Best Finance APR Rate at the moment through Car Loans or BMW Finance?

[scott321172]

Hi Guys.

Anyone who has recently this year ordered a new cooper and gone through a car loan or BMW finance.

What is the best APR Rate that you have been able to negotiate?

Your information would be great in negotiating a low finance deal when i discuss with BMW in February.

[Wobert]

Try "www.thisismoney.com"....they have a loan comparator that will compare nearly 400 loans on-line.

The last time I looked Cahoot 7.0% APR were the most competitive on the amount I wanted to borrow....this will change if your amount is lower or over a longer period.....

I gather that the dealer will at least equal or better this if pushed, as they are making full mark-up on the car!

Hope this helps!

[scott321172]

Thanks for that info. I plan to take Finance over 5 years but plan to pay it off before the five years.

The lowest i have seen is 6.9% at lombard direct online and Northernrock.com.

As this is the best i can find at the moment what do you thimk the dealer would go to in terms of beating it?

However i will keep on looking.

[Wobert]

I've heard of dealers going to 4.5%........it's got to be worth a try!

Where in Cheshire are you.....and which dealer are you buying from?

[SoggyCornFlakes]

My dealer matched the best offer I had elsewhere so it's worth asking. In retrospect though it may not always be the best deal even if it's the same APR. The Nationwide is offering very competitive APRs (7.0% or thereabouts) but have NO admin fees or early redemption fees so you can bail out at any time. This can be worth a few hundred quid as I found when paying off a GM finance loan

[scott321172]

Blue Bell in Wilmslow Wobert

[RedMini]

If you are in a position to add it to your mortgage that might be a good way to go. Barclays (and probably others) offer accounts at 4.75% where the mortgage and current account are linked and interest offset. In effect you get 4.75% tax free interest on your current account. Interest is charged daily, and it is fully flexible, so if you want to pay off the value of your car in 5 years you can do that with no penalty. If you have the money sooner, you just pay even less interest.

[pugdog]

Check with a credit union I got 5.25%

[Bullett]

Don't forget in alot of cases if you take a loan out for 5 years and pay it off in 3 then you will still pay 5 years interest. This is because they add the total interest to the loan amount at the start of the loan period. This is generally the loan and car finance type people. The banks tend to calculate interest on a daily/monthly basis. So paying off early does pay.

So read the small print, it may not be such a great deal if you intend to pay off early.

[Dwyght]

I agree with RedMini.

I added my car loan to my Current Account Maortgage to get a similar rate to the one he quotes. Just remember to overpay so that your not taking a car loan over 25 years!
It works out much cheaper in the end.

[IgorTheHunchback]

Igor thinks APR is not a good think, and people should look at the 'Flat Rate' rather than APR.

Igor knows that a lot APR does not necessary mean a lot flat rate and vica versa. Igor thinks the bust way is to ignore APR and just ask for a quote.

Igor

[MCS1]

Best to compare quotes by comparing APR....

I was going to get the mini onto the mortgage - Virgin One at 5.2% flat, but BMW finance did 4% APR over three years....it was the only thing they negotiated on!

John

[scott321172]

I am not actually a home owner at the moment.

So in terms of negotiating a better APR is loans the only one you can go off? Which in my case 6.9% is the lowest i have found.
Do you think they will beat that?

Also the APR and Flat Rate could you tell me the difference as this is my first car i am going to buy.

Much appreciated guys..

[MCS1]

Flat rate is the rate at which interest is applied to a loan amount per period! So, interest could be calculated lots of different ways - this could be hourly, weekly, monthly or once a year.

Because of the huge effect the number of times interest is applied, you need the APR - the annual percentage rate - or sometimes called the effective annual percentage rate. so the effect of the frequency of applying interest is taken into account.

For example:

Borrow £1000, with 5% interest and one repayment after 12 months, with the interest applied annualy - you would repay £1050 after 12 months.

More commonly, interest is calculated monthly - on the balance outstanding, so for our 12 month loan with monthly repayments total to pay would be £1027.29 - or £85.61 a month.

This is 5% annual interest, but applied monthly - so the effective APR calculates to be 5.12%

APR = ((1 + rate/number periods)^number of periods ) - 1

All clear?

John

[scott321172]

Much appreciated John.

Stuart