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The Perils Of Buying And Financing A Used CarWhenever a person buys or leases a car, he seeks ways to finance this move. Most auto financing involves a car loan, which entails a detailed check on his credit history and a tough interview about car finance. When he undergoes all these to buy a used car, it is only fair that he also performs his own investigations about the car he is going to buy. In fact, he should never consider buying a used car, which history has not been checked. If he does, he may just end up paying for a piece of junk. A used car must be checked for its title, registration, odometer, and the problems that it had weathered before it reached your eyes. A "title check" will determine if the car is salvaged, flooded or rebuilt. For example, many cars were destroyed during the 9 -11 World Trade tragedy. Many cars, too, were damaged during the hurricanes and floods. These cars were salvaged by enterprising people. The cars will be rebuilt and sold again at car auctions. A title check will also discover if the used car has lemon history. A "registration check" will determine if the used car has been used as a fleet car, or as a taxi, or even as a police car. If the used car has been utilized in any of these, then it is safe to say that within a given period of time, this particular used car has covered more miles than the average privately used car. A registration check will also reveal if the used car was ever rented or leased. The car's odometer is an instrument used to measure the distance traveled by a vehicle. An "odometer check" will show if the odometer has been broken or fraud. It will also show if it has been rolled back or rolled over. If the odometer has been tampered, this does not bode well for the next owner of the used car. The car may be older than what the dealer is telling you. Or it may have mileage problems. A "problem check" will determine if the used car has sustained fire damage or an explosion. It will also show if it has been involved in a major accident. The fire or accident may have inflicted a still undetected damage on the used car. It is also quite creepy to use a car that has cradled dead bodies before. A problem check will reveal if the car has been stolen. A car that has been stolen may no longer have all its original parts. A used car may give you more problems than you can manage. But not all used cars are damaged, leased or stolen. This is why there are still many people who take out car loans to buy a used car. To be safe, the potential buyer must order a vehicle history report. Other articles by this author »
About Peter Garant
Peter Garant is writing articles about bad credit for his credit repair kits blog http://creditrepairkits.blogspot.com/ and articles about car loans for his family finance site http://www.halds.com/category/car-loans/. Related
And here is another random article you might be interested in... 10 Ways To Find The Money Hiding In Your PaycheckNo matter how tight things are financially for you; no matter how bleak you think that 2005 might be, if you are earning a paycheck then there's extra money hiding in it. You just need to know where to look. Here are 10 ways to bring that money out into the open. 1. Get an instant raise from your boss Going in to work and demanding a raise might not be too smart, but there is a way to get one that will actually show up in your next paycheck. Here's the deal... Your employer withholds a percentage of your paycheck every week for income taxes. The problem is, most people have too much withheld. And, while that might result in a big refund check at the end of the year, it's really poor financial planning. You are deprived of that extra amount every paycheck and the government doesn't pay you interest for using your money all year. Here's what you do: Ask your payroll department for a new W-4 form. That's the form that your employers uses to calculate how much money to take out of your paycheck each week. Then use the IRS' withholding calculator at http://www.irs.gov/individuals/article/0,,id=96196,00.html Follow the simple instructions to arrive at the new amount that should be withheld. Then just complete the new W-4 and hand it back to your employer. Wham! Your instant pay raise will be in your very next paycheck! 2. Pay Yourself First! OK, you've grown fond of getting that fat refund check every year and now you're afraid that you are going to miss it. No problem! Here's a great way to get that refund and more. Take the extra money that your changed W-4 is providing you and instead of putting it in your pocket, or paying a bill, pay yourself instead. Open a savings account at http://www.OrangeAccount.com . Since they pay the highest interest rate of any online bank, and there are no fees and no minimum balance required to open an account, you can deposit that extra money every week. At the end of the year you'll not only have saved the same or more than your refund check usually is, but you'll have earned interest as well! 3. Chill out Turn your thermostat down in the winter and wear a sweater instead. For every degree you lower the thermostat you save 3% on your heating bill. The same holds true in the Summer. just raise your air conditioning one degree warmer. Want to save 6% instaed? Just make a 2 degree change! 4. Little things add up Do you really need that $3 latte every day? That's at least $15 a week that's back in your pocket if you drink just one every work day. If you eat lunch out every day, and spend even just $5 per meal (which is getting pretty hard to do these days), then bringing your lunch to work twice per week would give you back $10 and bringing it every day would save you $25. How much is that really? $10 per week is $500 per year, assuming you work 50 weeks per year, and $25 per week is $1250. 5. Get 'uncabled' Are you really getting your money's worth out of that top-tier cable subscription? If you've got more channels than you can possibly watch think about dropping down to basic cable. You could save as much as $30 per month and that's $360.00 per year. 6. Get a receipt for EVERYTHING Just do it for one month. Any time that you buy anything, get a receipt. Stuff them all in an envelope. Put copies of all your credit card bills, utilities, everything that you spend money on in the envelope. At the end of the month add them all up and look at where the money went. Then start slashing away at the fat until at least 10% of that money is back in your pocket. 7. Stuff It Every time you come home, empty all of the change from your pockets and purse that you accumulated during the day. Toss it into a big jar. At the end of the month put it into the bank. Even if it's just a dollar's worth a day, that's $365 per year PLUS interest. 8. Clip It Your Sunday paper, as well as thousands of web sites, are overflowing with grocery coupons. Clip the ones for food that you actually eat and avoid the ones that are for food that you don't. Saving just $10 per week at the grocery store is another $520 a year that comes back to you. 9. Snip It Get rid of all of you credit cards. They are the number one cause of personal bankruptcy in the U.S. Take a month's worth of credit card bills and add the interest up that you're paying. Then multiple that by 12. You'll be shocked at what your wasting every year by using your cards instead of cash. 10. Negotiate It Don't pay face value for anything that you don't have to. You may not get a lower price if you try to negotiate, but you darn sure will never get one if you don't ask. This is especially true when you are dealing with contractors, furniture stores, and carpet stores. Even a mall jewelry store might be willing to negotiate if sales are slow and quotas haven't been met. Don't think of each of these tips as 'only a few bucks'. The Rio Grand River is only a trickle at its source. Think of every dollar that you save as a 'money tree'. Plant it where it will do you the most good -- in your pocket instead of someone else's. Other articles by this author »
About Robert Dickson
Robert Dickson Related
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