Get a Car Loan
For most people, buying a car is a need or a dream. But of course, automobiles are not cheap things to buy. Luckily, there are special loan options that we can use for buying a car. If you get a car loan, it can make your car purchase much more manageable or actually possible. When you don’t have enough funding, car loans can really help. So, such a large expense can turn into small monthly payments.
However, there are many things to consider while you get a car loan. Here, we are looking at what you should consider, and what you need to do to get a car loan.
Debt-to-income Ratio To Get a Car Loan
As a common rule, most loans, including car loans, require borrowers to have a debt-to-income ratio under 40%. …And ratio above this would be considered risky, as the borrower may get overwhelmed by payments and fail to cover them all.
You can calculate your debt-to-income ratio by taking the total monthly payments that you need to make towards your financed debts, such as loans or credit card bills, and dividing this total by your registered and provable monthly income. If you get a number smaller than 0.4, you should be okay.
How Much Repayment You Can Handle To Get a Car Loan
Although if you have a debt-to-income ratio under 40%, this doesn’t mean that you can get a car loan as big as you want. Remember that the car loan repayment will have some monthly payments too.
So, you should calculate how much more payments you can handle each month with your income without any problem. Multiply it by the repayment term options that you will find on the market and you will have an idea of the maximum car loan amount you can get. Of course, there will be other costs like interest rates and fees that will change the actual amount, but this is a quick estimation that can help you.
Credit Scores For Car Loan
Like all loans, car loans require you to have a good credit score too. So, it is important to ensure that your credit score is high enough before applying to get a car loan.
If your score is low, your application will not only get rejected, but it will also hurt your credit score for vein, as any credit check that is done during the application will have an impact on your score.
You can work with a credit reporting agency to learn your credit score and get a report from them by paying a small fee. This in return can help you make a better plan.
For example, if your score is low, instead of trying your chance with the picky lenders and failing, you may focus on increasing your credit score first. Or you can consider working with specialized car loan lenders who offer more expensive loans with higher interest rates but accepts lower credit scores. Although these loans are not ideal, they might be optimal for your case.
Choosing Car Loan Lender
When you are looking away to buy a car by using a car loan, you may have multiple options for who you will get your loan from.
You may apply to banks and credit unions to get funding that you can later use for your car purchase. These are the traditional loans we all know. You visit the lender offices and fill out the necessary form to apply.
You may also apply for online loans. Just like banks and credit unions, online lenders can offer you loans that you can utilize for buying your car. The difference is that online loans are typically easier to apply and quicker to get the funding. And you can access many online loans from your home. There are even online loan services that can send your application to multiple online lenders automatically.
As an alternative to these two options, you may find car dealers who may offer you a financing option for the car you buy from them. This method can be easier for some people compared to applying to a separate car loan lender. These car dealer offers are usually easier to get qualified for, regarding similar financing numbers. But, of course, this solution limits your options quite a lot and the total additional cost can be higher with some dealers.
Car Loan Pre-approval to Get a Car Loan
When you choose a lender, the first step you will need to take is to get a pre-approval for the car loan you want. During the pre-approval process, your lender will get some basic information from you, and they will check your credit score to see if you meet their general requirements.
Don’t worry, lenders use only a soft method to check your credit score during this process. So, it will not damage your score.
After this process, the lender will tell you if you are eligible for their loan offer, and how much funding they can offer you with how much interest rates and repayment term. Of course, as interest rates and conditions often change, these offers will be available for a limited time, but the pre-approval will allow you to know all the details you need. And you can use these details to compare lenders with each other to pick the best for you.
Applying to Get a Car Loan
After you determine if the car loan offer is good for you, you’ll need to make your actual application to get the funding. Your lender will ask you the provide some documents that can prove your income, your tax returns, and your bank statements. If you already get the pre-approval and all your documents are correct, you are quite likely to get the approval for this step as well.
After your application is approved, your lender will notify you and ask you to make a down payment in order to proceed. This payment is a portion of the price that you need to buy the car you want. Your lender may allow you to choose how much you what to put as your down payment, but making t as high as possible is usually more beneficial for you. Because it can allow you to have smaller or fewer payments in the end.
After you make the down payment, you will fill out the necessary forms and sign some documents to confirm that you accepted the terms and conditions of the loan. With this, you will complete the process. Your lender may transfer the funding to your dealer, or to your bank account. And you can finally get your car. Just remember that until your repayment is over, your car will legally belong to your lender. But once you finish your repayment, it will be completely yours. I hope this information will be useful for you to get a car loan.
