I bought a slightly used van for our family last weekend. It was $31k out the door, I paid $23k cash but had to finance the other $8k. The best financing I could find (local credit union) was 2.68% APR for 36 months. Last time I bought a car it was 1.49% for 48 months. So I said screw that, and I put the $8k on a credit card (2% cash back). Then I opened a new Citi card that offers 21 month 0% interest on balance transfers (with a 5% transfer fee) and I transferred the $8k over. My plan is to wait until the end of the 21 months and pay if off then. When you account for the 2% cash back, the total loan is costing me 3%, or $240.
By my calculations (done after the fact), I would have paid $335 for that auto loan, so I saved ~$100. I thought it would have been more.
Anyway, I'm wondering... Are there are any unforeseen (by me) reasons this was a bad idea?
Submitted September 06, 2018 at 11:11AM by sdguero https://ift.tt/2CsvI5q
