Different between unsecure and secured car loans
What is the real difference in cost and conditions between car loans that are secured or a unsecured personal loan and how that difference affects their finance and their repayments. The car loans terms can be only minor, but is superior when the true cost of each is taken into account.
Understanding secured and unsecured car loans in detail can be useful in saving money but, let’s first have a look at the a range of components that determine the cost of your loan and of your monthly repayments. The coat of the finance is the total you repay less the loan amount borrowed. Hence, let’s say you are repaying $20,000 at 12% interest rate over 36 months; you will pay back at the rate of $664.29 per month. That would total a repayment of $23,914.44, and the cost of the loan would be $3,914.44 plus any set-up or administration fees. A online calculator will helps you get car loan payments for free online.
Hire Purchase
An substitute to a car finance would be a hire purchase (HP), where you hire the car over the repayment period and receive the title to the motor car with your final payment. Until then the car belongs to the HP company.
Secured Car Finance
However, most loans are either secured or unsecured, and not all lenders offer unsecured or personal loans so let’s consider secured loans first. Secured car finance is one whereby the lender offers the loan with the car as security. If you fail to make payments, the lender can sell the car to recoup their money. With a strong application it is still possible to get secured car finance when a used car gets older, often 7 years, but the car finance term or loan term may be requested to be shorter than the standard 5 years or not at all by using your home or some other form of security. These however are not strictly classed as car loans. It is generally the car that is the security.
Car Loans Extras
Secured car loans can include on-road expenses such as the registration, insurance to protect you against disability,death or unemployment and comprehensive auto insurance as part of the financing deal. Loan insurance makes sure that the finance is paid off in the event of your death during the loan period, and comprehensive car insurance is needed to make sure that the car is in good condition should it be needed to repay the lend in the event of you defaulting on your payments.
This might all sound like doom and gloom, but these are conditions you see with most secured car loans, not only car loans. You can normally have a secured car loan over one to five years, and the interest rate will be lower than that for an unsecured car finance where the lender charges extra to compensate for their added risk. If you put deposit or trade amount off the finance this will lower the repayments, or a shorter term, whichever you prefer.
To reduce payments a balloon might be a valid option, which is like a deposit in reverse, payable at the end of the period. This is popular by those whose income will increase over the period, and they will be in a better financial position to pay a lump sum in 3 - 5 years time. This too results in either a cheaper repayment per month or a shorter repayment term.
Car Loans Interest Rates
If you are buying a used car, your car loans interest rates can be priced very differently according to the loan company and the age of your car. Many will charge higher car loan interest rates, and the current credit problem has changed the outlook of many lenders to unsecured car loans in particular. Many no longer offer unsecured loans due to the increased risk in the current economic climate.
Car Finance Rates
However, they are still available, and some online brokers can put you in touch with a choice of lenders that are still willing to offer you an unsecured car loan. In addition to the car finance rates, you should also compare the fees charged, since they can involve a considerable outlay for you before you get the loan.
The most important differences between secured and unsecured auto loans, therefore, can be summed up as:
Secured finance are cheaper to repay, with usually lower interest rates.
Secured loans demand fully comprehensive car insurance, while unsecured loans do not.
Both finance packages could require death insurance cover for the finance, but secured loans are more likely to.
You can sometimes include comprehensive insurance, registration and other costs in the secured loan, but with an unsecured car financing you must include the the outlay on top of the amount borrowed.
Fees for unsecured auto loans can be significantly higher than for secured car finance.
Not all lenders will offer unsecured auto loans.
There few doubts that if your vehicle is young enough to be given a loan with the car as security, then that should be your option. You might be able to arrange a secured finance for an older car with your house as security, but you will have to make sure to maintain the loan repayments since lenders are becoming unsympathetic in the current economic climate.
