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Model 3 Financing
- Thread starter robertdesarbo
- Start date
Lightstream is online. Their rates are okay, but the their beat rate program is fantastic. What I did was get approved for Lightstream loan first. They quoted me 3.75%. I shopped around and my local credit union approved me for 2.24%. I sent Lightstream my CU approval letter and they immediately matched it -.1% so 2.14%.
The main benefit of Lightstream loan is that they ACH deposit the entire funds into your bank account next day. Lightstream does not need to be on title so you would just buy the Tesla as cash. I started applying for financing Monday night, received approval from CU/Lightstream Wednesday, received funds Thursday, picked up the Model 3 Saturday. Did this all online.
Rate Beat
I do wish I was able to get .99% like so many people did last year... but interests rates keep going up
Hi So does light stream current rates are these ? when you get approved
and then have another CU give lower approval letter ? Meaning run another hard inquiry on your credit ? If am not mistaken ? and then if they approve any lower send lightstream that letter to ratematch ?
And also what other CU is lower than them is it local depending on where you live or is there one online which anyone has used in the past?
voip-ninja
Give me some sugar baby
So many questions.
You have it right. To use the LS rate beat program you are going to have to get approval from LS and then get approval from one or more other credit unions, then send that information over to LS to get them to beat the rate.
My understanding is that LS won't beat a rate based on a pre-approval, they will only beat a full approval which further complicates things in getting them to beat a rate.
This also does mean a few more pulls of your credit score which may or may not be that much of an issue depending on what it is for. While a hard pull of your credit score by a bank for a mortgage, car loan, etc., indicates a slightly higher credit risk, generally speaking multiple pulls don't have any more impact than a single pull so it's fine to apply at a few places to try to get the best rate you can.
Ultimately it all comes down to whether you feel the advantages of LS unsecured loan (assuming you qualify) are worth the hassle.... and also if it's worth doing a rate beat to save an extra 1% or more on rate. On the amount I would be borrowing if I can get LS to match another credit union it will save me about $1800 over the life of the loan so well worth it to plug away at it.
Online credit unions you can look into if all of your local ones have sucky rates;
Everence Financial - To join you have to agree with a bible passage and it costs $5 to make an initial deposit to open the account. Current rate on a 60 month new car loan is 2.99% but there is a .50% discount for purchase of electric vehicle making it 2.49%. I did have to use a secure system to upload my financial docs, etc., but got preapproval pretty quickly, unfortunately I can't get full approval without a VIN which I still don't have.
Allegacy credit union - to join you have to do a $10 donation to one of a few partner organizations through their website and another $5 to open the account. I believe their best rate on a 60 month new car loan is supposed to be between 2.29% and 2.49% with direct withdrawal. Similar to Everence as far as hoops needed to be jumped through.
Local rates near me are 3.79-3.99 so even LS base rate beats nearly all local banks. Rates where I am suck.
wbhokie
Member
Nice writeup @voip-ninja ! I think I'll do the same.
For me, I applied with FedChoice Federal Credit Union. They already have good standard rates, which are 2.49% on a 72 month loan. (Someone asked earlier why 72 is the new 60... I think a lot of previous Tesla owners are used to the 72 month format since Tesla defaults to this on their site. Model S and X are 100k+ cars most of the time) FedChoice also has a program where new members get 1% off of new loan rates for the first 30 days of membership, though my loan officer told me the rate is good for 60 days. (I didn't clarify if that meant the rate plus the discount rate) FedChoice unfortunately is only available for Federal (contractors, employees, spouses-of, etc) members of the DC-Metro region on the east coast. My loan process and approval process was very fast. Their website is about 10 years out of date, and so once you get approved, you only get a little note saying "You were approved for a loan for X dollars" and it doesn't tell you any terms. So you have to call your loan officer and ask for all of those terms. If you plan to do any sort of rate-beat program, I'd suggest your very first email after approval is to ask for a PDF attachment of your loan approval terms. Since I was a new member, this lowered my rate to 1.49% on a 72 month loan. Like Everence Financial, you must become a member to join. This also cost $5 and it took about 3-4 business days to process. I did just get an email though saying I'd get $25 deposited into my account for having 5 products or services, and I'll I had to do to get it is download their app to my phone... which was confusing since all I had done was join and apply for a loan... but if they say that's all I have to do why not try!
