2 years completed, 3 to go!

[shipo]

With the exception of Navy Fed SSL (Share Secure Loan), none of the CU products will let you pay ahead more than a month or so. You could try it anyway but the due date displayed in the CU software will change overnight back to the next month. If you do $3k at somewhere other than Navy Fed for 5 years, you will tie up that money for a long time. Many folks do the $3010 5 year SSL at Navy and then pay it down below 9% right away. You can't do that at other CU.

The terms of DCU for the Credit Builder Loan have a loan term of 12 to 24 months, a max of $3,000, and a 5% interest rate. Running an amortization schedule shows a 12-month loan of $3,000 works out to $81.87 in interest; hell, I've had credit cards with higher annual fees before we even get to the interest.

To me it sounds like too much trouble when KikOff makes it super easy to rinse and repeat every 12 months. But either way is better than losing a boatload of money on a newer/new car.

Not sure I understand that sentiment. If I buy a 3-year old CPOed car, the "boatload" of initial depreciation is already gone, and by financing it, I get to husband my savings for a down payment on a new home.

[flashoflight]

The terms of DCU for the Credit Builder Loan have a loan term of 12 to 24 months, a max of $3,000, and a 5% interest rate. Running an amortization schedule shows a 12-month loan of $3,000 works out to $81.87 in interest; hell, I've had credit cards with higher annual fees before we even get to the interest.

I'm not worried at all about the SSL loans. They are all fine except for the work involved trying to find a loan that will accept a 91% payback without making you pay the next month's payment and the bad customer service at some CUs. Some of the CUs have really,really bad customer service and makes me wonder if they're any better than big banks. My last SSL loan it took 10 days for a loan officer to call me back and a couple of days more to get my docusign.

Not sure I understand that sentiment. If I buy a 3-year old CPOed car, the "boatload" of initial depreciation is already gone, and by financing it, I get to husband my savings for a down payment on a new home.

That's still too rich for me but still heck of a lot better than brand new. Then again I will never finance an auto loan ever again. I'm looking for a mortgage refi too and I'll use the rebuilder installment loans for that.