Best time to refi?

I've only had the car for two months but my interest rate is 5.5% and I know that I can get lower and want while rates are still low. When is the best time to refi? 6 months? 12?

As someone who does auto refi loans, I'd say the best time is as soon as you can do it if it's going to save you money. Refi'ing an auto loan shortly after taking it out isn't uncommon if whatever lender you went with originally gave you a bad rate, so I don't think any UW would look askance at an auto loan that was only open two months or whatever and was paid off in good standing, and it's easily explainable if anyone does ask about it. If you're going to refi anyway, you would be taking the aging & inq hits at some point regardless, so I also think it also makes sense to do it as soon as you can from a scoring perspective, since those hits will then be gaining age as soon as possible. The exception ofc would be if you have a major credit app like a mortgage coming up, in which case you would probably want to wait until after that is done.

I think you'd have to crunch the numbers. Chances are it would be worthwhile to do the refi based on the information you provided. I see no harm in doing it sooner rather than later in terms of your CR.

I had a 6 year auto loan that I got at a horrific rate because the loan was barely approved on my dirty file. 2 years later on a clean file I could have refinanced to a top rate, but even though there were 4 years left on the loan I knew I was going to pay it off in 6-12 months. Based on that it wasn't worth the effort to refi.

Looks like 5 months is the right time. Went into Ent today to ask for the payoff address to refi to Affinity and they countered me by saying they'll just lower my rate to 3.7! Easier to do that than go through the pain of moving it to another bank. Even kept the same loan time instead of raising to 72 like I would with Affinity.

Great job on the APR reduction! I didn't know that was possible.

ToxikPH wrote: ↑Wed Dec 29, 2021 3:23 pm Looks like 5 months is the right time. Went into Ent today to ask for the payoff address to refi to Affinity and they countered me by saying they'll just lower my rate to 3.7! Easier to do that than go through the pain of moving it to another bank. Even kept the same loan time instead of raising to 72 like I would with Affinity.

Awesome! That's a major win-win. I haven't heard of a lender willing to revise the loan terms like that on the fly. Well done!

BrutalBodyShots wrote: ↑Wed Dec 29, 2021 4:13 pm

ToxikPH wrote: ↑Wed Dec 29, 2021 3:23 pm Looks like 5 months is the right time. Went into Ent today to ask for the payoff address to refi to Affinity and they countered me by saying they'll just lower my rate to 3.7! Easier to do that than go through the pain of moving it to another bank. Even kept the same loan time instead of raising to 72 like I would with Affinity.

Awesome! That's a major win-win. I haven't heard of a lender willing to revise the loan terms like that on the fly. Well done!

BECU does automatic loan repricing. https://www.becu.org/landing/loan-reprice They're the only FI I know of that does this. It does surprise me that Ent was willing to just drop the rate.

BrutalBodyShots wrote: ↑Wed Dec 29, 2021 4:13 pm

ToxikPH wrote: ↑Wed Dec 29, 2021 3:23 pm Looks like 5 months is the right time. Went into Ent today to ask for the payoff address to refi to Affinity and they countered me by saying they'll just lower my rate to 3.7! Easier to do that than go through the pain of moving it to another bank. Even kept the same loan time instead of raising to 72 like I would with Affinity.

Awesome! That's a major win-win. I haven't heard of a lender willing to revise the loan terms like that on the fly. Well done!

I'm sure it's only because I went in to ask rather than call. Didn't even take an inq!

Saeren wrote: ↑Wed Dec 29, 2021 4:46 pm

BrutalBodyShots wrote: ↑Wed Dec 29, 2021 4:13 pm

ToxikPH wrote: ↑Wed Dec 29, 2021 3:23 pm Looks like 5 months is the right time. Went into Ent today to ask for the payoff address to refi to Affinity and they countered me by saying they'll just lower my rate to 3.7! Easier to do that than go through the pain of moving it to another bank. Even kept the same loan time instead of raising to 72 like I would with Affinity.

Awesome! That's a major win-win. I haven't heard of a lender willing to revise the loan terms like that on the fly. Well done!

BECU does automatic loan repricing. https://www.becu.org/landing/loan-reprice They're the only FI I know of that does this. It does surprise me that Ent was willing to just drop the rate.

Oh this is hilarious. Checked BECU because of this link and they dropped my PLOC rate! Dropped from 12.4 to 10.4; makes me think I need to ask for more APR reductions.

Wow! This is incredible! I have a hard time thinking that Bridgecrest will drop my rate since they are badically loan sharks. Just days before a huge score jump I made a purchase at 8.5% - ouch! I can call, but they give all the payoff info on the ancient website (that offers bare minimum info), but I suppose it doesnt hurt to try.

I have been seriously contemplating a refi, but I really do not want another new account and plan on power paying the loan off in the next 6-12 months, so I am not sure it is worth all the effort and credit stuff to do it.

But, that aside, congrats on all these rate reductions! I really did not know this was a thing for these types of products!

ToxikPH wrote: ↑Wed Dec 29, 2021 5:32 pm Oh this is hilarious. Checked BECU because of this link and they dropped my PLOC rate! Dropped from 12.4 to 10.4; makes me think I need to ask for more APR reductions.

That's another nice score. Did they leave the APR on the card the same?

AllZero wrote: ↑Wed Dec 29, 2021 9:11 pm

ToxikPH wrote: ↑Wed Dec 29, 2021 5:32 pm Oh this is hilarious. Checked BECU because of this link and they dropped my PLOC rate! Dropped from 12.4 to 10.4; makes me think I need to ask for more APR reductions.

That's another nice score. Did they leave the APR on the card the same?

That I'm not sure, I PC'd my low apr card to the cash back card a month or two ago and I never checked the new rate.