Getting pre-approved for coach financing

I don't know of a preapproval process but I know the apr I got from my rv finance company was pretty horrible. 6 months later I was buying something else and went to my credit union. Lady asked what my rate was. I told her she said oh my how about 2.9. I said yep. The downside was I went from 10 years to 6 years but was only few bucks more.

When we bought we went through a pre-approval process for our motorhome. Made it go a lot smoother and quicker when we actually went up and bought the motorhome. Signed the initial paperwork on Thursday of one week, contacted the bank where we were pre-approved, sent them sales document, and had the check in about two days (Fed-Ex overnight) and were able to pick up the motorhome the next week.

Do you need pre-approval - probably not. But it makes things go a lot quicker.

One reason for banks not to pre-approve is that the collateral is undetermined. They might loan you $500,000 or more on a new Prevost, but no where near that much on a new popup trailer. There are many moving parts on an RV loan. Term, monthly payment, age of unit, type of RV, down payment etc. Until you nail all of those down, you really don't have a loan to pre-approve.

We financed thru our credit union. The only thing they can really do ahead of time is run your credit to see what your score is. After that they need the rv details to check values before determining what amount they can loan you.

We found financing with the credit union very easy.

find your own loan company,the dealer gets a huge chunk if you borrow threw them.and you,ll get a lower rate.

In this day and age, loans get done in a matter of minutes. If you know you'll qualify, no need to worry. I've bought a lot of things over the years and the dealer will generally have the best interest rates if you have good credit. If you doubt it, get the rates from your bank and credit union and be prepared to challenge the dealer's rate. The dealer will always match or do better.

midnightsadie wrote:
find your own loan company,the dealer gets a huge chunk if you borrow threw them.and you,ll get a lower rate.

Maybe, maybe not.

Many times dealers can buy money cheaper than we can - it is up to them if they want to pass on the rate or a portion of the rate. Don't take their rate offer as cast in stone, and don't be afraid to negotiate that part of the sale too.

We had always arranged our our financing in the past, when we bought our last one the dealer was 1 point less than any other place we could find. Obviously we went with the dealer.

A good friend of mind is the finance manager at a local car dealership, he *always* gets us great rates. My last truck was at 1.67 percent through a local bank. Believe me, the banks have sales on money and want good customers too. In the cases where they pass the rate through they get paid an origination fee, so they get something out of it regardless.

Bruce Brown wrote:

midnightsadie wrote:
find your own loan company,the dealer gets a huge chunk if you borrow threw them.and you,ll get a lower rate.

Maybe, maybe not.

Many times dealers can buy money cheaper than we can - it is up to them if they want to pass on the rate or a portion of the rate. Don't take their rate offer as cast in stone, and don't be afraid to negotiate that part of the sale too.

We had always arranged our our financing in the past, when we bought our last one the dealer was 1 point less than any other place we could find. Obviously we went with the dealer.

A good friend of mind is the finance manager at a local car dealership, he *always* gets us great rates. My last truck was at 1.67 percent through a local bank. Believe me, the banks have sales on money and want good customers too. In the cases where they pass the rate through they get paid an origination fee, so they get something out of it regardless.

This is close to the way it actually works. Dealers and the lenders they use no longer allow the rate to be marked up customer by customer. There have been many lawsuits where dealers and lenders have been accused of marking rates up on the basis of race, gender, age etc. These lawsuits were either lost or settled by those dealers and lenders. While there may be a few independent dealers that finance customers themselves, and maybe a few high risk lenders who still allow rate markup, most dealers are limited to either making an origination fee or having the flexibility to mark up rate a percentage point at most. The bigger profit center for dealers' finance offices is selling things like extended warranties, paint, fabric and tire protection packages, security systems etc. Dealers must be competitive with all those other options, so they will most always be in the ballgame, rate wise. The exceptions would be if you have a Credit Union or a Bank who will finance you even though you appear credit unworthy to other lenders or you are using different collateral (i.e. a home equity loan to buy the RV).

For RV loans I don't think there is better than local credit unions. Going through dealers usually result in much higher interest.

When we bought our coach, the dealer asked if we wanted them to arrange the financing. We said "No, we will be going through XYZ Credit Union."
the dealer said "OH, OK, that's who we would have used as well, but if you already have an account there, we are good to go!"