Best Auto Loan Rates

[MAC702]

... go in to the local Navy Federal branch ...

Specifically, the only way to address these types of businesses is to vote with your wallet, and patronize those that welcome and accept you.

By continuing to conduct business with companies with such policies, you are rewarding them for discriminating against you.

Has Navy Federal CU changed their policy? I went in to reactivate my account when they came to town. Saw the "No Guns" sign on the door, and sent them a letter saying why I wouldn't. Haven't been back since. They are spending more money than ever before on advertising, and yet have a ridiculous policy that drives many away (except actual bad guys).

 

[Aswild]

Don't buy a car you can't pay cash for. Unless you get a 0% loan you are throwing your money away.

There's a great book by a guy named Dave Ramsey about finances called "Total Money Makeover". Buy it used and read it. My family has become financially much smarter and much more comfortable in life following his teaching. We only have small real estate payments now, which is the only thing anyone should ever take out a loan for.

As I say Doing better than I deserve.

 

[JohnnyK]

Has Navy Federal CU changed their policy? I went in to reactivate my account when they came to town. Saw the "No Guns" sign on the door, and sent them a letter saying why I wouldn't. Haven't been back since. They are spending more money than ever before on advertising, and yet have a ridiculous policy that drives many away (except actual bad guys).

AFAIK, Navy Federal has never had a "No Guns" policy... Was it possible that some rogue individual put that sign there? I was assured, multiple times by local branch managers, and by corporate headquarters that they are not anti-gun, and fully respect the laws in the states where they are located... My major reason for transferring my accounts to Navy Federal was because one nevada has taken a very outspoken ant-gun position.

 

[RadTrashMan]

Aloha Pacific Credit Union. 2.25%.
There is an office in Las Vegas

https://www.alohapacific.com/loans-rates/

 

[Kinoons]

If you have a 401k and enough of a balance you can take a loan from the 401k. You’ll want to pay it back fairly quickly, but at least the “interest” is paid to yourself vs someone else.

 

[Bumper]

Actually this isn't true in every case. For example, I'd rather put lumps of cash into investments that net much more than the 3% loan.

I recommend a modified version of this. Save and buy a used car for cash - a reliable junker is what you're after, or as good as you can afford. Then immediately start making "new" car payments to your savings account. When you have enough saved to pay cash for a new or late model (2 or 3 year old has suffered the bulk of new car depreciation and is a better buy) vehicle, buy it and again start making "new" car payments to your savings account. Only buy vehicles that are rated well for dependability. The obvious advantage to this system is you earn interest on your savings account and never pay car loan interest. The net interest gain between what you earn on savings and what you "don't have to pay on a car loan" is a healthy return.

TitanNV is correct, you can invest wisely and make more money than loan interest rates - but you can also lose your posterior. I've done both. Using the system as I've outlined above, I've been able to pay cash for all my vehicles since 1985. There's a not so obvious advantage when doing this, being able to pay cash most always results in being able to shop for price and get a better deal than when financing.

There's an old saying, "It takes money to make money", and that's certainly true. Initially it usually takes lots of hard work, self-restraint, and sacrifice to acquire enough money to reach the "takes money" part. After that it's easy.

Disclaimer: I'm not so Pollyannaish as to actually believe many people would embrace the idea above, really. A lot of people are into instant gratification which doesn't fit well with the plan. E.g. I had an office manager who asked for vacation and unpaid time off to go on a trip to Hawaii. I knew she was habitually broke, though I paid her well, so I causally asked how she was able to swing the vacation (rude of me, I know). Credit card!! - which meant she would be paying at least twice as much for the trip over the next few years. (When I founded the company she worked for, I didn't take a vacation for 5 years and worked most weekends. That was in 1978, memories of the struggle have fortunately faded and softened some.

 

[Bumper]

If you have a 401k and enough of a balance you can take a loan from the 401k. You’ll want to pay it back fairly quickly, but at least the “interest” is paid to yourself vs someone else.

Great advice! Though I suspect many smaller companies closed their 401K plans during the last recession. Our company matched employee contribution at 1.5 to 1 most years. Employee participation rate still dropped below 15%, even though it was costing them only about 75 cents in pre-tax dollars to save $2.50. We closed the plan as our outside management costs no longer made sense.

 

[stitch702]

Don't buy a car you can't pay cash for. Unless you get a 0% loan you are throwing your money away.

There's a great book by a guy named Dave Ramsey about finances called "Total Money Makeover". Buy it used and read it. My family has become financially much smarter and much more comfortable in life following his teaching. We only have small real estate payments now, which is the only thing anyone should ever take out a loan for.

Sound advice. Usually I'm one to follow this. I've always been the type of person to pay cash for everything or pay with credit and then pay it off. However, I learned that mistake when I graduated college, never having had a credit card and no line of credit. I had a great paying job out of college and no debt, but no one would approve me for a credit card regardless of my income. I had to do one of those back credit cards that was connected to my checking account AND cosign with my parents. Skip to a few years ago when I was in the market for buying a house. I had good credit, but my lack of credit history made it difficult to obtain a loan. Thankfully my wife has a long history of great credit as well as debt free. That credit score really goes a long way should you need to take out a loan for a business, school, home, vehicle, etc. I think the most important factor is to live within your means. Don't splurge if you can't afford it, it will just bite you in the ass in the long run.

 

[Bumper]

Before I joined the Nave in '63, I took out a $500 bank loan and deposited that money in the same Bank as collateral for the loan. That meant I couldn't take out the collateral money until the loan was paid off, which didn't matter much as I was gonna be overseas anyway. I made monthly payments on the loan, plus interest. I received a lower interest rate on my $500 collateral deposit . . . but the difference between that and the loan interest wasn't bad. When I finished paying off the loan I had a bit more than $1000.00. The whole exercise was to establish credit. This was easy to do with zero credit, as the bank was risking nothing.