Most customers are not familiar with
bad credit auto refinancing loans. Although it is not done nearly as often as auto financing or mortgage refinancing, it can be a way to lower your monthly payment by extending your current loan term or by lowering your current interest rate or both.
If the refinance rate is quite a bit lower than your current rate, you could actually pay off your car loan more quickly, although the main reason for a car loan refinance and a bad credit car refinance is to lower your monthly payment and take some pressure off your budget.
Bad credit borrowers, especially, don't think to try refinancing their car because they believe their poor credit will not qualify them for a bad credit car refinance. In many cases, this might not be true.
Here is one scenario in which a refinance would make sense: Two and a half years ago a buyer with bad credit took out a loan on a new Ford Fusion with a subprime lender, financing $16,500 for 60 months at 19% interest. The monthly payment for the loan was about $430. Two and a half years later, the buyer has a higher credit score (due, in large part, to on-time car payments) and an established car credit history. The amount owed on the car is $8,800 and the bad credit car refinance rate is now 10.5 %. If you refinanced for the remainder of the original term (30 months), the new payment would be $336 - saving you almost $100.00 a month in car payments. If you decided to refinance for 36 months, the payment would drop to $288 - another $50 less per month.
The other choice you have is to pay off the loan even more quickly. If you refinanced at the same rate and made the same monthly payment as before, you could pay off the loan in 23 months - paying off the car 7 months early and reducing your bad credit car refinance interest expense by almost $3,000 versus the original loan.