When it comes to auto insurance, everyone is looking for the next best deal they can get. There are plenty of discounts out there to take hold of, even with a bad driving record or credit history. You can get auto insurance at a low price when you decide to shop online, and you can do this in midst of looking up random scholarships online. The process is simple enough for anyone to do it, and it could save you money and effort along the way. Here is a look at what you might be able to get from buying your insurance policy online.

Insurance Quotes
You can get quotes for your auto insurance online in no time at all. Calling up companies for quotes can take a half hour or more per company, and then you only get to see the price you would pay for one company and one policy. When you go online, you can find out a set of information when you need it most. You might not get incredibly fast results if you have low internet speeds, but you still should be able to shave a ton of time off the time it would take for you to get a quote online. You can look forward to that as you shop.

Policy Details
You can compare information so much more easily online than you can in person. You can look at different policies for your auto insurance side by side until you find the right setup for you. If you do not like the price you would be paying with one company, you can move on to another company that may be more affordable for you. You can also change out cars, coverage rates, and all kinds of other information. The positive aspects that come from working online are endless, but note that they do exist. Let that guide your purchase in the future.

Local Companies
You probably know about big name insurance companies, like State Farm and Geico, but do you know about all the mom-and-pop providers that exist in your area? Chances are you don’t because those companies don’t advertise themselves much. If you look for insurance information online, you may be able to find new companies to work with on a day to day basis. Once you get the results you need, you can drive by the office and see if you want to be a part of the policies a company has to offer.

Special Discounts
Most insurance companies offer discounts for people who sign up for a policy online. You can still talk to a local agent if you need to, but you might want to take up the savings available online. I actually got a discount with a local agent by mentioning the fact that I saw their website. You could try that with someone in your area and see if it helps you save any money. You might get lucky like I did, but you won’t know that until you try.

There is a convenience about getting auto insurance online that cannot be paralleled. Busy moms and working adults can get the insurance coverage they need without having to leave the comforts of home. They can do this regardless of the schedule they might have. This almost always means that you can get a good deal on a policy, and you do not have to go anywhere to do it. No matter what your lifestyle may be, the internet will be around to provide you with the insurance policy that you need at all times.

If you’re going to spend your tattoo artist salary on a vehicle, you need to make sure that you get something good. That is why it is important to test drive any vehicle you want to purchase before you actually buy it. I have bought several cars through AutoTrader without seeing them, and I was disappointed with something about them almost every time. A good test drive will help you decide if this really is the car for you. Here are some things you may want to look for in a test drive, just so you make the right decision in the end. It only takes one missed problem to ruin the job you have for your new car.

Brake Response

One of the most important things to look at when you test drive a car is the response that you get out of the brakes. When you come to a stop in the road, you should actually come to a stop. You shouldn’t glide down the road as if you have nothing to prevent you from moving. I once test drove a Jaguar I was looking into, and the brakes literally felt like I was driving on a bumpy gravel road. They were on the verge of scary, and they turned into a deal breaker for me. You have to make sure the brakes feel good on your car so you don’t end up in danger driving it home.

Tire Tread

If the tread on the tires is really low, you may want to ask for some replacements. I did this with one of my cars, and it saved me $500 in new tires I would have to get. If you don’t have a tool to measure the tread, stick a penny in one of the grooves. If you can see a good portion of Lincoln’s head this way, you will probably need new tires. Ask the dealership to cover those before you sign any kind of paperwork.

Ride Quality

How smooth is the car? Does it shift well? Is the transmission comfortable? These are the kinds of questions you need to ask yourself while test driving a car. Older cars and cheap ones aren’t going to be the most luxurious rides ever, but they should still feel reliable. If you question whether or not the car is going to move whenever you start it up, you may just have to look for something else.

Visibility

You need to be able to see out of your car at all times. If the windows are too small or damaged to see through, you might as well look for something else. Your windows are key components to your safety behind the wheel, so you need to make sure you can clearly look through them whenever you need to. If so, then you should not have much to worry about in terms of driving safety.

Trustworthiness

At the end of the day, you just need to make sure that a car feels reliable. Ask the dealership if the car has been in any accidents, and try to get a feel for whether or not the salesperson is telling the truth. If everything checks out okay, you can feel a little more secure taking a car home with you. Worse comes to worse, get the car looked at by a mechanic the day you drive it off the lot. Then you can take it back within 24 hours and find something better to buy.

Just because you are financing your car doesn’t mean you can’t have a little fun with it. You can modify your vehicle however you like to make it all your own. This is the same theory as decorating your home when you have a mortgage out on it. The bank may technically own the property, but your forensic science salary is paying for it. You might as well do whatever you can to make it your own.

There are a number of modifications to look into if you want to make your vehicle one of a kind. You just have to know what works and what doesn’t. Here are some tips to help you personalize your car without going overboard.

