Tips on Getting a Used Auto Loan with Bad Credit

More and more people are coming to realize the benefits of buying a used car. If you’ve decided the same, you have definitely made a smart decision. The fact of the matter is you can purchase a car that is almost as good as a brand-new one and save up to 50% off the original price. Even cars less than two years old can be up to 30% cheaper than new cars.

Obviously, there are other reasons to buy a used car: save money on insurance, certified used cars are available, traceable history, and typically a less stressful negotiation process. In order to buy used cars, many drivers choose to apply for a used auto loan. However, there is one thing that might prevent them from buying the car of their dreams – bad credit. With a bad credit, your options as a potential buyer are greatly limited, as most banks and traditional finance companies prefer to help out only those with a good credit score.

The good news is that Wayne Westland Federal Credit Union can help you finance your next car purchase. Here, you can easily apply for a loan and get the best deals. If you also get pre-approved, you have even more chances to find a great deal. In order to buy a used car with bad credit and save as much as possible, there are some things you can do.

Optimize your Credit Score

First of all, you can take some practical steps to improve your credit score. Order your credit reports from all three credit bureaus: Equifax, TransUnion and Experian. Next, verify that all information is accurate. It is not unusual for these credit agencies to make mistakes that could hurt your credit rating. Additionally, make sure to pay off small judgments and past-due accounts. Nothing can impact your credit score more than nominal reports. Lastly, ensure that you wait at least 6 months after cleaning up your credit report before applying for your loan.

Prepare a Budget

Another practical step you can do to get the best deal on a used auto loan is to set up a budget. List all your expenses and revenues and then compare these two. This way, you will know whether you can afford a loan. Otherwise, you might endanger yourself and your credit.

Save For a Down Payment

If you have bad credit, it is quite difficult to get a loan approved. However, if you can put down at least 10% of the car’s value, you might get a much better deal.

Negotiate the Price

Once you find a nice used car that meets your needs, sit down with the manager or with the salesperson and negotiate the price. If you are good at negotiating, you just might save up to 10% of the original price.

The Bottom Line

Used auto loans are becoming increasingly popular nowadays. If you live, work, or worhsip in Westland or Wayne, MI, and you need a used auto loan for your next purchase, do not hesitate to contact Wayne Westland Federal Credit Union.

Auto Loan Financing

The decision to buy a new car will probably be one of the most important financial milestones in your life. In addition to the investment of money, you will spend a great deal of time looking for the right vehicle that caters to your needs. Similarly, you also need to spend time when looking for auto loans. You need to choose the right auto financing option in order to get the peace of mind that your investment is being cared for in a professional manner.

Some of the benefits of working with a professional& experienced auto loan organization that offers online auto loans are:

* All the Information you Need: a huge plus of shopping for an auto loan is the large amount of information posted on official websites. This information should be sufficient to help any member decide which option is the best for him or her. From household budget tools to credit score information and loan calculators, all of this online information can be a game-changer for many buyers.

* Easy Quotes: customers looking for automotive financing options in Westland and Wayne, Michigan can easily find the best deals online. Traditionally, it takes a lot of time to call each and every lender and ask for a quote. Thanks to technological advancements, you can easily enter Google and check for “financing options in Westland” or “car loans in Westland” and find the best deals for you.

You can start shopping having a particular price in mind. After you figure out what kind of payments you are able to make on a monthly basis and you research the cars available for you, you should be able to decide how much money you need to borrow. Next, you should look for a well-established Credit Union that offers reasonable monthly payments and interest rates. Most big lenders and major financial institutions have higher interest rates and strict rules, so try to stay away from them.

* More Bargaining Power with the Car Dealers: lastly, you have more control of the negotiation process. Armed with a pre-approval for your car loan, you have more bargaining chips at your disposal, so you can save even more money when looking for a new car. Of course, you will also save money on gas, because you won’t have to physically drive around town to find the best deal out there.

The Bottom Line

A professional, experienced and well-established Credit Union can offer you peace of mind and can help you save money when shopping for auto loans online.Wayne Westland Federal Credit Union offers reliable and affordable auto loans services in Westland and Wayne, MI. Do not hesitate to leverage our experience and expertise and let us give you the best possible deal on exactly what you want.

Avoid ID Theft When Job Searching

Looking for a job? You should also be looking out foridentity thieves.

