Cash always works good for me. If unavailable credit union pre-approval. With pre-approval it allows you the to negotiate harder, makes the dealer or seller no you are not messing around. One word of advice never tell them how much you are looking to spend on a bike, always deal as if you are paying cash on the spot.
Advice
- Thread starter leonm47
- Start date
R_W_B
Senior Member
IF the cash is available then this would be the best answer. However I assumed the OP did not have the cash. For most of my married life I (we) have always endeavered to pay cash when possible since this is paying YOU the interest instead of the bank. When we got our first car payed off instead of spending the car payment on something else, we put it in the bank and kept records of it so it stayed in the bank. All the while it was paying interest to US while it grew.
Then the next time we bought a car we paid cash. And even my wife's trailblazer which was $27,500 out the door, we paid $10,000 down and paid double on the payments at the front of the loan ( the rear is mostly principal). I can confidently say that with these practices (done also on our home) that over the years we have saved easily over $20,000 probably more.
In fact I would not be surprised if the $10,785 that I paid for my used 2007 Street Bob was totally returned by me taking my lunch to work for 35yrs as opposed to dropping $4 to $6 bucks a day buying it. Say if I saved $3 a day factoring in the cost of my took lunch. $3x52 weeks a yr x 5 days a week = 780 and that x 35 yrs = $27,300. Not bad.
And I don't won't to get off topic, but not even to mention all those 401K plans where the employer matches what you put in. I never could understand why anybody would turn those down. The part they match is a 100% return immediately. It's like the best deal on the planet. I know for a fact that I've made probaby somewhere around $60,000 of those not even counting the interest on the part I put in.
It pays to think smart.
DakotaRob
Active Member
Like several others have mentioned, local credit unions are very competitive. Also, if you have any military service, check out Pentagon Federal Credit Union and USAA... We've been customers of those two for years and their rates usually beat everyone else. Both offer great websites and online banking too.