Exhaust Work

One of the first mods that my husband and I usually make on our cars involves the exhaust. We just like our cars to sound beefy, so we usually take off the mufflers at first to listen to the engine. Then we will change out the piping, take off the resonator, or do something else along those lines. You can usually take the mufflers off your car for $40 to $100, and that will make your car a lot louder than it is now. If that is the kind of personalization you are looking for, more power to you.

Floor Mats

Custom floor mats may not sound that exciting, but they can add a new look to your car. You can buy them online or in automotive stores, so you have plenty of options to choose from. When I bought my M5, the previous owner had these really loud floor mats that screamed BMW all over the place. I replaced them with a slightly modified version of the stock mats because that is what I wanted to see in the car. You will have to look at the options available to you to see if you want to make this kind of replacement or not.

Colored Badge Inserts

If you have badges on the outside of your car, you may be able to get colored inserts for them to change the overall look of the vehicle. My husband and I did this with our ’04 Cobra because it said COBRA in big letters on the back. We put chrome inserts in there to match the chrome rims (the only other piece of chrome on the car), and it looked sharp. We bought red inserts for the badges on my father-in-law’s GTO, so now he has a back car with red accents everywhere. These small inserts are easy to put on, and they don’t cost much money at all. You can have a lot of fun with them if you look around.

Tint

My husband and I always put tint on our car, even if the tint isn’t all that “legal.” You can get darker tint on your windows for more privacy, or you could even get fancy designs on the windows if you want. Whatever you choose, you can make your car look like a work of art with tint alone. Just make sure you work with a good company, as that will make all the difference in the success of your tint job.

There are so many other ways to personalize your vehicle, so I really encourage you to think outside the box. If you see a car that you really like the looks of, find a way to take that idea and make it your own. As long as you don’t cover the whole car in duct tape as a form of self-expression, you should be good to go.

You can’t just apply for a car when you turn 18. That’s not how the process works. While it is entirely possible to be financed right when you become an adult, you may want to wait for a better time. You are going to have a much better chance at getting a good deal on a car if you have all the factors working in your favor. This may mean that you need to wait a bit to apply for auto financing. Here is a quick guide showing you when you should be able to finance a car with ease.

Job History

Most lenders like to see at least one year of work history before they consider giving a loan to someone. If you have had a teaching career for 10 years now, you will have a much better chance of getting financed than someone who just started a job. You don’t necessarily have to work for this long to get financed, but it would be nice to do. Of course, you can start working much earlier than 18, so you may have a great work record right off the bat. It just depends on what your situation is. If you don’t have a job yet or you just got one, wait until about a year before applying for a car. That way you can show the banks that your income can be trusted.

Residence History

Banks also like to see that you have lived in the same home for a long period of time before loaning you any money for a car. To them, that says they will be able to get in touch with you should you ever default on a loan payment. I’m not saying you would do this, but the bank has to protect itself at all costs. Try to live in the same place for at least a year before applying for a loan, unless that place is a dorm. If that is the case, you will need to use your parent’s address for the loan just to give a more permanent place of residence on the application.

Credit History

If you want to get the best rates possible on a loan, you need to have some sort of credit history. It takes credit to make credit, which really doesn’t make any sense. How can you get credit history without getting a car? You could get a small credit card that you use to make purchases on and then pay off every month. Do this for about six months, and you will at least be able to show a small commitment to your credit history. Hopefully the lenders will respond well to that.

Other Factors to Consider

Only you can decide when to apply for auto financing, but you have to weigh out all of the factors that influence your life. Do you think you are at a point that you can logically make payments on a car? Do you know how much money you can afford to pay every month? Do you know what the insurance payments are going to be for a car? Can you afford to pay full coverage, since that is what a loan will require? These are all little questions that you have to ask yourself before committing to an auto loan. The answers will make all the difference.

It is better to wait for the right time on a car than it is to jump into something you cannot afford. You don’t want to screw up your credit early on because that is going to have negative ramifications in the future. Think about your situation carefully, and you should be able to determine when the best time is for your car loan.

If you are looking to finance a car in the near future, you will probably need a down payment to do so. Most banks have gotten incredibly strict in terms of who they loan money to, so they are not willing to commit to any sort of loan without some sort of commitment from the buyer. In this case, that would be you. Unless you have really good credit to use for auto financing, you are going to need to save up for a down payment on your car of choice. The question then becomes, “Well, what is enough?” How much money should you have to save in the end? Here are some suggestions that should help you come up with a reasonable down payment for the car of your dreams.

The Average Down Payment

In most cases, $1,000 to $3,000 is enough to secure a loan on a car. This all depends on the cost of the car, of course, but I’m assuming you have decent credit and you are spending less than $20,000 on a car. That may not be the case, but it is a good rule to follow. If you can provide the bank with at least a grand in down payment, it will see that you are in fact committed to buying a car. There are tons of other factors that will go into determining this though, so you may want to do some more calculating to determine how much you need to save of your Bill Gates scholarship.