You want to be thorough on your résumé when you’re looking for a job. But here are a few things you should NOT include on your resume, according to the Identity Theft Resource Center. You can provide any of these things to potential employers later in the process if they request that you do so:

• Social Security or taxpayer ID number
• Date of birth; age; sex; marital status
• The year you graduated; your schools’ names
• Professional license number
• Disabilities
• The reason you left a past employer
• Hobbies
• Driver’s license number

Edison’s Tips to Thinking Creatively

Creativity isn’t just a talent; it’s a habit you can – and should – cultivate and grow. Learn how to develop your creative muscles from the genius of invention, Thomas Edison:

1. Question all assumptions. Don’t accept the conventional wisdom without first examining and challenging it. It’s said that Edison, when hiring a new employee, would invite the person to have some soup with him. If the candidate salted the soup before tasting it, he didn’t get the job—because he assumed it would require salt without testing the theory first.

2. Generate as many ideas as possible. The more ideas you have to test, the more likely you’ll find one that works, as long as you keep at it. Edison is reported to have conducted more than 50,000 experiments before perfecting the alkaline storage cell battery.

3. Analyze your failures. When an experiment fails, take some time to consider what you can learn. Keep detailed notes so that when an idea works, you can go back and reexamine your efforts in light of your success.

4. Adapt other ideas. Edison often used the inventions and ideas of other people as a mental springboard. Keep up with what’s going on in your organization and industry—what people are doing, where others have failed. Look for ways to take policies, systems, or ideas that are already working somewhere else, and turn them into something you can use in your own department.

5. Record all your ideas. Keep a notebook for writing down ideas whenever they occur to you. Go back over the notebook regularly, looking for connections between ideas or new ways of thinking about the same problem.

Planning an Affordable Family Vacation

Travel expenses can take a big bite out of your budget, but the Michigan Association of CPAs advises that there are many ways to make your vacationdollar go further.

Search for Deals

Don’t miss out on the many online opportunities to find great bargains. You can use online travel sites to search for the lowest airfare, hotel rates, and car rental, as well as entertainment deals. It’s a good idea to check specific airline sites, too, because they may be advertising specials that aren’t included on the bargain sites.

Pick the Package

Before booking any segment of your trip, check out packages available from airlines or hotel chains. It’s often possible to find low-priced packages that include both hotel and airfare, and admission to local attractions, as well. However, remember that packages may not always be the cheapest deals. Examine the details and make sure that what you’re getting is worth what you’re paying.

Be Flexible

Uncertain exactly where you’d like to go? Then plan your trip around the best deals available. Sites that specialize in low-cost travel usually advertise specials to certain locations, as do many airlines. If the location sounds like somewhere you’d enjoy exploring, you could save a great deal on your trip.

Choose a Destination Location

Want to save money during your vacation on gasoline and admission costs for various attractions? Pick a hotel that has a pool, playground, nearby hiking, or other on-property activities. In addition, many hotels offer suites with their own kitchens. While these may cost more than regular rooms, the savings on restaurants may more than offset the higher price.

Explore the Great Outdoors

Camping is not only a fun family activity, but it’s also a cheaper way to travel. There are campgrounds and cabins at national and state parks that offer an inexpensive way to explore these locations. Outdoor vacations are a great departure from the usual routine and make it possible to get away from the television and computers. And in many cases, they are much less rustic than you might imagine. There may be cabins available at some sites, as well as water and electricity hookups.

In addition, getting in touch with nature may not be your only option when you camp. Disney World, for example, has campgrounds that can lower the price of what might otherwise be a fairly pricey vacation. You may find campgrounds near other theme parks or attractions, so don’t limit your search to hotels when looking for accommodations.

Head South

If you’ve dreamed of taking a vacation in the Caribbean or Mexico, summer is a great time to do it. That’s because summer is considered the off season, and many resorts offer promotions that feature great rates. If you’ve assumed you couldn’t afford a sunny resort locale, double check to see if prices are lower than you thought at this time of year.

Consult Your CPA

Your local CPA has many great ideas for cutting costs in various aspects of your life. Turn to him or her for advice on any of your financial needs.

This article was submitted by the Michigan Association of CPAs (www.michcpa.org).

Turn Retirement Dreams into Reality

Have dreams about retiring early? We have some tips on how to make that dream a reality.

According to the Michigan Association of CPAs, retiring early takes meticulous planning and more than a tidy sum of money, but for the truly committed, early retirement is possible. Here is what you need to do if you desire an early escape from the work world.

Envision Your Retirement Years—One of the biggest challenges that retirees face is determining how much they need to save by the time they hope to retire. The further away you are from retirement, the more difficult the task. CPAs and other experts say you need somewhere between 70% and 80% of your pre-retirement income to maintain your standard of living. This rule of thumb is helpful for starters, but it doesn’t consider that the amount of money you’ll need in future years depends, to a great extent, on the retirement lifestyle you plan to lead.

