Great financing trick if you have good credit. Hope it helps someone else.

After pulling in the my first new vehicle (at age 36) I bought the 2004 Isuzu Rodeo 4x4 direct injection, with all options but leather. (I like seat covers anyway). This includes a bunch of extras like the rear plastic liner, tinted windows (beyond factory-wanted max heat reflective), and more.

I got the platinum 10 year bumper to bumper extended warrantee. A good thing, because I put some dents and hits in it the first week out. All this pushed the cost of vehicle, extras, TTL, and whatever else they could tack on to $26,270 with payments of $480/mo.

I have good credit, low rent, no debt and got a 4.59% auto loan without the "worth less now that it's off the lot" extra insurance some banks make you pay until the loan principal value is below NADA value. (Actually, less ethical banks make you pay it until you notice that you don't need to and bring it up. Same with houses.) Three payments later (with interest), my balance is about $24,700.

Then there's the point of all this. My credit card (same bank as the loan) sent me balance transfer checks at 2.9% APR for as long as it takes to pay it off. I have a 5k limit, so I called them up and asked if I could raise my limit to 25k. Later that day, I had the credit limit I needed.

I then got ready to write the check. For five minutes work, I dropped my 5-year (or 4 year, 10 month) APR from 4.6 to 2.9 (save 1.7%). Now, I can't use the card for anything else as all new charges pay the higher (4.5%) interest rate instantly, and the low interest transfer is paid off first. So I locked it in a drawer.

But wait, there's more. I set that up yesterday and when I got home, MBNA sent me an offer for 0% APR on 10k transfers for a year. Five more minutes of my time to flip 10K over (and 5 minutes to flip it back to USAA next year) and I just 'hid' or 'borrowed' 10k of money free for a year. 1 year, 10k, from 4.6% to 0% = saved $460 (minus a stamp).

I'm using excel and some guessing to come figure at this point, I have a 5-year loan at about 1.8% and about a $70/month drop in the payment. I'll keep making $500/month payments and pay it off early--saving even more interest.

I'm not going to be too greedy and flip another free 10k as the remaining balance at 2.9% is mostly free money anyway. The risk is if I don't get at least one card offer every year with 2.9% (or less) balance transfer offers.

I've worked hard to live well below my means (usually one to three roommates and a used vehicle) and always pay every bill on time, even in college. It's nice that's it finally working for me.

Is there not an administrative fee to use the check? I've gotten these in the past and as far as I can recall there is a minimum administrative fee of something like $15 or 5% of the amount transferred, whichever is greater.... something like that. At 5% that would be an extra $1250 in interest paid up front! Now maybe you get better offers than me, but I encourage everyone to read the fine print before filling out one of those checks.

You made me call my bank!

There was no mention of a transfer fee with these checks, just immediate interest. The call to the bank confirmed it.

But thanks for the warning! That could be costly.

Or you could another route:

How to finance a *nearly* new vehicle for cheap.

I bought my 2002 Rodeo Sport with all available options (plus a few things the previous owner installed like tinted windows, factory trailer hitch, front brush guard) for $14,060. It only had 10,012 miles on it, not a scratch on the underside, and a sparkling new motor compartment.

Owning a new car is nice but, it doesn't take long for it not to be new (I've already done that a few times). Money was a little tighter this time anyway. It forced me to contemplate my upcoming purchase a lot more. I did a lot of research and was sure what I wanted. I also had patience to wait for the right vehicle. My wife helped keep me sane here. I though I wanted a couple, but I *had* to have this one <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/lol.gif" alt="" />.

Good credit helps a lot when working with a dealer. When I first told them what I would pay for the RS they didn't take me seriously, until I let them check my credit. I offered 14,000, and for whatever reason they said they would sell it for 14,060 <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />, two weeks later. On top of that they gave me 3.9% APR financing, unvelievable for a used vehicle (cheaper then my CU).

In the end I got a nearly new vehicle for with a payment that is 1/2 (on a 4 yr. loan) of my last new vehicle (on a 5 yr. loan). I couldn't have bought a new 4WD RS anyway, although an RS with the DI engine would be sweet. <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />

I like the removable top Rodeo Sports better *but* with 4 kids now, had to move up. Good deal for you. (I kept the 4-cyc Amigo for the "no kids" days, but at least have the sunroof)

Great find on the vehicle. Part of why I went new is becuase it's so hard to find just what you want (unless you like used Accords, Camry's, or F-150's). Still couldn't find the color I wanted (all colors were bad in 2004), went with white (cooler, and easier to repaint). I checked out the link to your profile. No pictures.

That's an incredible APR on a used car. That's lower than my CU gave on new. The real question is what did you do to get your APR that low on a used vehicle?

I got 0% APR from Isuzu when purchased my Trooper in 2001.
That is a good thing. The bad side of 0%APR, you have to pay sticker price. And if I wait 6-7 months, Isuzu drop price for Troopers almost for 10K!
Any way I am happy. I love the Trooper.
LS model with huge sunroof, extended 6 year warranty cost me
$34.5K ($576 monthly).
For the future I will never buy a new car or truck.
Oh, no, may be another diesel Isuzu <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/kewl.gif" alt="" />

i also got the 0% , no money down deal from isuzu on my 02 rodeo ls it cost me around 26k at payments of 443 a month

they also had the troopers on sale(last of the inventory) they had 2 for sale foer around 22k

i still think i got robbed on the price

Congrats on the truck! Got any pics?

By the way - the best trick is to put your money into a house. I bought my current house for $300k, and selling it now for $450k. It might be more payments, but renting never gives you anything that appreciates or gathers equity.

To step that up, buy the house, have roomies move in!

I've found that all my frugality is always eclipsed by wise investments.

From what I see, zero financing gives you a higher price. They basically give it to you interest free, but dump all the interest you would have paid into the price of the vehicle. There are also loans out there (my brother in law has one) where you need to check the fine print--if he pays it off early, he pays the interest the loan WOULD have earned.

I just got lucky on lowering the APR on mine.

I had my bank agent find the vehicle and argue it down for me. I might have been able to get a better deal if I did it myself, but I can't complain as it was a lot of work to find what I wanted and she called all over the southwest.

I'm only paying $200/month rent now, so I'm going to stay here for a little while. I'm dumping money into investments where I can. Once I get more settled in life (read: post miltary/new stable job) I might try the housing trick, but that would have to be a second house since I have a family. But that is a digression off saving money on an Isuzu vehicle.

That's what I found too. I checked into a new Rodeo locally before buying the used RS. At the time the local Isuzu dealer was offering $5000 off MSRP or 0% financing. The DI Rodeo I was looking at was $26,xxx MSRP. That would have made it $21,xxx. A great deal if I was going that route. When I worked out the numbers it would have been cheaper to buy it for the lower price than take the 0% financing.

Funny, but the $5000 dealer rebate was a great bargaining chip in bringing down the proce of my used RS.