A Percentage of the Car’s Price

Some banks will just ask for a certain percentage of the car’s price as a down payment. If the car is priced at $10,000 and the bank wants 25% down for a loan, you will need to pay $2,500. Most banks will ask for 10% to 20% down, but there are some that ask for a lot more. I recently had to put down 33% of a car because my credit is rocky at the moment, so don’t assume that 10% is going to be enough. You may need a lot more than that in the end.

Tags, Taxes and Title

Some lenders will ask that you put down the value of a car’s tags, taxes, and title before you can get a loan for it. This is usually the case in states where the cost of all of those components is added into the value of a car loan. In Oklahoma, you pay for tags and whatnot on your own, so they will not normally ask you to put that kind of money down. In Texas though, they weave it all in. You have to figure out what the rules are for your state so that you can plan your down payment accordingly.

Whatever You Can Put Down

The more money you can put down on a car, the better of you will be. That will give you a chance to make lower payments every month, and it will encourage a lender to work with you. If you have a car to trade in on top of the money you can put down, do so. That could make a big difference in your loan as a whole. Try to put down whatever you can, and then you will just have to see what happens. If it is enough, you will get the loan. If not, you may have to save a little more to get the car you want. Either way though, there is hope of getting financed for something in the future.

When you finance a car, you don’t have the luxury of paying for just liability insurance. That is because you are technically driving someone else’s car until the vehicle is paid off. Most lenders want you to have a certain amount of coverage in order to maintain the loan on a car. If you fail to do that, you could end up getting the car repossessed, no matter how on-time you may be with your payments. Some lenders will even tack on the cost of insurance to your loan. That will make you pay longer for something you may already be anxious to call your own. Here is a look at some of the insurance policies you may have to get if you finance a car.

Full Coverage

99.99999% of the time, you will have to carry full coverage insurance on a car you are financing. That will pay for damages to another person’s car in an accident, as well as your own. Lenders want to see full coverage on their cars because that ensures that their vehicles are going to be protected as long as you drive in them. When the car becomes your own, you can debate whether or not to drop the insurance down to just liability.

Note that you will need to carry full coverage based on the minimums of the state that you live in and the state that you are financed through. If you live in Washington but bought a car in Florida, you will need to make sure that you fulfill Florida and Washington insurance requirements. Every state has a different set of limits to keep in mind, and you have to make sure that your policy fits the right limits for your situation. Worse comes to worse, ask your lender about this to be on the safe side.

GAP Insurance

GAP insurance is an optional form of insurance that you can get to cover the leftover loan money you may have if your car gets totaled. Let’s say you owe $15,000 on your car but the car is only worth $12,000. If you are in a car accident where your vehicle is totaled, you could end up owing the lender $3,000 for a car that you don’t even have any more. GAP insurance will take care of excess money like that so you don’t have to pay for something you don’t have.

Most GAP insurance policies are sold through the dealership you decide to work with, and they usually cost about $500 to get. If you know that you are going to owe more than the car is worth when you drive off the car lot (as is the case in almost every financing situation), you need to try to get GAP insurance for your vehicle. You can usually work this into your loan if you do not have $500 to spare for it. It just depends on what your lender is willing to do. Unless you are putting down a hefty deposit for the car, I would recommend getting GAP insurance. It could save you thousands of dollars in a worst case scenario.

Additional Insurance Options

Some lenders want you to carry specific forms of insurance, like underinsured motorist or uninsured motorist. Thus you need to speak with your lender to find out exactly what they want of you. If you do not abide by the insurance requirements, you could see serious consequences with your loan. Do your research to figure out exactly what you need to do. Then you can make a financial plan from there.

Car salesmen are really good at convincing people to buy a car. That is what they get paid to do. I have been dooped by a few car salesmen in the past, but I have learned to see past their tactics so that I get the best deal from the start. You really can’t trust any of them, no matter how trustworthy they may seem. At the end of the day, they are paid to sell you a car. Period. The tips below will help you see beyond their sales tricks so you can invest your executive assistant salary in the perfect car for you. Read on to avoid falling for an obvious sales tactic.

Pick out a Car ahead of Time

Rather than going to a dealership and having them show you around the whole lot, you need to have a car in mind before you get there. It doesn’t necessarily have to be a specific car from the lot, but it does need to be a specific type of car. You can use a site like AutoTrader to look for cars in your area, and then you can call on the phone if you find a particular one that you like. Otherwise you can just research car models until you find something you may be interested it. By knowing what you want, you can avoid getting tempted by something you can’t afford. You need to go in with expectations from the start.

