[nok610]

I’m planning on buying the Kawasaki 250R new at a dealer some time in mid-July. I figured this will give me some time to save up some money to put down on the bike.

Any suggestions on finding a good rate on a loan to pay for the rest of the bike?

Thanks!

[briderdt]

Often they’ll give a good rate loan even with zero down (depends on your credit rating though). It amounts to an obscure-bank credit card. My wife’s bike was done that way — zero down, 5% interest, 5 years. I wouldn’t so the zero down though – that’ll get you upside down on the loan right quickly.

[nok610]

5% interest sounds pretty decent for a 5 year loan, and putting some cash down will definitely lighten up the monthly payments as well. I just passed my MSF course and getting my DMV test waived so I will be shopping around very soon.

Thanks for the tip!

[megaspaz]

Read the fine print. Look for hidden fees, early closing penalities, and late payment penalties. Looks like 5% now, but one late payment and you could be looking at 17%. Take into account that with a loan, you will be forced to get full coverage insurance as well which will add to your total cost of ownership.

[Clay Dowling]

Major banks are going very good rates right now on vehicle loans. The trick is that they’re really only lending to people with very good credit scores. I worked my loan out through Chase. By way of full disclosure though, I should disclose that my wife works for Chase, so I’m not unbiased.

If you belong to a credit union they tend to have very good rates, and they typically give loans with slightly lower credit scores.

Outside of banks and credit unions, I wouldn’t trust the financing to be non-funky. A lot of those smaller finance companies make their money by writing screwy loans.

[zeppelinfromled]

One thing to calculate before taking out a loan is how much you will end up paying, all total. Microsoft Excel has a function to do this kind of calculation (you put in downpayment, interest rate, number of payments, etc).

I don’t have much experience with vehicle loans, but I do have experience with student loans. Key things too look at are down payment, interest rate, whether that interest rate is fixed or variable, penalties for paying it off early.

I like loans where you can enroll in automatic debit, or automatic payment on a credit card (even better for me) because then you don’t need to worry about late payments, and I get a little cash back on my credit card.

[nok610]

A Chase Bank just opened down the road from my home. Along the strip is Bank of America and a Credit Union bank which I can’t remember at the moment. I should probably inquire about a loan from at least 2 of the 3 local banks.

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