Make The Most of Retirement Savings Opportunities — Perhaps the best way to prepare for an early retirement is by taking full advantage of 401(k) plans or other employer-sponsored, tax-deferred retirement plans. These plans make it possible for you to invest pretax money for retirement directly from your paycheck and, as an added bonus, many companies will match part, or even all, of your contributions.

If you’re self-employed, you can create your own retirement plan by opening a Keogh account. Even if you work for another company and are covered by a retirement plan, you can use a Keogh plan to shelter self-employment income you may earn from consulting or freelance work.

Traditional and Roth IRAs offer additional opportunities to build your retirement nest egg. Eligible workers can contribute to an IRA even if covered by a 401(k) at work. In certain cases, your IRA contribution may be tax deductible and, in all cases, there is no tax on earnings inside an IRA until the money is withdrawn.

Reduce Expenses to Build a Surplus — Retiring early is an aggressive act that requires not only intense saving, but a serious willingness to live below your means during the wealth accumulation phase of your life. Are you willing to replace expensive restaurant meals with dinners at home? Are you ready to lower your housing costs by trading down to a smaller home? The more fat you can trim from your budget, the more you can invest toward achieving early retirement.

Become an Astute Investor — It’s important to be vigilant about the allocation of the assets in your investment account. The biggest mistake you can make with retirement savings is to play it too safe. The longer you have before you retire, the more you should invest in stocks which offer growth potential. Stocks may be considered risky because they are more volatile in the short term but, over time, stocks typically outperform other investments. Your challenge is to achieve a reasonable balance between risk and reward.

Consider Your Future Insurance Needs — Right now, you probably have health, disability, and life insurance coverage under your employer’s group policy. In fact, your employer probably pays some of the cost of this coverage. When you retire, at the very least, you will need to replace your health insurance with a new policy that will carry you to age 65 when Medicare kicks in.

Enlist Help — Retiring early necessitates far more than a desire to call it quits before reaching your normal retirement age. It requires a knowledgeable look at the lifestyle you envision and the resources you have to fund your future. A CPA can be a valuable resource for would-be early retirees. He or she can help you work out a spending and investment plan that considers your retirement goals, current resources and investments, and future sources of income, as well as taxes, inflation, interest rates, and other components that factor into your plan. The sooner you make an appointment with your CPA, the sooner you’ll be on your way to achieving early retirement.

This article was submitted by the Michigan Association of CPAs.

Preparing Your Car for Winter

From a mechanical aspect, winter conditions – wet, cold and icy weather – present the greatest challenge to your vehicle’s operating efficiency. Since these conditions cannot be avoided, prepare for winter by performing a complete vehicle checkup in the fall. Check, or have your mechanic check, the following items:1. Electrical System

1. Battery – Have your alternator or generator, voltage regulator and drive belts checked also.
2. Ignition System – Damaged ignition wires, a cracked distributor cap or worn spark plugs can make starting difficult or may cause a sudden vehicle breakdown.
3. Lights – Make sure all your lights and lenses are clean and functioning properly. Grime on headlight lenses reduces their effectiveness by as much as 90%.

2. Brake System – Have your breaks checked regularly and do not delay any necessary maintenance or repairs.

3. Tires – Make certain your tires are properly inflated and in good condition. While it is best to purchase tires in sets of four, if you only purchase two, mount them on the rear wheels.

4. Exhaust System – Have a mechanic check your exhaust system for leaks in order to minimize the chances of carbon monoxide poisoning. If your car is stuck in the snow and you have the engine running, open a window slightly and clear snow away from the exhaust pipe.

5. Heating & Cooling System – Make sure your vehicle’s cooling system contains enough antifreeze to prevent freezing in cold weather. Keep the mixture fresh by changing it regularly and having the entire system checked for leaks.

6. Windshield Wipers, Washer, Glass & Vehicle Exterior – Clean windows offer optimal visibility. An antifreeze washer solvent should be used in the water reservoir bottle.

It is also recommended that you have a winter driving kit in your vehicle. The following items will be invaluable should an emergency develop:

• Bag of abrasive material (sand, salt or cat litter)
• Small snow shovel, snow brush and ice scraper
• Traction mats
• Flashlight & extra batteries
• Window-washing solvent; cloth or paper towels
• Booster cables; warning flares or triangles
• Gloves or mittens and blanket
• Cell phone

Compliments of AAA.