Leases, Hire Purchase agreements, secured and unsecured options, refinancing, balloon payments and tax rebates.

What Happens if you Can’t meet the Obligations - Read the T&Cs carefully to ensure that you know what happens if you miss or default on your payments.

You can make the process a lot simpler with a little help from  The Smarter Finance Company, find out how we can help you with your car finances today.

Things to Think About when Signing for Car Financing

Making Sure you have Sufficient Car Insurance

You shouldn’t ever compromise on your car insurance even though it’s expensive. Here’s how to keep your insurance costs low...

Buy an Affordable Car - Sports, performance and SUV models generally are more risky cars to drive because of the power they have. While the cars are costly themselves, it can be expensive to insure them too.

Figure out what you Need - Find out what kind of coverage there is. Comprehensive insurance is a good mid-level coverage to start with.

Compare Car Insurance - Compare the best car insurance deals and pick the one that fits your car the best. Make sure you check out reviews of the company too!

Look for Discounts - There just might be some special rates if you pick up a package deal or wait for a particular time in the year.

Manage your Excess - Balance your excess with how much you can afford but don’t pick an excess too high that you won’t be able to claim anything unless your car is totalled!

Drive Carefully! - A good driving track record means a cheaper insurance premium!  

Check with The Smarter Finance Company if you need help with those quote comparisons today!

Making Sure you have Sufficient Car Insurance

What Happens when you Apply for Car Financing?

Here’s how your car financing process works. Find out more about what you need to do!

Providing Details - Providing your personal and financial information to a credit union, bank or other lending institution is an important step. It may be a good idea to collate all this information when you are ready to start shopping.

Offering you a Rate - The moment of truth - how much will you will be able to borrow for that car of your dreams. Do your comparisons and see how low the rates can go...

Negotiation - Banks and credit unions might not negotiate with you, but if you are buying a packaged deal from the dealers, it’s no harm to ask!

Finalizing the Loan - Make sure that the whole contract is documented and that your loan is approved. Everything should be in order when you sign for your new car and drive it off into the sunset!

Why not seek some professional assistance to finance your car. You can call The Smarter Finance Company for a bit of advice today! 

What Happens when you Apply for Car Financing?

How to Avoid Getting Scammed

Nobody wants to know that the wool has been pulled over your eyes, so here are some tricks of the trade that you should watch out for when you’re buying a car.

Selling You Something You Can’t Afford - be careful when a deal seems too good to be true, dealership might tell you what you want to hear only to change the terms later on.

Inflating your Interest Rate - The quoted interest rates at the showroom might not be the actual rates available from lenders so remember to do your research!

Selling you a Dud - It’s hard to tell about the history of a car until something happens. Accidents and maintenance in the past may not have been done regularly and that can lead to you buying a pretty banged up vehicle!

Trying Their Luck - While this doesn’t apply to all salespeople, it’s true that they need to make a sale in order to earn money and may just tell you all sorts of things or push their luck with you trying to get you to feel guilty or buy at their quoted prices.

Doing your research greatly eliminates the chances of being scammed. You can check with The Smarter Finance Company for more tips and tricks and financing help!

How to Avoid Getting Scammed

How Does Car Financing Work?

Numbers and accounting may give you a headache, but use our quick guide to car financing to get a basic understanding of what’s going on...

Taking a Loan

You need a little extra funds for a car, you look for a lender to put it up for you. You go into a contract to get the money and that’s your car financing plan.

Documentation

Supplying details to your lender helps them to decide whether to approve the loan too and at what rate!

Car Financing Rates

Comparing your quotations means picking out the best rates - there are also lots of options to play around with the match the financing plans to your requirements

Making Payments

Once you’ve made payments for the car, you just need to meet your installment deadlines and ensure that you remit money on time! Repossession and defaulting on your loan contract is no joke!

You might need a little extra help when it comes to looking at different plans, so don’t hesitate to contact a professional car financing agency like The Smarter Finance Company if you need to! 

How Does Car Financing Work?

What to Do when Researching Car Finance Rates?

Here are some important things to look at when you are starting to look around for car financing deals

Monthly Payments
Balance making your payments and your cash flow so that you can get a god class of car and still have spending money at the end of the day! Don’t forget other costs like taxes, petrol, insurance, and maintenance!

