4.5% Car Finance - Can it be beaten? Help Pls

MarkyMarkD

I would bet almost any amount that the 4.5% rate quoted is NOT an APR. Car dealers ALWAYS quote dodgy "flat" rates which are almost always half the APR of the loan.

mrcow

That is so sneaky. I wonder how many people get fooled by that :mad:

Rafter

An awful lot unfortunately.

Unfortunately car dealers aren't governed by the same rules about advertising as banks etc, although you do get to see the APR before you sign.

My view is that the 'flat rate' they quote is misleading and bears no relation to how much interest you end up paying so should be banned and any dealership or car finance company using it should be fined - heavily!

R.

MarkyMarkD

Hear hear, Rafter.

veganpanda

mrcow wrote:

That is so sneaky. I wonder how many people get fooled by that :mad:

I'm one of those that have been severly duped, by Kia Motors! I was quoted 4.50% interest & have ended with an interest rate of over 12% :mad:

mrcow

Ian_Griffiths wrote:

Consider the fees to close one account and open another, but it may be worth investigating.

Absolutely XpandaXmirandaX. If you can - then good luck.

Surely this type of loan calculation is designed deliberately to dupe people? What other reason could the dealers have for not quoting an upfront APR figure?

dinkylou

Im in a similar situation at the moment with the dealer offering me 7% APR on finance.

However I looked into the repayments and found that it isn t worked out at 7% interest over the full length of the loan but that it works out at 7% per year. And thats huge, almost double the interest of a 7% standard bank loan.

My recommendation would be to check the repayment per month then go to money supermarket and compare with them on there - you may find a huge difference with supposedly the same APR.

I did and have saved myself over £400 on interest by doing so (my loan was much less than yours)

naivri

yeah car dealers have a weird way of doing their percentages

when i bought mine last year, i got a loan for 5.9% apr from alliance and leicester

when the car dealer tried to sell me finance, i told her that i had 5.9 so dont waste your breath (car dealers respect authority, it puts you in charge and stops them from taking the p*ss)

she told me to stick with that, her employee discounted rate was 7% equating to about 14%APR

so i'm not sure how they work out their rate when its so different from APR. They just hope noone will notice. Their right, most people dont!

Ma wee mate bought his car and took finance with the garage. He didnt even know what the APR rate was, just his monthly payments and he said he could afford them.