Then I applied for a loan with Lightstream. This also took little to no time. Less than a day turnaround for approval. Unlike FedChoice, they give all of your loan details like Term, APR, etc. Your approval email will also say "Unsecured Auto Loan" if they approve you for an unsecured loan. (Lightstream's rates are not very good. I wouldn't be using them at all without rate beat personally) At this point, I did not continue the acceptance terms on their website since I wanted to match the rate on FedChoice. This process took a while, since they did not accept the email that FedChoice sent me. When I requested a PDF from FedChoice, they tried to ask for more infromation, like a printout of my order from tesla, which then prompted them to change my requested loan amount.... AHHHH! Anyway, after many emails and phone calls they resolved the issue and I got a signed PDF with my approved loan info, which I then sent to Lightstream. Lightstream then sent that to their underwriter, and I got an email saying my loan terms were updated. When I went to the website, it showed the new APR, and said I had until so and so date to accept the terms, which I have not yet done since I am waiting on confirmation on my delivery date. Since it is an unsecured loan, I was able to change my order to "Pay as Cash" since they will deposit my entire loan as a lump sum to my bank account the moment I accept it from Lightstream. If you get a standard secured loan, financing works like it normally would, they do not deposit all of the cash to you up front like an unsecured loan so be aware they work differently. They will then ask when you want to pay each month, etc. So essentially have up to a month to wait to accept your loan, and then up to a month after that to start paying it.
For me, I applied with FedChoice Federal Credit Union. They already have good standard rates, which are 2.49% on a 72 month loan. (Someone asked earlier why 72 is the new 60... I think a lot of previous Tesla owners are used to the 72 month format since Tesla defaults to this on their site. Model S and X are 100k+ cars most of the time) FedChoice also has a program where new members get 1% off of new loan rates for the first 30 days of membership, though my loan officer told me the rate is good for 60 days. (I didn't clarify if that meant the rate plus the discount rate) FedChoice unfortunately is only available for Federal (contractors, employees, spouses-of, etc) members of the DC-Metro region on the east coast. My loan process and approval process was very fast. Their website is about 10 years out of date, and so once you get approved, you only get a little note saying "You were approved for a loan for X dollars" and it doesn't tell you any terms. So you have to call your loan officer and ask for all of those terms. If you plan to do any sort of rate-beat program, I'd suggest your very first email after approval is to ask for a PDF attachment of your loan approval terms. Since I was a new member, this lowered my rate to 1.49% on a 72 month loan. Like Everence Financial, you must become a member to join. This also cost $5 and it took about 3-4 business days to process. I did just get an email though saying I'd get $25 deposited into my account for having 5 products or services, and I'll I had to do to get it is download their app to my phone... which was confusing since all I had done was join and apply for a loan... but if they say that's all I have to do why not try!
Then I applied for a loan with Lightstream. This also took little to no time. Less than a day turnaround for approval. Unlike FedChoice, they give all of your loan details like Term, APR, etc. Your approval email will also say "Unsecured Auto Loan" if they approve you for an unsecured loan. (Lightstream's rates are not very good. I wouldn't be using them at all without rate beat personally) At this point, I did not continue the acceptance terms on their website since I wanted to match the rate on FedChoice. This process took a while, since they did not accept the email that FedChoice sent me. When I requested a PDF from FedChoice, they tried to ask for more infromation, like a printout of my order from tesla, which then prompted them to change my requested loan amount.... AHHHH! Anyway, after many emails and phone calls they resolved the issue and I got a signed PDF with my approved loan info, which I then sent to Lightstream. Lightstream then sent that to their underwriter, and I got an email saying my loan terms were updated. When I went to the website, it showed the new APR, and said I had until so and so date to accept the terms, which I have not yet done since I am waiting on confirmation on my delivery date. Since it is an unsecured loan, I was able to change my order to "Pay as Cash" since they will deposit my entire loan as a lump sum to my bank account the moment I accept it from Lightstream. If you get a standard secured loan, financing works like it normally would, they do not deposit all of the cash to you up front like an unsecured loan so be aware they work differently. They will then ask when you want to pay each month, etc. So essentially have up to a month to wait to accept your loan, and then up to a month after that to start paying it.
