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Wednesday, 19 September, 2007 8:13 PM
Five Things You Must Know Before
Buying a Car
Car
Dealer Reveals Insider’s Credit Secrets to Save You Money!
The offers sound enticing—0%
interest, no money down, low monthly payments and huge discounts.
With offers like these, you’re sure to get a good deal on
a car, right? Not necessarily. Seems like there’s always a
catch or fine print. And that’s why most people hate buying
a car. They rank it right up there with getting a root canal—downright
painful. The basic problem is that most people don’t understand
how car dealerships operate. So they wind up paying too much.
That’s where Mark Marine comes in. A long-time car dealer
and author of the book, “Kick the Dealer...Not the Tires!”
(Motom Publishing), Marine believes consumers need to understand
the role their credit plays when buying a car. And shocking as it
may sound having good credit does not automatically mean you’ll
get the best deal. “You may not want to hear this but the
people getting the best price on a car are people with bad credit,”
says Marine. “The car-buying experience is designed to allow
dealers to make up profits lost on bad-credit sales by making bigger
profits on good-credit sales.”
That’s why Marine stresses the importance of understanding
credit. He offers five key points that he thinks all consumers should
know before they even consider buying a new vehicle:
- Check your credit
report. Most credit reports contain inaccurate information. It’s
up to you to correct it—there’s no government agency
that requires the credit report companies to amend mistakes to
your report.
- Good credit means
you’re ripe for abuse. When you have good credit, banks
place fewer restrictions on your loan and that allows dealers
to charge you more. So it’s crucial to know your lender’s
conditions on your loan up-front.
- Bad credit means
the bank protects its money. When you have bad credit, the bank
places more restrictions on the loan. That gives dealers less
wiggle room to add on extras and options. But bad credit still
means you have fewer options when borrowing money.
- Get pre-approved before
you visit any car dealer. That way you know the conditions placed
on your loan up front. Then the dealer is forced to make a deal
that fits the conditions outlined by the bank—again, eliminating
that profit wiggle room.
- Have an exit strategy.
Don’t let the lust for leather seats and a premium sound
system melt your brain. When buying a car, keep in mind at some
point you’ll sell that car. So you have to be smart. You’ll
pay much more for options than you’ll recoup when selling
it down the road.
Marine says he also wants
people to know that when it comes to their credit, the best thing
they can do is pay their bills on time. If they fall behind, he
warns them to beware of ‘credit repair’ scams. “There
is no such thing as credit repair,” says Marine. “These
companies claim they can hide or remove negative information from
your credit report, even if that information is true. But they can’t.
What’s even worse is that after they’ve ‘repaired’
your credit, your score drops even lower than before you went to
them.”
When it comes to your credit and buying a new car, Marine advises
consumers to be informed. Check your credit score, get pre-approved
first, and plan your exit strategy. “A car purchase will affect
your economic life for roughly three to seven years,” says
Marine. “That’s a long time to be stuck in a bad deal.
Get pre-approved.”
About the Author:
Mark Marine has been
in the car business since 1989. He grew frustrated listening to
the litany of stories from consumers who were upside down, or owed
more than their car was worth, in their car loans. Bothered by the
standard practices in the auto industry, Marine decided to start
empowering consumers by explaining how dealerships operate, and
have designed a system to use your credit as a tool for profit.
His work for consumers led to national interviews on the Allan Handelman
Show, Everyday Wealth with Geri Detwiller, Dr. Penelope Sugrosse,
Bare Bones Biz with Ellen Rohr and The Jim Sumpter Show. Marine
also hosted a daily talk show for four years on KTKK radio in Salt
Lake City and wrote a weekly column in the Enterprise Newspaper,
which was distributed to businesses throughout Utah.
He currently lives in
Utah where he owns and operates a car dealership.
Source: Event Management
Services, Inc.
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