Financing Outside of Tesla is Weird - Advice on Lenders?

[jjrandorin]

PS thank you for the quick response and offer of assistance.

You are correct that there is no dealer to "massage' the deal, but that also means there is no dealer to mark up the financing to make money on it, as well.

Maybe try whoever you bank with? Thats who my tesla loan is with... my primary financial institution is navy federal credit union, and they had decent rates (better than teslas at the time but not as cheap as some of the credit unions posted here).

The other thing about the online portals. You ask for how much you want to borrow. If the car is 70k and you want to put down 30k, then you apply for a loan for 40k (rough numbers, not talking about tax / lic dest etc).

Figure out the price of the car you want, and how much down payment you want to put down (if you are having credit issues think about 40-50%) and then ask for a loan for the difference.

 

[hercesq71]

I see what you are saying and that's a good idea. But what I would prefer is to be able to actually talk with somebody (rare these days) and say listen, here is my credit profile. How much do you need me to put down to write this loan. As opposed to taking a shot in the dark at what might work for me to put down.

 

[jjrandorin]

I see what you are saying and that's a good idea. But what I would prefer is to be able to actually talk with somebody (rare these days) and say listen, here is my credit profile. How much do you need me to put down to write this loan. As opposed to taking a shot in the dark at what might work for me to put down.

You are right, that is a bit rare now, but you have the best chance of that with your own bank (that you have history with).

 

[hercesq71]

Thanks.

 

[Nevada Jen]

I talked to a real person at Bank of America and they ran a bunch of scenarios for me. Their rates were better than most places for most loans but I got a .5 discount because I have accounts there.

 

[hercesq71]

good tip; thank you.