Financing the 2022 Lightning Purchase - Add Your Options

[djteotancolis]

USE? I believe they locked us for 60 days.

Sorry! I meant Parsons.

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[ExCivilian]

Sorry! I meant Parsons.

I'm not that far along, yet.

I applied for membership late Friday. I followed that up with a call and confirmed that if I went to the branch in person membership could be processed immediately. I called this morning to inquire the status and ask the person whether she thought we should fight LA traffic. She said she could get everything handled in about 30 mins and shortly thereafter I had the docusigns in our inboxes. I called back and processed the $5 membership.

I just received a call from the person giving me my member info and how to access our online account. I then informed her that my truck is suspected of being delivered tomorrow instead of the 22nd we had previously discussed. I then asked if they would do the same thing as USE CU has done in the past, which is I buy the vehicle with cash and they finance the vehicle from me (send the amount of the loan to our account). She confirmed they would do that and advised me to get the loan process started online since it wouldn't make a lot of difference time wise for approval.

She also indicated a lot of the backlog is because they had a sizable COVID surge recently...and while I'm typing this I just received an email from my daughter's school alerting us to a direct exposure and CA's current procedures.

 

[gorwell]

Just bought my Truck Yesterday.

I had 2.6% rate going into my Purchase.

Ford Lightning rate is stuck @ a minimum of 5%.

But, once I got into the Financing Department, the guy had a random Credit Union pulled up w/ a 2.4% offer. I took it, they were synced w/ the dealer and made the purchase more streamlined. The low rate was b/c of how much I was putting down. the regular rate was 3.6%.

 

[RidetheLightning]

I'm currently trying for this 2.29 rate from Parsons but if you are in San Diego, or otherwise a state employee, you should check out USE Credit Union. They've been a great credit union over the decades with competitive, not always the lowest but lowest isn't necessarily best, rates.

Their current loan offerings are 2.44%.
https://www.usecu.org

I’m actually a USE member - they had a great bonus to open an account/get a referral but I hadn’t quite looked at their 72 month rate of as low as 2.64% for 72. I had been fixated on 84 months and am currently looking at advertised rates of 3.5% or under. But that 2.64%/72 might work too. Thanks for the reminder! Hopefully within a few days I’ll have 3 or more options to look at; since they’re all grouped together within 1-2 weeks it should count as just 1 inquiry on a credit report. Except that the Parsons thing has been drug out over a few weeks so that’s probably going to count as another one.

 

[RidetheLightning]

I'm currently trying for this 2.29 rate from Parsons but if you are in San Diego, or otherwise a state employee, you should check out USE Credit Union. They've been a great credit union over the decades with competitive, not always the lowest but lowest isn't necessarily best, rates.

Their current loan offerings are 2.44%.
https://www.usecu.org

Ok, here’s my financing update. I went with Parsons and got approved for 2.49% on 84 months but they wanted $25k down so I’m basically putting down the money for an economy CUV and financing the reset lol. Here was my thought process after spreadsheeting it. I don’t think of it exactly the same as most people do but here goes:

• USE was advertising 2.64% for 72 months. I applied as a backup to Parsons, but even if I got that rate, the monthly payment of course would be far higher than Parsons at 84 months with $25k down. Still not sure what I would get approved for at USE.

• If I got approved for the full amount at USE, I figured (since I have a high interest savings account that gets 3%) I had to calculate out the monthly difference between the lower Parsons payment and the higher USE payment and throw that in a compounding interest calculator to figure out the total interest plus opportunity cost of going with USE.

• I figured out the interest I would be losing on the down payment at Parsons at that same 3% over the loan term and added the interest to the Parsons loan term. It came out as about equal “opportunity cost + interest” between USE and Parsons

• Any other alternative at 3.5% or higher for 84 months just wouldn’t make any sense, it was down to USE and Parsons

• Parsons won partially because I keep better DTI if I need another loan at any point. You could say that I could invest my Parsons down payment in the market for better than 3% but that’s not what I would do with it. I can always dollar cost average back into the market with the lower monthly cost with Parsons if I want to make more over the 7 year term. If I run into a real emergency, I can sell other investments or even the truck itself, but I do have a decent emergency fund otherwise.

Anyway, short story long, but hope that thought process helps others.

