Unfortunately, most communities in the nation require a car for everything from getting to work to picking up the kids and on to shopping at the commissary. A car is necessary to a most households and military service members and their families are no different. By taking a military auto loan, you may be heading off high interest rates in exchange for quick processing and approval times and straight-forward and uncomplicated contracts.
Looking at Interest Rates and Other Benefits
Military auto loans are usually available at lower interest rates, due mainly to your job and income stability. A lender is pretty much assured of regular payments and can offer you more benefits. Among them are:
- Longer time to pay off the loan. – 100% car financing, no down payment. – Lower charges for taxes, licensing, origination and activation fees. – No collateral as the car itself becomes the security. – No prepayment penalty. – No U.S. domicile requirement, very handy if you are deployed overseas.
Flexibility on Credit Scores
Military auto loans usually have a lower credit rating benchmark than civilian loans. Most military auto lenders understand the precarious position of armed services members and understand that a military lifestyle makes some untoward demands that can result in lower than usual credit scores. Your credit scores will not be as important as the salary you make compared with your debt load. This debt-to-income ratio will be the final arbiter of how much you can borrow. Some lenders offer no credit check, military auto loans if you have particularly poor scores.
Flexible Repayment Terms
First of all, military or civilian, missing a payment is a high crime against yourself and your lender. But, you are in the military and sometimes because of deployments and relocation it can be difficult. Often lenders will allow postponement of payment or delay of payment due to financial difficulties. You will not find that with civilian loans. You can also consider giving Power of Attorney to your spouse or another trusted individual so they can make decisions and payments on your behalf. You can have the paymaster allot payments from your paycheck directly to the lender. Or you can have the payment automatically taken from your banking account. Of course, debit and credit cards, checks and cash are always acceptable. Read the full story
