I’ve just accepted a job that will begin in two weeks. It will require me to travel up to fourty-five minutes outside of Boston with my own vehicle.
Unfortunately, my Jeep hasn’t been running very well lately so I want to take it to a mechanic and have them look it over to make sure there won’t be any potential problems with it in the future.
So, what should I do? I’m afraid that if I take it to a mechanic and say, “Check everything.” he/she may be dishonest and show me a $1500 bill.
The only thing I can think of is to take it to 3 different mechanics and look at all of the opinions. If this is what I should do, should I tell the mechanics that is what I am doing to influence them to be more honest? or let it be?
On bank loans.
I will not have the money to pay for repairs. I payed a $5,000 car loan so I should have some credit. Think I’ll have a problem getting a $1500 dollar cash loan to pay for the repairs? Is this my best option to pay for the loans? Could a credit-card be a better option?
I’m not really sure of what types of things I should be paying attention to when thinking about a loan.
Ask around from friend, family members and coworkers. Odds are, they will be able to recommend someone to you. Odds also are, this will be a local independent mechanic, and not someone who works for some mega-chain store.
When you find this individual, take your car to them, and ask them to check it out for you. They will charge you (usually about $60) for this service, and I would be very surprised if they attempted to sell you things that you did not need. Regardless, you’re not going to get these things fixed immediately. Take the report they provide you of what needs to be repaired, and look at it. If there’s anything that seems off to you, find a friend well-versed with cars, and ask them. Or, feel free to post the diagnosis here, and we can help you.
Is the $5K car loan the only credit you have to your name? Looking from a strictly interest-rate point of view, if you have excellent credit, a signature loan (no collateral required) I think will run about 7.5% these days, though I could be off a bit. My guess is that if you don’t have $1500 for car repairs, you’re not going to be able to get a signature loan for that much. At that point, probably credit cards are your best bet, unless you have a family member or something that will loan you the money.
Now, maybe you won’t need $1500 worth of work. Perhaps you even have an incredibly cool friend who likes to mess with cars who can take the mechanic’s recommendation and fix whatever it is wrong with your car for the price of parts. I do this for friends of mine. Yes, I am incredibly cool. Maybe you can even do some of the work yourself. It all depends. I’d go get the inspection and find out what you need before worrying about how to pay for it.
I can recommend a couple of specific garages to take your jeep. If you are convenient to the North Shore area in Massachusetts (Danvers, Peabody area), email me and I’ll send them along.
~Winston Smith, Red-Blooded American and former Jeep Owner
7.5% is prime rate right now, which if you have perfect credit you could probably get on a Home equity loan. Unsecured loan rates typically mirror credit card rates, because deep down its the exact same kind of product. With limited credit I would say that 15% would probably be the best rate you could hope for on an unsecured loan.
You probably will have some difficulty getting a loan that small with a conventional bank though, a $1500 loan for a year only nets the bank about $225, which doesn’t even cover the work involved to process the documents and maintain the loan. I would suggest borrowing from friends and family, or going to your bank and seeing if you could get a credit card with that specific limit. If your car is still fairly new 5 years or less, (even if its not in some cases) you could use the car for collateral, which would put you in the ball park of about 10%.
If it isn’t already obvious I work for a major bank in Wisconsin
Maybe you can even do some of the work yourself. It all depends. I’d go get the inspection and find out what you need before worrying about how to pay for it.
