The fastest way to stay broke in this country is a new Nissan.
Here’s how it happens.
You walk into the dealership wanting a $20,000 car.
The salesman asks, “What do you want your monthly payment to be?” You say $450.
So he obliges, finding a "deal" for $450 a month by stretching the loan to 84 months, rolling in the negative equity from your last car, and tacking on a warranty you will never use.
(Car loan too high? See if you can lower it HERE. )
You drive off feeling great. But now you're seven years deep into a depreciating metal box, upside down from the day you signed, and you’ll owe more than it’s worth for most of that time.
The numbers that matter are the total price of the car and the interest rate, and if a dealer won’t talk to you in those terms, get up and leave.
But say you already did it. The car’s in the driveway and the payment is strangling you. You still have moves.
Sell it, if you can cover the gap, then eat the loss and buy something boring with cash. Or refinance, if your credit has improved since you signed.
Today’s sponsor MoneyLion has an auto loan refinance marketplace. You just enter details about your car and your current loan and see refinance offers from partner lenders in one place.
That won’t undo a bad purchase though.
If you’re nine grand upside down on a big-ass truck you bought to feel something, no rate is saving you.
But if the real problem is that you signed at an awful rate back when your credit was worse, a lower one puts real money back in your month.
