Has anyone negotiated car loan pay off?

[Anonymous]

Hi,

I have 1 year left to pay off my car (5 yr loan, at 0%). Has anyone negotiated the payoff? What I mean is offer to pay the remainder of the loan in cash but ask to get a couple payments knocked off? It seems unlikely that they would do that? Anyone done this? advice?

Thank you.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Hi,

I have 1 year left to pay off my car (5 yr loan, at 0%). Has anyone negotiated the payoff? What I mean is offer to pay the remainder of the loan in cash but ask to get a couple payments knocked off? It seems unlikely that they would do that? Anyone done this? advice?

Thank you.

Why would they do that?

[Anonymous]

I am the PP. I guess I should be more clear- if they DID do that- your credit would take a hit - kind of like a short sale. You owe a certain amount of money. If you try to renegotiate and offer less, they can ding your credit for it (assuming that they even negotiate).

[Anonymous]

? You mean would they take less than you owe if you pay it off early? No.

[Anonymous]

I guess I don't understand why you would want to pay off a loan with a zero percent interest rate early. Whiskey Tango Foxtrot.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I guess I don't understand why you would want to pay off a loan with a zero percent interest rate early. Whiskey Tango Foxtrot.

Agree. It's 0%-- there's absolutely no benefit to paying early.

[Anonymous]

op here - thanks for the responses and clarifications about possible dinging of my credit score. part of me is tired of the monthly payments, that is the only reason I wanted to be done with it.
sometimes it is good to hear the obvious.
have a great day.

[Anonymous]

OP, go ahead and pay the remainder of the balance in full. You'll still be saving on interest and your credit will NOT get dinged.

It's just like paying off your mortgage or any other loan early.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP, go ahead and pay the remainder of the balance in full. You'll still be saving on interest and your credit will NOT get dinged.

It's just like paying off your mortgage or any other loan early.

Read the OP again. OP will NOT be saving on interest.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP, go ahead and pay the remainder of the balance in full. You'll still be saving on interest and your credit will NOT get dinged.

It's just like paying off your mortgage or any other loan early.

Op has zero percent interest (so no interest to save on) AND was proposing to offer LESS than what was owed to pay off early.

[Anonymous]

Generally speaking, when you want to pay off a loan (early), you call them and get the final amount and you pay it. There is NO negotiation. You signed a document saying you owe $X at Y%.

Since you have 0% interest, then you should know what the final balance will be, but I would call them anyway. And chances are, you have to send the final payment to a different address.

(Our mortgage was paid via bill pay, but the last payment, the payoff, had to be in cashier's check.)

[Anonymous]

If there was interest on the loan, paying it off early would mean you'd pay less overall.

But since you have a zero % loan, the only benefit to paying it off early is that you're done with it (as long as there is no prepayment penalty).

I'd call them and see if there is a penalty for early payment and if not I'd just be done with it.