How to
Refinance Car Loans

Four Sources
to Refi Your Loan

When figuring how to refinance car loans it's oftentimes easier to ask yourself where to find the lender for your refinance loan first.

If you find the lender first, then it's as simple as following their refinance guidelines, which will be fairly simple and should effortlessly walk you through the process.

Outside of borrowing money from family, friends, or robbing a bank (not suggested), there are four sources that I'll cover here for auto refinance loans.

Some are good, some not so...I've listed these four sources in the order of worst to best:

Four Auto Loan
Refinance Sources

4. A Local Car Dealership

   They could be the reason you are looking to refinance in the first place. Do you want to trust them, again?

   Not to mention, car dealership's may not even know how to refinance car loans, as their main priority is selling cars. So a dealership may just try to pressure you into buying a new car, with once again, unfavorable terms.
   
   

3. A Local Bank

   Your local bank can be a very convenient source to refinance car loans. Just keep in mind that they may not offer the most competitive rates for refinancing.

   Even if their rates are competitive, they may not offer terms that you may need in order to successfully refinance.

   I would only suggest a local bank as a refinance source to you if you've got excellent credit and are refinancing a newer car (3-4 years old max.) with under 50k miles.

   Banks just don't tend to want to refinance older cars and frown on refinancing for customers with past or current credit problems. In fact, many banks seem to be more interested in big ticket loans like mortgages and may offer some pretty terrible terms for auto refinance loans.
   
   

2. A Local Credit Union

   Credit union's typically offer pretty competitive rates and terms, but for newer vehicles (4 years old and newer) they tend to lose out to a traditional lender.

   Most credit unions are looking for above average to excellent credit with no hiccups (or very few) on your credit file.

   As with your local bank, they tend to frown on credit problems, but may be willing to work with existing members. Credit unions are typically nowhere near as strict when it comes to age and miles of the car.

   They are a great option to consider for above average to excellent credit customers looking to refinance older cars and higher mile cars.
   
   

1. Refinance Online

   The best source that I've found to refinance online is up2drive.com (BMW Bank of North America). They are the lender and not simply a refinance "middle man."

   Unlike some of the negatives that I mentioned under banks above, Up2Drive is all about car loans and knows the market well. Follow the link above to view their current rates and you'll see what I mean.

   There is no cost to apply or to refinance through them. Since they are the bank and not a middle man, you'll know that your information is not going to be shared with 10 different lenders as it might with an auto refinance loans broker (the middle man).

   Their program is designed to cater to those with a bit above average to excellent credit.
   
   

Don't want to use Up2Drive?
If you choose the online option, but choose not to use up2drive.com, then there are two things to look for with any other online refinance sources you may consider:

1. Does the company actually refinance vehicles?

A lot of online refinance companies claim they offer auto loan refinancing, but in reality, they are simply lead generation sites and will sell your information to car dealerships in your local area.

Be sure to read the fine print and know what they are doing with your information.

2. How will they share your information?

Assuming you've found a legitimate refinance company, you'll want to know how they share your information with their lenders. For instance, when you apply do they randomly submit your information to ten different lenders? If so, that's not good!

All this does is rack up credit inquiries on your credit file.

I highly recommend Up2Drive, as they definitely know how to refinance car loans. They specialize in auto refinance loans for most all makes and models of vehicles...Apply today

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