I recently bought a car and during the negotiations we agreed on a price and were offered a certain payment at a 5.9% interest rate. When they sold the loan I got my statement and the payment is the same, but the interest rate is 7.29. Term is the same. So what I think happened is that they knew I was looking for a certain payment and interest rate and I didn’t calculate it when they brought the offer.
I do not have the original rate sheet with the miscalculated payment. I feel duped and while I can afford the payment I am kicking myself for not doing the math. Do I have any recourse?
Were you provided a Truth in Lending Act disclosure when you signed the documents? I believe that they are required to provide this disclosure before you sign for the loan.
An alternative would be to refinance the car at a lower rate. A quick look at current rates show that 5% or so may be available, but that would depend on your specific situation, and up front fees may eat into the savings.
Currently, 7.29% isn’t a terribly bad rate, but it sucks that you were misled. I’d check the disclosure to see what the promised rate was and go from there.
You should have the actual loan contract you signed, and somewhere in there, the actual APR should be clearly listed along with the term and monthly payments. If that says 7.29% and you signed it, that’s on you.
If it’s not called out specifically, then I don’t think it’s kosher for them to obfuscate the APR by just showing totals, monthly payments and terms, but I’m not a contract lawyer / consumer advocate either.
Now if it says 5.9%, and they’re charging you 7.29%, then you should be able to take that back to them and point out that the monthly payment isn’t what you agreed to, and they should change it.
How can the payment and term be the same if the rate jumped from 5.9 to 7.29? Did they lower the price of the car to compensate?
If the facts are as stated, it might be that they are holding to their promise of a certain monthly pay,ent and term, but interest rates went up between the quote and signing the paperwork, or they couldn’t get the eate they quoted for some other reason, and they ate the difference.
Looking at the paperwork, We did aign at the higher rate because we trusted the dealer. They knew that we were buying that day and had ideas of what we would pay per month through the salesman. I’m not going to lie or bullshit here. Our credit scores were both were equal at 843. The cash was used as a loaner and had 3k miles on it so it is technically used.
What it comes down to is that they pegged us as people who cared about the interest rate and the shifted it to payments so we weren’t doing the same math. Shifty shit. And they keep you ther forever ho pu my when you sign you just want to get the hell outta Dodge. I’m incredibly disappointed.
Yeah, that or even saving up a few extra payments and paying off the loan off a few months early. I get the the OP may be pissed off,(and rightly so) but overall, it’s not as if they are now paying subprime rates of 18% or more. Get out of this loan early and chalk it up to lessons learned. With a credit score of 843, I suspect they can easily weather this.