Research the Price of the Car

If you have a rough idea as to which car you want, you need to look up what a logical price would be for it. Plug the information into NADA Guides so you can see what the trade and sales values should be for the car. If it is really overpriced at the dealership, you know that you should be able to talk the place down. I have actually saved thousands of dollars over the years by knowing the prices of my cars because it prevented me from paying for something that I would be way upside down on. If you do your research, you can avoid a bad investment every time.

Know the Specs of the Car

The car salesman is going to try to show you all the flashy features of the car to get you to sign the paperwork. You can’t let him or her get to you like that. What you need to do is already have a clear understanding of what should or should not be in the car so you can seem unimpressed by whatever the salesperson is trying to tell you. That person is going to do anything he or she can to get you to buy a car, even if that means lying about something that the car does. You honestly have to be smarter than your salesperson when it comes to a car you want, or you may end up falling prey to false promises.

As a woman, I can honestly say that a little knowledge will go a long way. Most people assume that I barely know where the accelerator is on my car. They don’t expect me to understand horsepower ratings and RPMs. I have literally called salesmen out in the past because they tried to tell me something that was a total load of crap. You can’t let yourself fall for that. If you put in the right effort from the start, you can see past cheesy sales tactics every time. You just have to keep your eyes open.

As much as I hate to say this, you really can’t trust any car dealership nowadays. They all claim to have the best prices and financing options, but they end up being shady as hell. I’m not saying that there aren’t good dealerships out there. I’m just saying that they are hard to come by. Because of this, you may not be able to find a good deal on a good car right away. The best thing to do is to avoid shady dealerships as much as possible and try to focus on the ones that are going to be honest with you. Here are a few quick ways to spot shadiness from the start.

“Show me the CarFax”

We’ve all seen the commercial where the guy asks to see the CarFax and the salesperson tries to change the subject. This may seem like a totally absurd situation, but it is something that happens a lot more often than you think. If you work with a dealership that will not get a CarFax for you, you need to be suspicious that something is up. Some of them do this because of the cost, so it is understandable for a dealership not to show you a CarFax. Nevertheless, it can’t hurt to ask. Worse comes to worse, you can pay the $35 it takes to get one, just to verify the car’s history. If everything comes out clear, you know that you can somewhat trust the dealership.

“That was the cash price…”

A lot of dealerships play this game where they put a price on a car on the internet, and then they change it once you ask about financing. I don’t mind if the difference in price is only a few hundred dollars, but there is a problem when the difference is several thousand dollars – especially when no one tells you that on the phone. I was going to buy an older Jaguar once just to have a second car, but the people wanted to up the price by $3,000 just because I was financing it. Then they were going to make money in interest on top of that. I wasn’t having it. You need to be leery about dealerships that change the prices of their cards because they may be trying to scam you.

“Oh, no. It has never been in an accident.”

If a car has obvious damage on the exterior, you need to make sure that the dealership owns up to whatever accident happened with it. In the case of that Jaguar I mentioned above, the right mirror was completely falling off, the passenger headlight was busted out, and the whole side of the car was smashed to smithereens. They tried to pass it off like it hadn’t been in a wreck! I heard them say that about all the cars on the lot, and they all looked about as bad as the Jag. Just keep that in mind when you go to talk to someone at the dealership, in case he or she tries to lie to you.

“Warranty? Well, what do you want fixed?”

Any good car dealership is going to have a warranty program they work with. You may not be able to get awesome coverage on the specific car you are looking into, but you should still have the option of some sort of warranty. I had the manager of the dealership with the Jag tell me, “Well, we’ll fix any problems you have with the car. No worries.” When I asked about the warranty, he looked at me like I was speaking in a foreign language. I asked about getting that in writing, and he basically avoided the subject. Try to watch out for deals like that in your future, and you will hopefully have a good experience buying a car.

A lot of people assume that they have to finance a car in their area in order to get a deal done. That is far from the case though. I have purchased a probably five or six cars from different states, and most of those transactions actually went smoother than the in-state purchases I made. If you recently found a car on AutoTrader or eBay that happens to be in a different state, you may still have the option to secure financing for it. You just have to make sure that is going to be a wise decision for you. Here are some tips to help you figure out if you want to go out of state the next time you buy a car.

The Limited Financing Options in Other States

If you want to finance a car in a different state, you are going to be limited by the number of lenders that you can work with. Ally Bank is great with out-of-state financing, and so are a lot of other well-known national chains. If you have bad credit though, you may have a hard time finding a credit union or second chance bank to give your application a chance. My credit score dropped a lot because of some medical bills, so I was no longer to work with Chase and other big names like that. It took me a long time to find a lender that could work around my situations in an out of state transaction.

