Anybody ever use LightStream for used car financing?

[mmb617]

About 6 months ago I had a thread up whining about the fact that I couldn't get a low interest used car loan despite having good credit because the bank will only write those loans for vehicles not more than 7 years older than the current year and with less than 75k miles on them. I'm looking at Tahoes and only want to spend around $10k, so the ones in that price range do not meet the bank requirements.

Used car loans are currently at 3.25%, and although they wouldn't give me one of those loans they were willing to loan me the money at around 8%. I made up my mind I wasn't paying that.

Now the time has come when I'm about ready to buy this vehicle and I saw an ad on one of the car dealer's websites for LightStream used car loans. It said they write low interest loans for people with excellent credit. The first thing I did was make sure they were legit, which some browsing soon confirmed that they were. They are a branch of the SunTrust bank out of GA.

To make a long story short, they approved me for $10k @ 1.99% APR. Another thing that's nice about this loan is they do not hold the title and in fact will deposit the money in my account before I purchase the vehicle so I can shop with cash in hand. That way I can buy from a dealer or a private owner, and having the cash should be advantageous in the price negotiation.

I just thought I'd pass this info along as there may be others here who would like a low cost option for buying an older used car.

*** If I may, just a word to those who will want to give me a Dave Ramsey lecture about financing a 10 year old vehicle. I'm retired and could pull the money out of my IRA and pay cash instead, but that would have negative tax implications, and the money is earning a lot more than 1.99% where it's at now so it wouldn't be a good idea. ***

[eric5oh]

No lecture here. Some of the places for collector car financing are up there as far as interest rates. I've thought about this too, as I've come across some killer deals at the 'wrong time' and wondered how I could pull it off. I too, refuse to touch any of my annuity, retirement, or profit sharing plans. I tried my bank, as they were great for used car loans, but again, no older than 7 years old, and rates were 6.9+ At the time I found a MINT 2004 Lightning.

[85GT-79FJ40]

There's a few places out there that don't seem to have a problem with older car loans. One of my coworkers recently financed around $9k for a 95 M3 from nationwide. I couldn't believe he got a loan for that one.

[foxylady]

I just used them too . The process was pretty quick and simple. Everything was done electronically and once approved they funded the loan within 24 hrs

[Damon23]

So is sounds like a signature loan if they are not holding the title as collateral. Not bad rates especially for a vehicle being out of the norm. I'm already working on paying off out Challenger but in the future I'll look them up when it is time to replace the Excursion. SunTrust is a respectable bank down here.

[mmb617]

There's a few places out there that don't seem to have a problem with older car loans. One of my coworkers recently financed around $9k for a 95 M3 from nationwide. I couldn't believe he got a loan for that one.

Getting a loan wasn't a problem. Getting a loan at a good interest rate was another story. My bank wanted around 8% while LightStream did it for 1.99%.

I just used them too . The process was pretty quick and simple. Everything was done electronically and once approved they funded the loan within 24 hrs

Gald to hear from someone who's already had experience with them. Although I feel I checked them out pretty thoroughly you can't be too careful when handing out your financial information on the internet. I have mine set up to deposit the funds into my account on Jan 2 as I intend to make a couple road trips to check out potential purchases after the Holidays.

While researching them I found a website that had reviews of their service. Every rating was either 5 stars or 1 star, no in between. In reading the comments I saw that everybody who had been approved gave them 5 stars and all the 1 stars were from those who had been turned down. It was funny in a way because those who had been turned down often mentioned things that would indicate to me that they had less than stellar credit, yet they were complaining about not being approved. I think it says right up front they only approve people with excellent credit.

So is sounds like a signature loan if they are not holding the title as collateral. Not bad rates especially for a vehicle being out of the norm. I'm already working on paying off out Challenger but in the future I'll look them up when it is time to replace the Excursion. SunTrust is a respectable bank down here.

They actually emphasized not to list them as a lien holder on the loan saying it would just make more paperwork for both parties. I assume that by only accepting those with a proven track record of payment they can offer a good rate without collateral because those of us who pay our bills don't have to subsidize those who don't.