I’m an opportunist. I work the system. With that introduction, I give you the following story that happened this afternoon.
Yesterday, the Saab guy called to get the info for financing. I finally go ahold of him this afternoon and he stated that the Wells Fargo approved me at a 72 month loan at 9.25%. He thought that was rather high and assumed there was a typo in the email and it should’ve been 7.25%. I told him to confirm.
Meanwhile, I did some digging online and filled out a couple of applications.
#1. CapitalOne Auto Financing. Easy application. They said I’ll get a call or email within 15 minutes after completing the form. I didn’t. So I called 45 minutes later. They said it was pending a zip code problem. I guess they couldnt handle my 4 digit extension on the zip, so they removed it and it got approved. Hung up with the lady, logged in and saw that it was 7.65% or something. 1 minute later I get a call from them telling me I’m approved, etc. Pretty quick call. I was impressed. However, I told them that my dealer was quoting me 7.25%. They wouldnt budge. Application canceled.
#2. Eloan.com. The other site that bankrate.com recommended. Seemed a lot like #1. 15 minute response time, etc. Did the application, the private personal data that they require. Their email said that due to the large volume of applications I should call in. So I did. He had to verify everything over the phone (what a pain!), and then said I was approved for a 9.75% loan. Umm..no thanks. I said that my dealer was offering 7.25% so if they couldnt beat it, I’d be not interested. He asked if I was interested in sending it back to the underwriter to get their ‘best rate’ of 6.69%. I said sure. He said if we cant do it, I wont bother calling back. That was nice.
#3. Lendingtree.com. I see all the ads. I tried it, and it submitted the loan request to #1. Thanks, but no thanks. #1 emailed me back saying they deleted the duplicate application, which was nice.
So driving home after all of this (hoping that my dealer got the 7.25% after all instead of the supposedly typo’d 9.25%), I get a call on my cell. It’s eloan guy again. He said “you know why I’m calling… we got you the 6.69%”. Sweet. Not bad. So they’ll overnight me some docs. I have to pay $15 for an overnighted check I could use at the dealer to pay for the thing. Nothing committed until I use the check. This way I can take the check and stuff back to my dealer and work my magic. Trying to get them to lower the interest rate with Wells Fargo, or better yet, lower their price they’re charging me (since they get a cut back from Wells Fargo for each loan). I doubt i’ll be able to get them down to 6.69% or less, but it’s worth a try.
One other note, on the eloan, I had to agree.. or signed up for automatic online payments…this is to get the lower interest rate. This is doable since I can have the amount auto transferred after a pay check into my checking.. or better yet, have them auto subtract from my savings to which paychecks go into. We’ll see what happens.
Oh and my car is in California. Waiting for the truck. They’re saying I should have it by Thanksgiving. I can only pray. I have my insurance quote all ready, my buddy pass (thanks Casey!!) ready to fly up and pick it up, my fancy TechII options that I want customized on the thing printed out and ready for their service manager, now I just need something to pick up.