The Hassle of Signing the Paperwork

If you get a car that you can actually see in person, you can just sign all of the papers for it right then and there. When you finance out of state, you have to find a different way to get the papers signed. This will either involve a lot of faxing or a lot of mailing between you and the dealership. I live in Texas, but I recently purchased a Mercedes from Tennessee. The dealership sent the wrong paperwork out to me the first time, so I had to wait for it to get overnighted a second time before I could have the car sent to me. This cost me money in overnight mail, and it cost me a lot of waiting time. If you are looking for a swift transaction, this is not the setup for you.

The Risk of Sending Money

If you have to give the dealership a deposit for your car, you will have to find some way to get that money to the dealership. Some places will allow you to do this with a credit card, but you may have to pay a fee to make that happen. Otherwise you will have to wire the money to the dealer or send them a check or money order in the mail. This is risky on all levels. I put $9,000 down on a car once, and I had no other option but to send that money through the mail. Needless to say I was on pins and needles until I found out that the dealership had received the money.

Can you finance a car in a different state? Of course you can. Is the process going to be easy? Nope, not at all. There are rare instances where everything will go smoothly the first time around, but that is not usually the case. You could say that about any car buying experience though, so it doesn’t really matter where you get your car at the end of the day. If you find a better deal in a different state, take it. Then you can enjoy the luxury of your new car. Whether you’re a medical assistant or an ice cream truck driver, you should be able to find a good deal out there for you.

If you buy a car in a different state, you will eventually need to get it to your house somehow. You can choose to drive to get the car, or you can choose to have it transported to you. I have only purchased one of my ten cars in the past from my state, so I am highly familiar with the transporting process. There are some things you need to keep in mind before you settle into one shipping option because you could end up going through a huge hassle if you aren’t careful. Let me share a few personal experiences to give you an idea of what you shouldn’t do. I have made enough experiences to know how to go through this process the right way in the future.

Retired People Driving Your Car = Great Option

A lot of auto dealers have access to retired men and women who make a little extra money from driving cars to people out of town. If you can schedule a shipping option like that, I would definitely take it. I had my BMW M5 and my Pontiac G8 GT transported that way, and I had pleasant experiences both times. My mother in law had her Hummer brought to her through a similar system, and she also had a pleasant experience. You can usually get the car sent to you within a couple of days that way, and then you can even have the people drive back your trade-in vehicle if you have one. The only drawback is that you will get a few extra miles on your new car, but at least then you know that the car will drive well on the highway. It’s a security feature if anything, so I wouldn’t complain if I were you.

Salesperson Driving Your Car = Another Great Option

If you live close enough to the dealership you are buying a car from, you may be able to have your salesperson drive your car to you. That happened with my ’05 Mustang GT, and it allowed me to meet the person face to face. I liked that because I could get a true feel for the deal before I signed the papers for the car. It also showed me that the dealership was willing to go out of their way to help me, which I truly appreciated. If the dealership offers to have one of the sales reps personally drive your car down, you could certainly keep that option open.

Transport Brokers Scheduling Drivers = Terrible Option

I recently purchased a Mercedes S55 AMG that I needed to have transported from Tennessee to Texas. I filled out one of those stupid quote forms for transporting online, and I got a ton of responses to help me ship my vehicle. Most places said they couldn’t get my car to me by the following Monday or Tuesday, but the highest priced one promised that they could get my car to me by Saturday. I was willing to fork out the extra money to get my car earlier, but that never happened.

I still ended up getting my car on Tuesday after the sales rep guaranteed that I would get my car on Saturday. Then when I left a terrible review for them online, the owner called to harass me about what I said. They took down my review claiming they “couldn’t verify my order,” and then they posted my shipping information on a ton of websites to spam my email and phone number. Needless to say, I had a terrible experience and I never want to go through that again.

Research your shipping options thoroughly before you settle on one because you may be setting yourself up for stress. If you want to make sure the job is done right, just go pick up the car yourself. That is the only way to know for a fact that it is in good hands.

A lot of people assume that eBay is a site that is only good for auctions, but it can be a great place to find cars to finance. Dealerships put cars on eBay in the hopes that they will sell, but they do not mind selling a car before an auction ends if they can work out a deal on it. Some places do not even put cars up for auction. They just put them on eBay to sell in general. You don’t have to buy the car there if you do not have the financing for it. You can call and work out the deal just like you would anything else. Here are some tips to help you use eBay the next time you go to finance a car.

How to Find Cars on eBay

Finding cars on eBay is not as easy as finding cars on AutoTrader, mainly because there aren’t as many options for your search. You can start by typing in the year, make, and model of the car you want, and then you will need to click on the cars and trucks option on the left hand menu. Otherwise you will have to sort through pages of accessories as well. You can set your minimum and maximum price requirements, and you can also sort the cars by price, location, etc. If you want to narrow the search by year, color, transmission, and other features, you may see the options to do that on the left side. Just pick all of the options you want until you find a set of cars you may be interested in.

