When you're considering refinancing your car, your current lender might be your first thought. Not all lenders are able to refinance auto loans, though. Whether or not your lender is able to help may depend on the situation. Here are some things to consider if you're thinking of refinancing your car loan with the same lender.
Can I refinance with my current lender? Refinancing is replacing your auto loan contract with another one with different rates or terms. Not all lenders are able to do this. Your current lender is typically a good place to start when you're looking to refinance your car. However, they may not be willing or able to help you with refinancing, so you may have to seek help from a new lender.
If your current lender isn't able to refinance your loan, you can look for help in many places, banks, credit unions, and online lenders all have the potential to help. But how do you know who to turn to? This is where rate shopping comes in.
Shop around for the best deal. Rate shopping means applying for something, in this case refinancing, with multiple lenders to find the most ideal situation and deal that works for you. The rate shopping window can range, but to minimize the impact on your credit, all your refinancing requests should be made within a 14-day period. When you do this all the inquiries show up on your credit reports, but only one impacts your credit score.
Rate shopping can be more difficult as a bad credit borrower, and you may be left choosing between several loans with high-interest rates. In this case, working with a refinancing lender that specializes in bad credit can help. In order to refinance your credit score typically must have improved from when you first took out your bad credit car loan. This is only one of the standard refinancing requirements though. In general, you also need to be current on your loan, have no negative equity, and both your loan and vehicle must meet lender specifications.
Ready to refinance your vehicle? If you're ready to see what you qualify for in terms of refinancing, we want to help. At Auto Credit Express we work with many different refinancing lenders and we want to connect you to one that can help. Simply fill out our fast, free, auto loan refinance request form to get started.
