I paid off my 2011 financed through Ford Credit so I could be ready for the 2015 when it arrived. There was 20 months left on the 2011.

Each month on the Ford Credit website, you have a payoff value shown and it is good for a week or two before your payment is due.

Hope you can see the payoff on the lower left side. You will have to pay some interest for the period of time you used Ford's money

 

If you are trying to get a ford credit rebate then I think there may be a time constraint before they will let you pay it off early.

 

There is no prepayment penalty with the Ford credit program. Some guys called Ford Credit, after 4 or 5 business days, and get an account number and refinance their loan with their local Credit Union. You pay very little interest this way and still get the Ford Credit cash.

FYI on the ford finance. Your dealer might tell you that you need to keep the loan for 3 months before you refinance. I call BS on that one. Here is the truth. If you refinance before the 3 months, it has an impact on the dealers profile score in the finance area. In the back ground they get less money for each Ford loan they cut.

 

I made 1 payment to Ford Credit and then refinanced with my credit union.
No penalty and no issues.

SixOnTheFloor

 

I was considering doing the Ford Finance thing for a portion of my new truck to get the Finance Rebate. My salesguy said that I would have to hold the loan for at least three months, so that Ford wouldn't penalize them for the cost of the rebate.

 

I was considering doing the Ford Finance thing for a portion of my new truck to get the Finance Rebate. My salesguy said that I would have to hold the loan for at least three months, so that Ford wouldn't penalize them for the cost of the rebate.

They can't make you keep the loan for 3 months. Your loan papers will say no prepayment penalty. Your dealer is correct, it only hurts them in the long run. To me this is a point of negotiating with the dealer.

I tell this to all the dealers I talked to before I bought my truck. I run a business too. My business is to get the best deal for my family. If I can get the extra Ford credit cash, and refinance with my Credit Union in a month to get a better rate I will. However if my dealer is willing to make it worth my wild, I would entertain keeping it for the 3 months. I try to come in as an educated buyer where I can so we can have an open and honest conversation.

 

I've also done that before. Financed at the dealer, turned right around and went to my credit union the next week and got the interest rate cut in half. All depends on if you want to keep the dealer whole. When i recently purchased my wife's car (different brand but same concept) I honored the first three payments because they were a real pleasure to work with. Your call, but as others have said...you can do what you want.

 

My dealer really wanted to sell me the ford credit so I told them it had to be worth my while. Apparently they receive a decent kickback and were willing to share it with me. They offered to go $850 under invoice plus the $500 ford credit rebate. We had already agreed on invoice so the extra $1350 gave us both a little extra money. They did ask that I finance for 3 months and now I understand why.

I will honor the 3 month deal since that's what we shook hands on.

 

This interesting because I did not know about the 3 month thing. So to be clear, if you do not wait the 3 months, the dealer does not get penalized, they just don't get an extra kickback?

If that is correct, then it would be no different then walking in and paying cash... the dealer gets no kickback on financing.

So why wait 3 months and pay more interest if you are not costing them anything extra (penalty)?

 

I wait the three months so the dealer gets their money but I also make my first of the three payments be very large. For example, I financed $21K. First payment will be $20,000. Then whatever is left will be divided up for the other two payments. I minimize interest charges, my dealer gets his cut and everyone's happy.

 

I went a different route. Bought and financed my 2011 Ford Fusion, for six years. Made payments for two years to maintain my credit rating high. Paid my car off at two years.
Good topic to know when i begain looking for my new F-350 about Ford credit.

 

I was going to do the same thing. Best I could find down here was my credit union Tropical Finance at 1.99% and during the 4th they were giving an extra 1/4 point, I missed out on.
Ford's 1.9% rate was a match for me, that I'll keep for at least the 3 months...

Was told they back out the sales peoples commission if the loan isn't kept for 3 months... Don't know if thats true or not...

 

When I got my 2008, I was going to pay cash for it, but there was a rebate using Ford Credit. So I financed it thru Ford Credit, got my rebate credited on the sale and then paid it off on my first payment. No penalties or fees.

 

Does Ford Credit automatically apply the additional payment to principal? Or do you have to explicitly ask them to do so?

Last time I financed a car (late 90s, a Jeep Cherokee), the loan service company tried to apply my additional payment to future payments. So by paying off the balance of the loan they just pushed out my next payment for 2.5 years, rather than retiring the loan, until I explicitly talked to them.

Thanks!

 

This is interesting information. We chose to finance our truck through Ford credit to take advantage of the $1k rebate, and were told the same - that we should wait 3 months before paying it off. Now I know why. We'll still wait instead of paying it off earlier since the salesman gave us such a great deal and we agreed to those terms.

 

I took the ford money and will wait 3 months as the dealer is a friend of mine and sponsors many different functions for my work. It is worth the couple of extra dollars it will cost me to keep that relationship on good terms. No salesman in the picture.

 

Fellas,

I too financed thru Ford for 1 month to get the rebate then paid it off with a credit union loan. Scott actually suggested I do that, was happy he recommended it to us. No penalty or extra charge from Ford.

Mark


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I made one payment and that was the payoff. No problems or issues.

Thanks for confirming. My salesman told me you have to make 3 payments before paying it off.

 

I made one payment and that was the payoff. No problems or issues.

 

Just bought my 2014 F250 a month ago. Using Ford Credit got another $1000 off the price. The dealer finance manager told me that there is no prepayment penalty but asked me to please make 4 payments before I refinance or they get penalized to the tune of about $750. The interest rate is a tad over 5 percent so I will pay back probably half the $1K or more in interest, but when I subtract the interest I would have paid for the credit union loan and add the $1K more for the truck, I figure I still come out a little to the good when I do refinance.