Interest Rates and Fees
Examining how your plan is affected by interest rates and even late fees and non-payment fines can help you determine exactly how much you should take out on your loan.

Credit History
Have these documents on hand so that your application can move smoother. These will affect your loan approvals too!

Your Credit Score

• Previous and current addresses
• Employment and income history
• Declaration of (any other) income
• Declaration of any other Assets and Loans

When in doubt, head to your nearest car financial professional (like The Smarter Finance Company) for help!

What to Do when Researching Car Finance Rates?

Buying a Car without Credit History

If you have no previous records of loan applications or making financial commitments, it’s not the end of the world, you can still apply for car financing help!

Look Around

There are lots oflenders these days who are willing to put up loan for new customers without credit history. Shop around and do your comparison for the best rate!

Higher Interest Rates Apply

Lenders may “charge” you more to protect their interest because they cannot predict how you would uphold the contract agreement, unfortunately, there will always be a small different in the rate you receive!

Tell them more about yourself

If you are able to tell the lenders more about your financial history, perhaps you may be able to negotiate a better deal.

Consider someone to back you up!

Getting a trusted family member or friend to act as a guarantor can be an option as long as you don’t use them as a way out when you can’t make your payments!

You can also look for professional car financing help to help you cut down your processing and comparison times and get you the best car financing deals for your situation too!

Buying a Car without Credit History

What to do in the Car Showroom

Here’s how to be focused when you go to look at shiny new cars!

Grab a salesperson

The sales people are the most knowledgeable people around, use that to your advantage!

Know what you want

Even if you don’t know about cars, you might have an idea of what you need your car to do for you. Tell the sales person and let them present you with options

Ask about Everything!

Ask the salesperson about the advantages and disadvantages, the fuel consumption, the options and features that are available... Anything else that you can think of - ASK!

Think on it

Don’t be rushed into a hasty decision. Take the time to deliberate over the information and schedule test drives if need be so that you can come to a conclusion.

A showroom is just one way to go about finding out about cars. Make use of all avenues and even your car financing office to help you get comfortable with your final choice! 

What to do in the Car Showroom

Finalising your Car Choice

One last step before you sign the title for a new or used car - test driving it!

1- Make an appointment

Tell the showroom that you’d like to schedule a test drive - reserve the vehicle that you’d like and ask them for one as close to the one you’d like so you can test all the features. Ask any other questions and perhaps ask about the area around the showroom that you can drive to.

2 - During the Test Drive

Get familiarised with the car and get comfortable too. Drive as you would normally on a typical day. Sit in the rear cabin so that you know what it’s like to be a passenger too!

3 - After the Test Drive

Take your time to review the drive and perhaps schedule other test drives back to back so that you can feel the immediate difference when you drive the different cars.

A car is a big commitment so a test drive can really help you make a clear cut decision! 

Finalising your Car Choice

Using Interest Rates for your Car Financing Advantage!

Figuring out interest rates can help you negotiate a better car financing rate for yourself! Here’s how:-

What is affected by interest rates?

Credit History - Your background and income history tells lenders how risky you are. The more risky you are, the higher the interest rate.

Period of loan- The longer your loan, the higher the interest rate because over time, conditions are unpredictable.

Security- If you pledge an item, interest rates go down quite drastically because lenders have a security that they can claim if you default.

Market outlook - Lenders plan interest rates based on how they foresee the market changing. With inflation increasing, interest rates increase to make sure that their money retains its value.

Managing your expectations on interest rates can help you plan better for your car financing deal so we hope that these tips can help you if you’re on the search for a great car financing rate!

Using Interest Rates for your Car Financing Advantage!

How to get a Good Car Financing Rate

Here are some handy tips about how to get a great car financing deal when you’re on the market for a new or used car!

1 - Keep your loan costs separate from your car costs

You can be objective with your car financing plan and car costs so that you get the best deal on both ends!

2 - Decide quickly once you have a quote

Car financing quotes last only 2weeks so in order to make use of a good deal, don’t delay with making a decision!

3 - Improve your credit score

Take some measures to improve your credit score so that lenders see your situation more favourably and give you a better car financing deal!

4 - Calculate overall costs

Take into consideration the amount of interest you pay over time and readjust your car financing plan accordingly.

You can continue to look for the best car financing deals with a qualified car financing agency like The Smarter Finance Company!

How to get a Good Car Financing Rate