How to Choose the Cars You Want on eBay

If you see a car that you like on your list, you can click on it for more information about where it is, what it looks like, how many miles it has on it, what features it has in it, and anything else you may want to know. Some people post videos on their listings to show you what a car looks like from the inside out. Others just put up a few pictures and say to call for more information. You can look over all of this to find the cars you would actually be interested in buying.

How to Contact the Sellers on eBay

In some cases, you can actually email the sellers of a car through eBay itself. If you want instant answers though, it may be in your best interest just to call the phone number listed somewhere on the ad. This will usually be on a picture or a description within the posting for the car. If you cannot find a phone number anywhere, see if you can at least find the seller’s name. If it is a dealership, you should be able to look that name up on Google to find some sort of contact information. You’ll either get a website to go to or a Google Maps listing of the business. Either way, you can use that information to get in touch with the people selling the car.

How to Get Financing through eBay

eBay may not offer auto financing per se, but you can usually find a link to a finance application on an eBay posting. If not, you can always call the company selling the car and see what sort of financing options they have available for you. Go over your registered nurse salary and other information with them and see what they can do. Hopefully they have a lender that can work with your situation. If so, you could be driving your brand new car in no time at all.

If you have a loan for a vehicle that you have been paying on for a while, it may seem like the balance of it is never going to go away. You keep shelling you hundreds and hundreds of dollars for it, and all you get is a slightly adjusted payoff. Why is that? How can you still owe so much money after paying on the car for a year or more? All of those answers lie in your car contract. If you want to fully grasp why you owe the money that you owe for your car, you need to understand how your financing contract works. I’ll break that down for you a little bit here and hopefully dispel your confusion.

Most of Your Money Goes to Interest

The way a bank makes money on a car loan is through interest, which is basically money that you just hand to the bank in exchange for a chance to pay off a car. In the first year or so of your car loan, the vast majority of your car payment is going to be going toward interest. That is because the bank gets to collect money based on the interest of the current balance. As you pay the balance off, more of your money will go towards the principle balance than the interest.

A bank is going to collect its money first, so your car payment will mainly be used to pay them the interest you agree to. I once had $500+ of a $700 car payment going out to interest alone. That’s when the red flag went up and I knew that something wasn’t right. If you want your balance to chance in much of any way at all, you need to get the car paid off as quickly as possible.

Your Contract Explains What You Pay

The car contract that you sign for financing is going to explain what you are actually paying if you decide to finance a car for the full duration of the term. A friend of mine had a really really really high interest rate for one of his first cars, and the contract said that he would pay nearly $42,000 over the course of the loan for a $26,000 car. That is a crazy amount of extra money to be paying, but he planned to pay off the car long before his contract ran out. Look over the estimated pay off for your car over the course of your entire loan, and you will soon see just how much your interest rate is going to impact the money you pay over time.

Ways to Maximize Your Payments

If you want to make a real dent in the balance on your loan, you need to try to pay on the principle, not just the payments. That means that you need to put more money towards the car every month than what your payment is supposed to be. Even something as simple as $100 extra a month will make a big difference in the amount of money you pay for your car over time. If you have the income to support double car payments a month, do so. That way you can get rid of the loan faster and pay less money over time.

Having a balance due on a car sucks, but it sucks even more if you actually pay it out over time. Think about the options above, and try to come up with a way to manage your money and still get rid of your car loan quickly.

I am a huge fan of AutoTrader, and I have used it to buy literally every single one of my cars. AutoTrader is a giant site where dealerships and private sellers can post their cars directly on the web. You can use this site to search for specific vehicles across the country and potentially find your dream car in a town near you. If you are thinking about financing a car in the near future, you may want to start by looking on AutoTrader to see what options you have available. Here is a brief guide explaining how you can do just that.

Pick the Options

When you get to the home page of the site, you will see an option on the left for your zip code. Fill that out and proceed to the next page. This is the section of the site where you will select all of the specifications of the car so that the results only pull up what you want to see. You can search for a specific year and model of a car, or you could look for cars under a certain price point. You can select the mileage you want the car to have on it and the color you want the car to be. Look over all of the little details on the search form and try to fill out as many of them as you can. That is going to give you the most accurate results possible.

Don’t forget to hit the little orange plus sign towards the bottom of the page because that will pull up a list of different information for you to select. My favorite option here is the search bar that allows you to enter additional keywords you want the ads to contain. If you want an SS Camaro rather than a V6 model, you can enter SS and only bring up the cars with the V8. My husband and I always buy the performance models of the cars we get, so this option has helped us get the exact vehicles we were looking for every time. You can use it to do the same for you.

