While buying a used car you can not only save thousands of dollars in depreciation, taxes and factory costs, but also wind up spending more on your financing. As new car manufacturers lure buyers with 0% interest rates and no-money-down offers, it’s hard to find a better deal when you’re purchasing a used vehicle.

If you’re planning to buy a used car, keep reading for some financing tips that will save you money.

1. Shop Around for a Better Rate

If you need to obtain financing for your used car purchase, try shopping around for the best rate. While the dealership may often offer you a good financing option, you should to check with your bank and other lending institutions to see if they can do better.

Other car financing options that may get you a better rate include a line of credit, which can sometimes be as low as 5%, or simply offer a low-interest home equity line of credit loan from your lending institution.

A slight drop in the interest rate can save hundreds – sometimes thousands – of dollars over the life of the loan, so this is a worthwhile investigation.

2. Be Ready to Walk

If you’re obtaining financing directly through the used car dealership and you’re not happy with the offered rate, be ready to politely walk away from the deal. Most dealerships would rather lower their interest rate by a half point or full point than see a potential sale walk through the exit door – especially in tough economic times like today when gasoline prices are so high and car sales are low.

Additionally, if you are able to wait until the end of a month to buy from a dealer, you may have some additional leverage with salesmen who are under pressure to meet a monthly or quarterly quota.

3. Pay in Cash

The best way to save on financing costs is to avoid financing and credit all together. If you can do it, pay in cash.

Let’s say you’re buying a five-year-old Civic for about $10,000 – that can be saved up in a year at a rate of about $833 per month or two years at $416 per month. Rather than taking out a car loan, put that money in a high interest-yielding savings account and you’ll reach your goal even faster.

4. Pay it Off Fast

If you can afford to do it, the faster you pay off your car, the less you pay in interest and financing costs. While it would be unwise to stretch your family budget too tight in an effort to pay off your vehicle, you should avoid long-term financing that drags on for four or five years.

5. Refinance Down the Road

Let’s say you need a new used car this year but you’ve just put money in the house, perhaps had a baby, had a dip in your credit rating and money is tight. Well, you might accept a higher interest rate now, but in a year – once things improve – you should investigate the prospect of refinancing that loan with another lending institution that can offer you a lower interest rate.

Interest rate is one of the most important considerations for a home mortgage loan. Recent trends indicate show that interest rates not only have increased slightly, but will continue to increase over the years.

When it comes time to buy your home, it’s only natural to be a little concerned about interest rates and whether the rates will increase before a home loan closes. Fortunately, there are some steps prospective home owners can take to prevent your home interest rate from skyrocketing and keep your monthly payment from becoming a shock situation.

When you first make an offer on a home, the mortgage loan officer will ask whether you’d like to “lock in” your interest rate. There are lots of options for locking in the interest rate, and the whole premise can seem a bit confusing. What exactly does lock in mean, how much will it cost you and what how long should you lock in?

A rate lock is an agreement you make with the lender to keep the interest rate fixed over a period of time while you loan documentation is processed. Standard lock in periods are 30, 45, 60, or more days. When you lock in an interest rate, you are paying a fee to guarantee the interest rate. The longer period of time you lock into, the higher the fee.

Buyers experience anxiety when they try to figure out if they should lock in, and for how long. There’s no way to guarantee what will happen with interest rates, either short term or long term. In general, when interest rates have been increasing, instead of staying flat or decreasing, it’s better to lock in.

Lock in fees are calculated as a percentage of the house sales price. These fees are called “points”. One point is one percent of the purchase price of the home. As an example, a lender may charge a quarter or half-point to lock in an interest rate for 30 days (actual fees will vary).

If you’ve worked with a mortgage broker prior to finding a home, chances are you are either prequalified or preapproved. When you let the mortgage company do the work before hand, the loan will probably close faster. Your agent or broker can give you an estimate on the amount of time you’ll need to close, and help you determine how long to lock the loan in for.

There’s no reason to feel anxiety about the interest process in home financing. Interest rates are still quite low, and simply by locking into your interest rate you can keep guarantee that the loan will close with the interest rate you want.