You feel like buying a rather expensive car this summer. But there is a problem. You are not a wealthy guy. Do not despair. You have a choice of a range of best deals on offer in the automotive market, popularly described as zero percent finance for cars. How does this work and are they really for you?
Scenario
Almost all car dealers who offer a zero percent finance, have a sales plan in place. They will have outlined a profile of the prospective customer. Quite obviously, a major criteria would be that the customer should have a good credit standing. SO, normally such offer will be made to existing customers. New customers would be judged for credit background on several parameters like, income, location of the customer, employment or business status, or even the assets that the customers own. For obvious reasons, credit term is usually shorter than the normal regular interest credit scheme, often below 2 years. It will result in higher EMIs (equated monthly instalments).
Terms
EMIs always change in inverse proportion to duration of the loan - shorter the term of credit, the higher the amounts payable per month and the longer credit period, the smaller amount to be paid per month. Ironically, if you opt for a longer duration you will end up paying more amount simply because interest rate is induced for a long period of time. You will find that you will have paid more than 20 times the retail price. Also, failure to pay the monthly payables of the zero percent credit term will result in higher interest after that as a penalty for not paying on time. In such eventuality, you will actually end up paying higher than the amount paid under zero percent because of the interest and other penalty charges.
Finally, the the car is priced higher than cash down value. For example in a zero percent scenario, the car is offered at say $100,000 on display for 2 years to pay having a monthly payable amount of $4,166. The $100,000 price is actually still higher than the actual value of the car. The car dealers usually know that the car value is only say $70,000 but if offered at zero percent credit, they would price it at $100,000.
Conclusion
From the foregoing you will wonder, and rightly so, what advantage does zero percent finance car give you the as the customer. On the other hand this is certainly a good marketing strategy for auto dealers. And it will definitely help those who can afford the terms because it always better than paying longer credit period. So, the zero percent finance car is a good marketing strategy for the car dealer. It is also beneficial for the customer who can afford it.
