Car Finance Interest Rates

Secured or unsecured car loans, what is the real difference and how that difference affects their loan and your loan payments. The difference can vary depending on the bank or finance company, but is bigger when the true cost of each is taken into account.

Before discussing secured and unsecured car loans in more detail, let's first have a look at the numerous machinery that determine the cost of your loan and of your monthly repayments. The cost of a loan is the total you repay less the sum borrowed. Hence, let's say you are repaying $20,000 at 12% interest rate over 36 months; you will repay at the rate of $664.29 per month. That would total a repayment of $23,914.44, and the cost of the loan would be $3,914.44 plus any set-up or administration fees. A finance calculator will enable you to work this out for yourself.

An substitute to a car loan would be commercial hire purchase (HP), where you hire the car over the repayment period and collect the title to the vehicle with your final payment. Until then the car belongs to the HP company.

However, most finances are either secured or unsecured, and not all loan companies offer unsecured or personal loans so let's look at secured car finance first. A secured car loan is one whereby the lender offers the loan with the car as security. If you fail to make payments, the lender can sell the car to recoup their money. With a strong application it is still possible to get secured car finance on old cars, often 7 years, but you may find the loan term only being approved on a shorter term or not at all by using your home or some other form of security. These are not exactly classed as car loans. It is generally the car that is the security.

If you prefer you can request no deposit car finance and have all on-road costs added to the amount financed. Options like registration , loan protection insurance for disability,death or unemployment and comprehensive auto insurance as part of the financing deal. Loan protection insurance makes sure that the loan is paid off in the event of your death during the loan period, and car insurance is needed to make sure that the car is in good condition should it be needed to repay the lend in the event of you defaulting on your loan commitment.

This might look hard , but these are conditions you see with most secured car loans, not only car loans. You can normally have a secured car loan over one to five years, and the interest rate will be lower than that for an unsecured car finance where the financier charges extra to compensate for their added risk. As with any loan, a deposit will result in lower payments, or a shorter term, whichever you prefer.

Balloon payments could be an option on your finance package, which is an amount borrowed where you pay interest only and finalized the principle when finalizing the loan. This is popular by those whose income will increase over the period, and they will be in a better financial position to pay a lump sum in 3 - 5 years time. This too results in either a lower monthly repayment or a shorter repayment term.

If you are on the lookout for a used car, your loan will be priced differently according to the financier and the age of your car. Many will charge higher interest rates, and the current credit down turn has changed the outlook of many lenders to unsecured car finance in particular. Many no longer offer unsecured car loans due to the increased risk in the current economic climate.

However, they are still available, and some car finance brokers can deal with a variety of unsecured car loans companies. In addition to the interest rate on such loans, you should also compare the fees charged, since they can involve a considerable outlay for you before you get the loan.

The most important differences between secured and unsecured car loans, therefore, can be summarized as:

Secured car loans are cheaper to repay, with usually lower interest rates.

You need to have full comprehensive car insurance with all secured car loans, while unsecured loans do not.

Both loans could require life insurance cover for the finance, but secured car loans are more likely to.

You can sometimes include comprehensive insurance, registration and other costs in the secured loan, but with an unsecured car financing you must include the the outlay on top of the amount borrowed.

Fees for unsecured auto loans can be significantly higher than for secured car finance.

Not all lenders will offer unsecured car finance.

There few doubts that if your automobile is young enough to be given a loan with the motor vehicle as security, then that should be your option. You might be able to arrange a secured loan for an older car with your dwelling as security, but you will have to make sure to maintain the loan repayments since lenders are becoming unsympathetic in the current economic climate.