Review the Results

Once you have all of the search information in the system, you can wait for AutoTrader to come up with a list of cars you may be interested in. You can sort those by mileage, by year, by distance, or by price, depending on what you want to do. I typically narrow my search to just dealerships with pictures because I don’t have the cash to buy a car from a private seller. You can figure out a way to set up your search until it is perfect for you. Then all you have to do is review the results and see if you like anything you see. If not, you may want to expand your results and try again.

Pick the Car

With everything out in the open, you can clearly see which cars will and will not work for you. When you find a car that you like, you need to call the dealership to see if it is still for sale. The phone numbers on AutoTrader tend to be a little messed up, so you may have to search for the dealership’s name online to find the real contact number. Once you do that though, you can talk to someone about the details of the car and what you may have to do to test drive it or get financed for it. If you think through everything logically like a project manager would, you should be able to find the car of your dreams with AutoTrader.

If you are planning to buy a car in the near future, safety features need to be a concern for you. It’s nice to get a fast car or a cheap car in college, but that doesn’t mean that you have to sacrifice your safety along the way. I drive an ’07 Mustang GT500 which is both fast and safe at the same time. The ’04 Cobra I owned was fast, but it wasn’t exactly the safest thing in the world. You can see that from the picture on this post. When I got in a car accident, that car almost killed me. I was in that passenger seat. That’s why I’m so adamant about this now. Here are a few ways for you to check the safety of a car before you invest money into it. This could be a matter of life or death.

Check the Reviews

One of the easiest ways to find out if a car is safe to drive or not is to check the reviews for the vehicle. You can do this at Edmunds.com or a variety of other places online. Look at what other people are saying about a car to determine if it is in fact safe to drive. If most people are raving about the safety features and overall dependability of a car, you should be in good hands. Otherwise, you need to determine if a car is going to be safe enough on the road.

Review the Crash Test Ratings

Every car has to go through a series of crash tests when it comes from the manufacturer, and those crash tests will determine how safe a car is. You ideally need to look for a car that has a five star crash test rating because that means it is as safe as it can be. You will find that some cars have five start ratings for certain parts but they may have lower ratings for other parts. You need to take all of this information to heart when determining if a car is safe enough for you to buy.

Test the Car Yourself

You may simply want to test drive a car to see if it feels comfortable enough for you. One of the biggest aspects of the safety of a car is the driver behind the wheel. If you do not feel comfortable driving a vehicle, you will not be safe when you are in control of it. Make sure that you feel confident when you drive a car before you actually buy it. This will ensure that you can take charge of it when you need to on the road. If it feels a little too wobbly for your taste, move on to something else.

Conclusion

The safety of a car is a lot more important than you think. It is a large vessel that is responsible for transporting you back and forth in between places that you need to visit. You need to make sure you can do that safely. If you do not trust the car you are driving, you could be putting yourself at risk in an accident. I have experienced a bad accident firsthand, so I know what it is like to not be in a safe car. You want to make sure that you and your passengers will be protected at all times in a vehicle. Otherwise it just isn’t worth the money in the first place. Keep this in mind before investing in a potentially unsafe vehicle.

When you go to apply for a car loan, you are going to be asked for a list of references. Sometimes you only need two or three references, but other times you may need six to ten. It just depends on the lender you want to work with and the kind of credit you have. Rather than putting a list of people you barely know for your references, you need to make an effort to find the right people to put down. This is not an easy task, and it is something you need to think about a lot more than you may realize. Here are some tips to help you find the perfect references for your loan from the start.

Understanding the Purpose of References

The references you put on your loan are going to be used for two reasons: (1) verifying who you are, and (2) contacting when you miss a payment. If you fall behind on your car loan, the lenders are going to call down the list of references until they find you. You can think of the lenders as a police officer task force at that point because they will track you down. They are like bounty hunters trying to get their money, and they will do whatever it takes to find you. If you have a list of references for people who will rat you out in an instant, expect to be caught – quickly.

The Makings of a Good Reference

There are some people that naturally make better references than others. Thus you need to do all you can to put down the right names at the right times. Here are some traits that are usually associated with good references for a loan:

Direct relationships: Banks like to see references that are directly related to you. Parents, grandparents, siblings, and spouses can all make good references in most situations. If you have a direct connection with a reference, they are more likely to know where you are. That is all the lender cares about in the end.

Good contact information: A lender is going to ask you to write the name, address, phone number, and relationship for each of the references you put on a paper. That means that you need to make sure you have references that you actually have information for. If you don’t have an address on someone, don’t use him or her. The bank is going to want as much information as possible about the person.

Not living with you: You will not be able to use the name of someone that lives with you as a reference for a loan. If you desperately need to use someone like this on your loan, try to get a secondary address for the person. A bank is going to want different points of contact in case they can’t get in touch with you. A reference with the same phoned number or address is not going to do them any good.

