That's disappointing to hear. I guess I'll have to look elsewhere. There's a lot of talk on here about PenFed. I noticed their 72 month term is a higher rate than the 60 month. But, a lot of Tesla owners are using PenFed.
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- Thread starter chmod a+wrx
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That's disappointing to hear. I guess I'll have to look elsewhere. There's a lot of talk on here about PenFed. I noticed their 72 month term is a higher rate than the 60 month. But, a lot of Tesla owners are using PenFed.
jeffro01
Active Member
Interesting...These rates are lower than what is quoted on USAA's site. Any idea how you scored those numbers? Thanks!
gg_got_a_tesla
Model S: VIN 65513, Model 3: VIN 1913
carrerascott
FUEL FTR
Called and told them about Penfed 1.49 rate. I do a lot if business with USAA so that probably helped. They just sent the $90k over to Tesla and I'm locked in at 1.48 for the next 5 years. Very happy with that!
A good source associated with PenFed. gg_got_a_tesla is correct that the rate is not locked until a check is cut. If I were you, I would take the check soon. 2 weeks of interest will cost you ~$40 but you can save $500+ if the rate indeed goes up. Also, you want the check a little early so that you can avoid $50 fedex overnight fee. Hope it helps.
I went with Alliant Credit Union. Financed $92k for 84 months at 2.99%. Very easy to become a member (donated $10 to Foster Care to Success) + required created savings account with them (good for me anyway as I only had checking accounts and I'm terrible at putting money away, so now going to direct deposit some $$ in there every paycheck as my wife's been bugging me to do that LOL). Their rates are 1.99% up to 72 months and 2.99% at 84 months. I went back and forth on this for a while, and I know that it's a quite a bit more in total interest paid for the 84, but I opted for the 84 month term anyway to reduce my required monthly debt. I have a big habit of paying things off waaaayyy early anyway so its really not all too different for me, I just didn't want to lock myself into the higher monthly payment. Also fyi those rates are assuming automatic payment method from any financial account (if you want to pay manually by check their rate is 0.4% higher).
fyi for others, I looked at BoA (above post that they do not finance anything longer than 60 month terms so they lost my business there). Also looked at GTE Financial Credit Union. They have an advertised rate of 1.72% for 72 months. I called them and got more into. very easy to join them too I think by same method of $5/$10 donation and opening savings account. But the 1.74% is only if this is your first car (weird, never heard of a 'first time car buyer' loan before...how would they even know??). If not your first car, the rate is 1.99% for 72 months but they have a cap at $60k. Alliant is better there as there wasn't a cap to my knowledge and I think they also do up to 100% financing. I put 10% down anyway though. Hope that helps others looking for longer term loans.
As far as the process for Applying online to Alliant Credit Union,
1) went to website to apply late Monday evening .. which first pointed me to a site to make the donation to become eligible to join, so I made that $10 donation & got instant email of confirmation of donation and eligibility to join Alliant
2) then immediately went back to Alliant web site and submitted the Alliant member app selecting that foundation as my eligibility reason,
3) approved for membership Tuesday (got email),
4) immediately called them to get my memberid,
5) created account online using my memberid & logged in,
6) submitted Auto Loan app Tuesday afternoon,
7) approved this morning
8) some quick back and forth paperwork this evening and the check is out to Tesla.
Very easy!! Recommended based on my experience with them so far, very nice on phone too.
fyi for others, I looked at BoA (above post that they do not finance anything longer than 60 month terms so they lost my business there). Also looked at GTE Financial Credit Union. They have an advertised rate of 1.72% for 72 months. I called them and got more into. very easy to join them too I think by same method of $5/$10 donation and opening savings account. But the 1.74% is only if this is your first car (weird, never heard of a 'first time car buyer' loan before...how would they even know??). If not your first car, the rate is 1.99% for 72 months but they have a cap at $60k. Alliant is better there as there wasn't a cap to my knowledge and I think they also do up to 100% financing. I put 10% down anyway though. Hope that helps others looking for longer term loans.
As far as the process for Applying online to Alliant Credit Union,
1) went to website to apply late Monday evening .. which first pointed me to a site to make the donation to become eligible to join, so I made that $10 donation & got instant email of confirmation of donation and eligibility to join Alliant
2) then immediately went back to Alliant web site and submitted the Alliant member app selecting that foundation as my eligibility reason,
3) approved for membership Tuesday (got email),
4) immediately called them to get my memberid,
5) created account online using my memberid & logged in,
6) submitted Auto Loan app Tuesday afternoon,
7) approved this morning
8) some quick back and forth paperwork this evening and the check is out to Tesla.
Very easy!! Recommended based on my experience with them so far, very nice on phone too.
I believe the rate is determined when PenFed received the check back from Tesla (i.e check is cashed), not when they cut the check. For me, PenFed sent me a blank check for me to fill out the amount (up to the loan limit), and interest rate is determined only after they received the check back from Tesla.
I spoke with PenFed today and they said the rate is locked when the check is issued. That's also when they start charging interest.
For me, a blank check was issued to me so there was no way for them to charge interest if the actual loan amount has yet to be determined. Here is the letter that came with my blank check:
I'm financing my car with PenFed after purchasing with cash. (They had no problem with this.) In the packet they sent to me, in addition to the check, was a Truth in Lending Disclosure/Promissory Note which specified the rate. This was already signed by PenFed and they asked me to sign it and send it back to them. So it seems to me we already have a contract in place for 1.49%, even though the check has not been cashed.
Just had a thought-- Is anyone using a home equity loan to finance their Tesla...?
https://www.penfed.org/home-equity-loan/
Says it takes 4-8 weeks to get the funds.. (which just happens to be about how far out I am from getting my Tesla at this point)
What would the pros and cons be of doing that...? Seems like it might cost more with the closing costs involved-- but on the other hand if the interest was tax deductible you could potentially save a lot of money over the life of the loan...
https://www.penfed.org/home-equity-loan/
Says it takes 4-8 weeks to get the funds.. (which just happens to be about how far out I am from getting my Tesla at this point)
What would the pros and cons be of doing that...? Seems like it might cost more with the closing costs involved-- but on the other hand if the interest was tax deductible you could potentially save a lot of money over the life of the loan...
gg_got_a_tesla
Model S: VIN 65513, Model 3: VIN 1913
Well that pretty much nips that one in the bud then...
I thought maybe it would be because of this article: http://www.bankrate.com/brm/news/DrDon/20060627a1.asp
It doesn't seem at all logical that it should be though...
And that's a pretty old article.
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This article seems to say that you can deduct up to 100K of home equity loan for any purpose as long as you don't exceed the equity in your home...
http://www.bankrate.com/brm/news/loan/19990203.asp
Also a very old article. Obviously a lot of people don't have a lot of equity in their home these days which is probably why doing this sort of thing might not be so popular these days. Since I'm still confused I'm going to ask my accountant if this type of thing is possible and if it even makes sense...
I thought maybe it would be because of this article: http://www.bankrate.com/brm/news/DrDon/20060627a1.asp
It doesn't seem at all logical that it should be though...
And that's a pretty old article.
- - - Updated - - -
This article seems to say that you can deduct up to 100K of home equity loan for any purpose as long as you don't exceed the equity in your home...
http://www.bankrate.com/brm/news/loan/19990203.asp
Also a very old article. Obviously a lot of people don't have a lot of equity in their home these days which is probably why doing this sort of thing might not be so popular these days. Since I'm still confused I'm going to ask my accountant if this type of thing is possible and if it even makes sense...
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