What Is A Lease Buyout Loan?
There are several reasons you might have chosen to lease a vehicle rather than buy it outright. Some people simply like the feel of “new” cars or trucks, and leasing allows them to stick with vehicles which are never more than a few years old. Many leasing arrangements allow you to reasonable payments on a car or truck it would be difficult for you to afford to purchase off the lot. It also means very little maintenance or repair to worry about – by the time the vehicle needs more than an oil change, it’s time to move on to something new.
And yet, sometimes you end up falling in love with a car or truck and you want it to stick around. You never meant to get serious, but something about it just works when you’re together. Sure, you were both pretty up front about your original intentions, but now you’d like to renegotiate. You’d like your relationship to become… permanent.
Many leases have a buyout price calculated as part of the original lease. It’s based on the estimated value of the vehicle after the number of years agreed to in the lease. If the car is only a few years old, however, its value is still substantial, and you may not have the cash on hand to simply pay for it.
That’s where a lease buyout loan comes in.
Like any new or used car loan, a lease buyout allows you to spread out your balance over a period of years, generally at a fixed interest rate and regularly scheduled monthly payments. The terms available to you will depend largely on your current credit score and your credit history over the past seven years, with particular focus on your track record paying for any previous vehicle loans. Sometimes the leasing company will have financing for your auto lease buyout loan available themselves or lined up through a third party. If so, this is probably addressed in your original paperwork. Other times you’ll find it more beneficial to seek traditional sources for new or used car loans, or do some online auto loan shopping in hopes of finding particularly competitive rates and more flexible lenders.