financing a scooter

[Legend]

Has anyone here financed a Scooter before? Just wondering how the finance company treated you and how well they serviced the loan?

did you use the company that sold you the scooter to get a loan through or go thru. a local bank/credit union?

Thanks,

[nissanman]

Most scooter loans are serviced through a bank like Household or GE. Basically it's a credit card to use on a purchase for the scooter, they even send you the title while you're still paying on it. Every once in a while they get some nice promotions like low fixed APR or even payments (similar to a simple interest loan not credit card payments). Heck sometimes it's a no payments until whenever type deal

[Corsair]

You should probably try your bank/credit union first. I'm sure their rates will be way better than those of a financing company.

[scullyfu]

i financed my 2007 buddy through my dealer. they use alaska credit union and i got an 8% loan (i think, it was a year ago) on a two-year contract (again, i think), with no early payoff penalty.

they do a simple credit check; the kind that doesn't give your fico score a ding. it was easy as pie. i applied late one afternoon and had the answer the next morning. i thought 8% was a good deal.

[nissanman]

When Honda does their 6.9% where do you think they get it? It's a Honda credit card. Some credit unions will do ok rates on scooters... but some will force you to take the money as a personal loan which carries a higher rate. Motorcycles, boats, snowmobiles etc don't usually get the same "low" rates you see on cars or home equity etc because they are luxury items in the banks' eyes. I've found that very few "local" banks are interested in doing scooter loans too. With a little looking you'll find the right opportunity with a lender that's running some sort of promotion.

[jperkins]

I financed three of my scooters

two with GE- 18.9% interest, this sucked (paid them off in 6 months)

one with Sheffield- 8.9% Really happy with this one! The nice thing is they sent me a payment book. this gave me a realistic payment time table. they also did not put a lean on the title which was awesome.

I have heard that genuine has just stated offering this one. I used this for my KYMCO

[KRUSTYburger]

ok, y'all are gonna laugh:
I simply maxed out a couple credit cards to get my bud. Believe it or not my interest is lower than if I would have gotten a loan, plus I don't have to have insurance! HA!

[nissanman]

Sometimes the low rates on a credit card are better than loans from the bank. I'd still get insurance though just in case... if it gets stolen or destroyed by mother nature you'll have no scooter but still have the credit card bill to pay. In CT we have to register anything over 49.5cc as a motorcycle so Insurance is mandatory, not that I'm complaining I'd get it anyway.

[EP_scoot]

If you get those offers for 0.0% apr credit cards for 12, 14, 16, 18 months, that would be a good way to go. You need to be disciplined enough to pay it up during the promotional period so as to not incurr any interest charges. Good motivation to pay up !

[KRUSTYburger]

About half of it is NO INTEREST like you said... the other half is like 9% or something. Not half bad!

[Sunil]

I got a 0% interst credit card and managed to pay it off before the promotional period ended.

[justscooten]

i got a loan from my credit union at 4.9 % for 3 years about 105.00 a month for 3500.00 i had to come up with 300 out of pocket a credit union will only loan for the msrp of a scooter. my out the door was 3800 i had put 500 down to hold it and took the 300 out of that and the dealer gave me a check for the remaning 200.

[hcstrider]

I financed first Buddy through my dealer which was a 90 days no interest loan from GE Money FUNancing Network. I was able to pay off the loan within 90 days so it was an interest free loan. I don’t recall exactly what the interest rate would have been if I went beyond 90 days but it was high enough for me to be very motivated to pay it off before 90 days.

GE Money FUNancing Network appeared to be a professional company to work with: every month they sent a statement and the statements arrived in plenty of time for me to mail in my payment. For my final payment, I paid by phone just before my 90 days expired. It was a quick phone call: as I recall a person immediately answered the phone (I wasn’t placed on hold nor did I have to wade through an automated directory of options before I got to a person). The person who answered the phone was able to bring up my account information quickly and process my payment information quickly. This entire transaction took probably about 5 to 10 minutes.

For my second Buddy there were no financing promotions being offered at that time so I did not finance the second Buddy.

[Kurzer]

I have $1,200 left on my Buddy and haven't had a single gripe about GE Money Bank, they've been great. Once the Buddy is paid off, it's time to go get a Ducati 848

[Wiggins]

My girlfriend financed her Yamaha Zuma through Whatcom Educational Credit Union. She had no credit history, and two unpaid medical bills on her report (bills her father said he had paid) and she still got a loan for $1800 at less than 10%.

Talking to the scooter places when she bought hers and I bought mine they all said to check out the credit unions as the bigger banks do not like to finance scooters.

I decided in the end to just save my money and buy my Buddy outright.

Kyle

[pugbuddy]

I got a motorcycle loan through my bank (USAA) for my scoot. I pay $76.50 per month and it ends in June 2011 (6.99%). No problem with paying it off early if I so choose. They're a great institution and I've always had good luck with them.

[Wiggins]

Pugbuddy,

Do you use USAA for insurance as well? I am planning on using them to insure my Buddy after I get my endorsement, and was wondering if they had good rates on scooters.

Kyle

[nissanman]

USAA has good rates on everything

[Capt. Spaulding]

USAA does have good rates on everything, but unfortunately they won't insure scooters or motorcycles in Washington state. They do still cover both in some other states.

[pugbuddy]