To get into the swing of this article, let’s look at two scenarios.

Jenny walks into a hair dresser and asks for a haircut. The stylist proceeds to cut Jenny’s hair without asking any questions and Jenny ends up with a 1990s undercut at a cost of $100! With only $50 to her name, shock, horror and tears follow as Jenny prays for the chance to travel back in time and voice her expectations.

Bill is extremely hungry after a long morning at his construction job and decides to go into his local burger shop for lunch. A young cashier asks for Bill’s order, to which he replies “Burger, chips and a drink thanks.” Bill sits down and 10 minutes later his meal arrives with a fish burger, chips and a strawberry milkshake.

Aside from the disgusting combination of fish and dairy, Bill has a severe seafood allergy! If only he was asked some questions whilst ordering…

The moral of this story is to tailor a product that suits your needs, reputable businesses require you to answer a few questions throughout the transaction.

You definitely don’t want to be looking at your rate retrospectively and being disappointed that you didn’t take some time to work toward a better one.

Car loan applications at 360 Finance

At 360 Finance, the more we get to know about you and the car that you are financing, the better chance we have of securing you the best car loan rate from our panel of lenders.

Granted, with such small decisions as cutting your hair or ordering a meal, you may need only to answer a few questions to get the outcome you are looking for.

However, unlike buying lunch or getting a new hairdo, purchasing a car is generally considered one of the biggest financial decisions you will make in your lifetime, behind buying a house or a luxury yacht of course.

So the moral of this story is to be prepared to take a bit of time to save yourself a lot of money.

In saying that, the finance process is never tedious as our finance concierges only ask for what they need to secure you the best deal and nothing more.

What about my bank? They said they could secure me a car loan at XX%* no questions asked.

No questions asked? Maybe you should stop and asked yourself the question, would I be happy with the one size fits all rate from my bank or would I prefer to spend a bit of time pushing for a lower rate? Remember Jenny and Bill?

Some questions you should ask yourself are;

  • Have I read reviews from customers of bank car loans?
  • Have I spoken to family and friends about their experiences with bank car finance?
  • Does my bank care about me as a customer?
  • Will my car loan consultant at the bank be there in the future to help me when I need to upgrade my vehicle?

What about the dealership that can do 0%* Car Finance?

As we have always said, if the dealership has control over both the sale price of the car and the car finance rate then what do you have control of?

As much as this is an unbeatable rate, you may want to check a few things before signing the dotted line;

  • Is the finance package subject to the inclusion of a balloon amount? If so, can you afford to pay such a big lump sum at the end of the loan term? If there is no balloon, be sure to check the following;
  • Is the offer only available on the leftover orange and brown colours of the model? If you want to look like a taxi or don’t judge a car by its cover then by all means sign up!
  • Do the terms and conditions only apply to the base model of last year’s stock? If you don’t mind having the bare minimum in features and safety then 0% Finance is an enticing offer. However, always consider the following;
  • Could I get the same model at a different dealership with a cheaper price tag and use the services of 360 Finance to secure a car loan that works out to be more affordable over the loan term?

As our director Richard Burgess always states; “The true cost of a loan is the repayments over the term and not the interest rate.” So don’t be fooled by the 0% offers.

Save yourself compromising on your car choice at the dealership and the one size fits all car loan rates from the bank and get in contact with a 360 Finance concierge for a fuss free finance approval on 1300 361 360 today.

Keep your eyes peeled for our next blog post with a rundown of the questions our finance concierges ask during our obligation free application call.