Looking to qualify for a car loan? Understanding your options will help you find the most competitive loan offer, adding up to thousands of dollars of savings over the life of your auto loan.

When searching for a lender, many begin by visiting their local bank. While this is certainly a viable option, shopping multiple locations to find the right deal can be an exhausting, time consuming process. Your best bet may be to begin with a company like ours that specializes in auto financing. We have strong relationships with all local lending sources, and can help you apply to a variety of car loans at once. Our livelihood depends on securing financing for our customers, which means we are experts in bartering with lenders on your behalf. Not only are you likely to find the best deal possible, you will cut out hours of paperwork and weeks of wait times that inevitably happens when you work with banks one on one. Within hours of arrival, you may be driving away with a new car.

You may also want to consider applying for a secured car loan. Under this payment model, your auto purchase is also used as collateral for the lender. This option allows the lender to repossess the vehicle in the event of nonpayment or default. Lenders will often drop their interest rates by as much as 10 percent when backed with collateral. If you are confident in your ability to make on time payments, a secured car loan will often offer the most competitive interest rates.

If you choose to work with a bank one-on-one, make sure you do your research beforehand to understand which type of loan may be a better fit for your particular situation, and allow for at least several weeks of additional car shopping to allocate enough time to visit a wide variety of lending and banking institutions. If you would like to simplify the process and qualify for a comparable loan in a shorter time frame, utilize the expertise of our finance experts at Drive it Now.