"The Problem"br>br>
The other night, I was driving home from the store when I saw a licence plate that made me laugh out loud. I then felt bad for the poor schmuck driving. It said "0 DOWN" on the plate. It was a brand-new, white Ford Explorer, probably from 2006. What got me about the caption was this: This customer not only bought a brand-new car with no money down, but he was also proud of it. DUMB! The "Buy Now, Pay Later" method is ingrained in our minds by commercials and society as a whole. It works so well that about 90% of people who buy new cars do not put $5 down on the car before signing the papers. Sad to say, the average new car loses $3,000 in value as soon as it drives off the lot. In a way, you have borrowed money for something that is worth less before you even use it. As if this wasn't bad enough, the more you pay for a car the less money you put down and the worse your credit is. I don't know what's worse than this big sand trap.
What your credit report is forbr>
When you buy a new car with no down payment, your online credit report is affected in two ways. First, let's look at what it does once you've decided you HAVE to have that new sports car. When they sit in the "sales chair" to fill out paperwork, most people only have one thing in mind: driving the car home (man this is bringing back some bad, bad memories). To do this, you will need to finance the car, which means you will need to look at your credit history and credit report. This is easy to do online right in the sales office while you look around to make sure no one else is trying to steal your new toy. The worse your credit report is, the more you will pay in interest. (This is fine, though, as long as you can still buy food every other week and pay a few bills here and there.)
Your credit report also plays a role in the end result of this game. The car payment for the average person who buys a new car is 25–30% of their total income. This looks bad on your credit report and makes it harder for you to buy something big in the future. Not to mention that if you miss even one payment, your credit score will take a big hit. Try to remember these things the next time the kid in you has to make a decision about money.
The Answerbr>
Well, you probably won't like the best answer, but here it is: PAY IN FULL FOR THE CAR! If you put your car payment into a good money market account every month, you would not only save time and money, but you would also get a great deal when you walked into the sales office with a stack of $100 bills. Okay, so you'd have a better chance of winning the Super Lotto than doing that, right?
Here are a few suggestions. If you practise a few, you might get ahead of this nasty game a little bit or at least protect your online credit report. First, think about getting a car that is 2 or 3 years old. You can still get a nice one, and the previous owner will have paid for most of the car's wear and tear, so you'll save money. Second, if you can, try to wait and look for the best deal you can find. Trust me, you can buy more than one of those cars. Third, write down something. Anything! You could start by putting down 10% to 15%. This will lower your monthly payment, interest rate, and maybe even the length of time it will take to pay off your loan. Last, get a good deal. Don't pay the price being asked for by any means. Be patient and keep your mind on the task at hand. One way to define maturity is the ability to wait for pleasure.
Visit a href="http://www.cleancreditonline.com"> to learn more about how you can get your free credit report online with no strings attached, see what is on your file, and learn how to fix your credit report.
http://www.cleancreditonline.com
