Automotive Journal

No one has a lot of time to get a car loan. There are a few ways you can lessen the amount of time it takes to get a car loan.

Whether your credit is bad or good, you can benefit from these five time-saving tips:

1) Collect all the necessary paperwork. Be sure to include a paystub, which will prove your income. A recent electric, phone, or cable bill should be included to show your residence. If you have filed bankruptcy and/or have collections or other credit issues, find all that paperwork as well. The last thing you must be sure to do is to include any paperwork dealing with problems arising from a messy divorce. All of this paperwork should be gathered together and taken with you when you go to see a lender to prevent you from having to make several trips.

2) Most loan applications ask for three or more personal references, friends or relatives that do not live with you. Don’t be one of those people who scrambles around looking for the name, addresses, and phone numbers of their personal references while they are filling out their application. Write down their information beforehand, and you will save a lot of time when you complete your loan application.

3) Most lenders will verify your employment by calling your office manager, boss, or your company’s human resources department. If you tell whomever is in charge of employment verification that an auto lender is going to call them, they will be able to quickly provide accurate information to the bank.

4) If you have a trade-in, find out your exact payoff. Many times when people apply for an auto loan, they estimate their trade-in payoff. The trouble with estimating your payoff is that your new lender may use your estimate as an exact value. If your payoff is actually substantially higher than you estimated, your loan may need to be re-approved for a higher amount. If your payoff is lower than you estimated, your interest rate might be higher than it should be. Save everyone some time (and yourself some money) and find out your exact payoff before you apply for a new loan.

5) Be as accurate and truthful as you possibly can. You may be required to list former residences, former employers, etc. when you fill out your credit application. Accurately listing this information on your application will lead to faster processing. Don’t lie on your credit because, more than likely, your auto lender will find out and then check every other aspect of your credit. This will considerably slow your application approval or cause your application to be turned-down.

Next time you apply for a car, follow these five tips for fast and efficient car loan processing.