Tips for Creating a (Better) Budget for Buying a Car

young man driving car in south west US

If you’re in the market for a vehicle upgrade, we’ve put together some helpful tips for you to start budgeting. We know that purchasing a car is a big financial and life investment that requires a multitude of factors including, saving for the car, putting down some money, making loan payments and maintaining the life of your vehicle. Today we discuss some tips that will help increase your budget in order to help with your used vehicle purchase, as well as some Phoenix buy here pay here options as well.

What’s Your Credit Score?

Knowing your credit score is useful information to have ahead of time. You will be able to take advantage of better loan opportunities with a favorable credit history. Having good credit will afford you lower interest rates and better terms, which in turn will lower your monthly payment and save you money. Not everyone has the benefit of a favorable credit history though, and that’s okay. At Drive Now, we have you covered, offering reasonable auto loans to consumers with poor or no credit history. If you are interested in finding out if you qualify, apply online.

Start Saving ASAP

Buying a car is an investment, and most people have to start saving ahead of the time of the actual purchase. One simple way to start saving is to carve out a portion of each paycheck you receive. Putting aside $50 or $100 each month will slowly add up, and help you when it comes time to make a downpayment on your vehicle. Most financial institutions make it easy for you to automatically transfer a portion of your funds each paycheck to a designated savings account. After a while, you won’t even notice the money taken out of your wages. This is a super efficient way to save up for your vehicle.

Consider How Much You Need for a Downpayment

A good way to lower your monthly vehicle payment is to put down more for a downpayment at the time of purchase. It’s simple: the more your down payment is, the less your monthly payment will be. The less your monthly payment is, the more money you will have down the line to take care of maintenance expenses like oil changes and tire rotations. This is a great time of year to purchase a vehicle because tax return payments come in during late winter and early spring. This tax season, use your return as means for your vehicle downpayment and reduce your monthly payments moving forward. Again, if you don’t have a lot of cash on hand for a downpayment, Drive Now offers as low as $500 down depending on the results of your finance application.

These tips will all help with your vehicle purchase at Drive Now. If you don’t have much money saved up to buy a used car outright or to put towards a big downpayment, you can still get a loan at one of our Phoenix buy here pay here locations. Visit one of our many locations, or browse our online inventory.