DriveTime do your research

by Current Drive Time user
(Denver, CO, USA)

Visitor Review: DriveTime did not lie to me at all. They were very up front with what their business was, getting loans to people with poor credit. My car is okay.

I have not used the oil changes as there are no dealerships near me so I can't comment on that.

So bottom line, I should have done better research. I will end up paying nearly 3 times the blue book value for my car (at the time I purchased it).

I would not categorize DriveTime as a car dealer, but more of a private lender. They don't seem to have a great selection of cars, nor do they have a large presence for maintenance.

If I could go back, I would have saved the inflated payment I give them monthly, the large down payment I had to provide and kept the vehicle I traded in.

With that cash, I could have kept my car going with the necessary repairs and saved for an equal valued car in about 11-12 months.

I would have then paid cash for a vehicle or saved for a better one, either way paid CASH.

All that interest I pay them (some 20-25%) would be savings toward anything else (emergency car fund, vacation, paying other bills, reducing debt).

This is not a way to improve your credit. I have paid on time every month and it has not had a great impact at all on my credit. It of course has not hurt it, but don't think it will help your credit.

Do what I did not and truly help yourself. Save your cash and buy a nice car without wasted down payment money and interest. Take the bus, ride your bike, use light rail..anything in the short term.

Pay yourself the high monthly fee. If you can afford to pay it to them, you can afford to pay it to yourself. The fuel charges will cover your alternate means of transport.

Please help yourself avoid 2-3 years of being upside down on an average car. Learn from my poor planning and poor research.

I will tell you, saving and paying cash for the car you really want will feel tremendous. Paying cash won't help your credit, but honestly a high interest rate loan paid on time really does not either (I check my credit every month for the last 3 years...NO BENEFIT!!)

DriveTime does not lie, they have a niche business to get people with poor credit into marginal cars and they do that well.

Don't be that person, control your own finances. It sucks and hurts not to have a car, but if you can wait 12 months, it goes by fast. To have that money to purchase a car will be the greatest auto purchase you have ever done.

NO DEBT, NO INTEREST, YOU COME OUT SO FAR AHEAD...then you can really help your credit by using all that extra money to pay off other debt and not go into new debt.

That will get your head above water, that will get you feeling like you are not sinking into a stereotypical American struggling household.