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wbhokie
Member
Had to read your quote twice since you edited pieces of my paragraph and put it together in a weird way. I mean if you do not get an unsecured loan, they do not give YOU personally a lump sum of cash. It works like standard financing does. (I'll edit my wall of text)
voip-ninja
Give me some sugar baby
The loan officer who called me from Allegacy said that they do not need a VIN for pre-approval and terms but they will need a VIN for a 'full' approval.
Knightshade
Well-Known Member
FWIW I just went through this with em- I'm "approved" at 2.29% for 66 months, but they won't put that in writing (I think they know people are applying there just to use them for lightstream)
The "final" stuff they need to fund it includes:
- Proof of car insurance (Collision and comprehensive insurance with a deductible of no more than $500.00).
- Window Sticker or Factory Invoice
- Copy Bill of Sale signed by you and the dealership
- On the Bill of Sale-need to have Lien Information for Allegacy Federal Credit Union
I dunno how quickly/easily an IDA can get this stuff as mine hasn't replied for 2 days now to requests for VIN or other info from him after he initially told me the car has shipped from the factory...
On the bright side the approval is good for 60 days at that rate so I've got a little time.
The lack of anything in writing rules out lightstream but since they only offered me a secured loan anyway (despite 800+ credit score and plenty of assets) I'm fine just actually using Allegacy for the loan, they were very responsive and nice to deal with- and they're very nearly local (a couple counties over)
Plus a .1 rate beat would only save me like $165 over the entire life of the loan.
voip-ninja
Give me some sugar baby
I would spend a little more and still do it with LS.
For one thing, getting that rate from Allegacy probably requires direct withdrawal, so now you've got to start to fund the savings/checking account at Allegacy which is a pain in the neck.
Second, you have all of the pitfalls of Tesla's less than stellar closing process and the chance that it will get hosed up trying to get the bank check in the exact right amount or having the wire transfer go through correctly on the day they want to close and hand the car to you. With LS you show up with a cashier's check from your own bank and are paying cash so zero drama.
Finally.... with LS and doing a cash purchase you get the title from Tesla almost immediately... you will never need to get the vehicle re-titled after paying the note off, have to work with the lien holder if you sell the car before the loan term is up, etc.
So for me, all of that is well worth an extra few hundred bucks..... but that's only assuming I can get LS to do a rate beat with Everence which isn't looking certain at all at this point.
I don't see how this is possible. Lightstream's rate beat is 0.1% less than a competing rate. On a $65,000 loan for 84 months, 0.1% reduction works out to about $2.80 per month, or $235 over 84 months.
voip-ninja
Give me some sugar baby
That's not what I'm saying, I probably didn't explain it well. I'm saying that if LS will rate beat an out of state bank (would be a 2.39 rate) who gave me an approvel that would be over 1% less than any loan rate I can get in-state, thereby saving me $1800.
Knightshade
Well-Known Member
it's also not true.
They told me I can fund it from any bank account I want, at any bank, they just need the account # and routing #.
Also I'd be spending a lot more since the rate LS is offering without ratebeat is roughly double what Allegacy offers. And since Allegacy won't write that rate down to use with LS I can't ratebeat it.
nobody else seems to be willing to offer anything close to Allegacy for me to use ratebeat with (best other offer was another credit union at either 3.24% straight, or 3.04% if I only took 85% LTV)
Again- LS didn't approve me unsecured (despite 800+ CR and plenty of assets... I emailed them Monday to ask why and never go any reply)
So none of that is true for my case.
(Also Allegacy says they'll fedex the check to Tesla overnight whenever I tell them to so I'd know it was there before I went to the appointment.... as to "exact right amount" I tell them that when I tell them to issue the check....just as I'd have to tell MY bank the same info when getting a cashiers check from them- so no difference)
yeah- in my case it'd be about $1500 more (2.29 vs 3.14 if LS ratebeat my best in-writing offer) and it'd still be secured either way so no benefit at all to paying more.
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