Try to find friends and family members that would be willing to put as a reference for you on a loan. You can use just about anyone you want, but you need to make sure that you have a good connection with him or her. That way if he or she ever gets a phone call about you, you guys will still be on good terms. If you find a good list of references to use on your loan, you will have the best possible chances of getting financed for a car.

Shopping for the car is a big event in a person’s life, and there are certain times of the year that are better suited for this event than others. If you are planning to buy a car with your paralegal salary soon, you may want to be aware of how the auto market fluctuates throughout the year. Most people do not realize that car prices change dramatically from one month to the next based on an array of factors. If you shop at the right time, you could potentially save thousands of dollars on a car you want to buy. Here is an overview of how the car market changes during the year so you can have a better understanding of when you want to make a purchase.

Winter Savings

Most people do not buy cars during the winter because it is too cold to get out. As a result, dealerships are forced to cut the prices on their vehicles during the cold months in the hopes of making a sale. They are usually more aggressive with financing options at this time, so you will have a better chance of getting a good deal. Since there aren’t as many people shopping for cars in the winter, you also have less competition to worry about. If you want to think about a car for a day, you can do that without freaking out about someone snagging a deal from you.

The only downside to shopping in the winter is that you trade in won’t be as valuable then. If you have a car to trade, you are only going to get top-dollar for it in the summer months. This is especially true if you drive a sports car. My GT500 drops nearly $5,000 in value between the summer and the winter, so I know I need to let it go in the summer if I ever plan to trade it in. If you have cash to put down for your car though, you should just be able to benefit from the savings.

Inventory Changes

You’ve probably seen a corny car commercial or two where the dealers have to “clear the lot” to make room for the new fleet of cars they have in. While these commercials may make the savings seem a bit laughable, there is some truth behind them. Any time a new year model of a vehicle comes out, the dealership has to clear its inventory to make room for it. That can lead to incredible savings over time. Contact some dealers in the area to see when the new models of their cars are coming out, and then plan your shopping around that time. This will happen towards the end of the year when car manufacturers shift into the next line of vehicles. The dates change with every dealer, so just check around to see what your options are.

Tax Season

A lot of dealerships will run specials right around tax season in the hopes of getting a piece of everyone’s tax refund. In most cases, you can actually use the tax check you are getting back in advance to put money down on a car. If you aren’t getting your money for two more weeks, you can still pledge your tax check as a down payment for a car. Then you can benefit from whatever sale is going on at the time. This is a great way to spend your tax refund, assuming you can get a good deal. You just have to scope out the sales to see if any of them will work out for you.

If you are planning to trade your car in for another one, you are going to need to know how much equity you have in the car. A vehicle’s equity is the amount of value it has over the loan amount. If your car is worth $13,000 and you have a loan payoff of $10,000, you have $3,000 in positive equity. Determining the equity of your car isn’t necessarily difficult, but you do need to know that the number will change from dealer to dealer. All you can do is try to get a rough idea of what your car’s excess value is at the moment. Here is a guide to help you calculate the current equity in your car.

Learn Your Car’s Value

There are a few ways you can figure out the value of your car right now. You can use NADA Guides or Kelley Blue Book to input your car’s year, make, model, and features, and then you will get a few different value estimates to choose from. Since you will be trading your car in, you will need to refer to trade values, not retail values. Whether you can get a good trade value or a poor trade value is up to you. You may just want to focus on the fair value to be on the safe side. With this small amount of research though, you should have a rough idea about what your car is worth.

Find Your Loan Payoff

If you know what your car is valued at, all you need is a number to compare the value to. Call your loan company and see what the current payoff of your car is. They should give you a payoff estimate that is good for ten days. Your loan value is going to go up every day because of interest, so that estimate won’t be good two weeks from now. You need to keep that in mind when assessing the equity you have in the car.

Determine Your Equity

You don’t need to go through software development courses to do the math on this one. Subtract your car’s value from your loan payoff, and you will have an idea of the equity you have in your vehicle. You may be surprised by how high or small that number is, depending on your situation. If you recently bought the car, the number may actually be negative. That means you owe more than the car is worth. You can still get financed with negative equity, but you will have to roll in that amount to the cost of your new loan. It is up to a bank to determine if they want to do that or not.

In this economy, most people have negative equity in their cars. Do not be discouraged if you are one of them. Your car probably isn’t worth what it was whenever you bought it, depending on the time of the year you chose to buy the car. With a little haggling though, you should be able to work with whatever equity situation you are in.

What’s the Big Deal?

You’re probably wondering why I devoted an entire article to figuring out the equity in a car. I did this so you can understand your loan terms before you sign up for something. If you think your car has $5,000 in equity, you shouldn’t take a deal where the trade is only valued at $1,500. You need to know your position ahead of time so you can make the best deal possible. With the guide above, you should be able to use your knowledge of equity in your favor the next time you go for a car.