Nothing is more frustrating or frightening than having your car break down when you don’t have the money to pay for the repairs. Thankfully, York Tire & Auto Service and many others know you need your car, truck, or SUV, so there are financing options available to you to help you pay for the repairs. Deciding on your auto repair financing should be a well-thought decision. Don’t just accept the first option blindly. Credit Karma suggests you consider a few things to keep you out of financial trouble once you’ve borrowed the money and had your automobile repaired.
Know Your Limits
Know your financial limits before you borrow any money from anybody. How much money do you have left over each month after you pay your bills? If you have a nice cushion that you stash into a savings account monthly, you shouldn’t need to borrow money to pay for your car repairs at all. If you are living paycheck-to-paycheck, which most of us are, you don’t have the wiggle room to add another bill to your pile. This is the first limit you must know. Can you add another bill to your pile that you must pay?
Know your credit limits, too. One way to pay for your automobile repairs is to charge them, but if you already have your credit cards pushing their maximum limits, adding to the balances will place you in deeper financial trouble. How much credit do you have on each card? What is the percentage rate on each card? For example, if you have one card that doesn’t have a balance but charges a high percentage rate, you will do better to charge your repairs on another card with a high balance but a low rate.
Financing
The point of knowing your limits is you figure out how much you can afford to pay each month when you borrow the money to fix your car. Maybe you can add another bill as high as $200 each month; maybe you need to keep the monthly payments $100 or lower. With this information in hand, you can shop for your automotive service loan or credit line and find the best option that fits within your budget. This protects your credit and keeps your stress level to a minimum.
York Tire & Auto Service in Red Lion, PA, works with Acima Credit to help our customers finance their automotive service repairs. Call us today if you’d like more information.