 

[RidetheLightning]

In the meantime, I applied to Allegacy for their advertised rate of “as low as 3.29% for 84 months”

Allegacy update: they are very Chex sensitive and inflexible when you explain that you are applying to different credit unions for different auto loans. I also recently opened a new personal and business checking account with 2 new banks so that may have something to do with it as well. They basically will sacrifice their loan business if you have too many recent bank accounts. How many is too many? Who knows. Anyway, could be a decent option for some if you want 3.29% on 84 months . . .

The auto loan advice articles out there say that you should apply for as many auto loans as you can to get a lot of quote to compare, but I guess there’s a mystery number of recent credit union applications that can create financing problems for you.

 

[Ruination]

Quick update on Parsons: after I submitted the final documents to them, which was last Wednesday, I called them on Friday and asked about the status. They said it usually takes 2 to 3 days with how backed up they are. I called them this morning and they said they were “inundated” with loan requests and it was in underwriting so would be 72 hours more from today. So almost 6 working days from when you apply - be prepared. I still have no idea what the actual approved rate will be.

oof. Meanwhile my truck is just sitting there on the lot.

 

[newF150]

Here's my update for account opening with Parsons CU.

Got a call as well as email from a rep, missed the call but essentially the email was instructions on registering for an online login.
Completed registration and logged in. I am able to see my account along with the deposit for the initial account opening. All told, this took about 5 days including the weekend.

I'll keep everyone apprised of my loan process once I initiate it. I think I'll plan on starting the process my build week which is 8/22.

 

[RavenYZF-R6]

I’ve been working on a parsons loan for some time now. Terrible customer service is right. I’ve left three messages and called almost daily trying to reach anyone to help process my loan for two weeks.

Applied 8/1 for an account. Tried calling to finish set up and they said to wait until I was called. I had applied for a loan as soon as I finished applying for the account.

Finally finished the account set up 8/5. Sent off pay stubs to get loan going. A gal emailed telling me to finish my acc set up before they could do the loan so I sent her the stubs.

I emailed the same gal on 8/12 asking for help with the loan and she said someone tried to reach out about a down payment but I didn’t have any missed calls or voicemails.

Even calling the loan department they just transfer me to the same guy. I’ve left him messages as well.

Maybe next week I’ll get through….

 

[monsterlag]

Anyone have a recent rate from ford? My CU just quoted 3.25 for 72 months

Was quoted 4.9% for 72 months with Ford with 800+ credit on August 2nd. Went with a local CU for 1.99% for 75 Months.

 

[bryan995]

Anyone have a recent rate from ford? My CU just quoted 3.25 for 72 months

I am picking up tomorrow with an option contract. Ford offered me 8% APR lol.

CU gave me 1.99% 0 down 60 months (CAFCU from the promotion a few weeks ago)

parsons was at 2.29% 15% down 66 months.

btw parsons has horrendous customer service. Don’t even bother with them.

 

[4Reeley]

I'm not super far along w/Parsons but when I set up my accounts online I was immediately provided a member number (copy it from the confirmation screen, you won't see it again) which let me apply for the loan. I applied for the accounts Friday, loan on Monday, received communication on Tuesday requesting paystubs/etc. for the loan, Wednesday the membership folks called to help me set up online account access. Seems things are moving but again, I'm not that far along with the loan yet. They are communicating in what seems to be a reasonable manner though, and I haven't had to proactively reach out to anyone yet.

 

[SmokingtheMeats]

My current rates at my credit union just soared. They are over 4.6% for 60 months and over 5% for 72-84. A month ago they were 3.24%. With my blend date of 09/01, I really need that to drop a little, and fast.
With all the issues with parsons I’m reading, I’m hesitant on moving forward with that

 

[metroshot]

My current rates at my credit union just soared. They are over 4.6% for 60 months and over 5% for 72-84. A month ago they were 3.24%. With my blend date of 09/01, I really need that to drop a little, and fast.
With all the issues with parsons I’m reading, I’m hesitant on moving forward with that

Yah I know, it's crazy!
PenFed CU jumped to 7.04% which is insane considering Ford's standard rate and the big banks are just the same...

You can always use the dealer's finance and then refinance.

 

[jpepper07]

Yah I know, it's crazy!
PenFed CU jumped to 7.04% which is insane considering Ford's standard rate and the big banks are just the same...

You can always use the dealer's finance and then refinance.

How do these work? Do they only refinance? Is that because they are trying to under cut competition and feel that if a bank trusted you then they can?

Are they to be trusted? I always feel sketchy with the rando lending companies I see.

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