Hey, well everyone on this forum is really nice and helpfull so I thought I would ask everyone here. I am 21 and an electrician and bought my truck 2 years ago when work was super busy. Well now we are super slow and my payments are $500 a month for 4 more years and I was wondering what my options are like refinancing and things like that and how I would go about this. Every little things of advice would be great! thank you so very much for all of your time!

 

If the payments are not manageable, then re-financing would be a good solution provided your truck is in good shape and you will be attentive and keep it that way. Keep in mind how old the truck will be toward the end of the new term.

IMO, refinance it for the shortest extended period you can swing the payments on, because you are not only adding time to your payments, but interest as well.

As things get better at work, double up on a payment every so often or add a to the principle on the payments and you'll be amazed at how much interest you pay by the end of the note...

 

Ouch! You owe $24K on a truck that's worth not much more than half that. Good luck - hope your credit is super-good. That'll be a tough row to hoe.

 

Well its not that he OWES 24k. 24k is what he would pay if he continues his $500 for the next 48 months. But like Hammer said, thats a lot of interest.

To the OP: I know the feeling. When i bought my truck new I put zero down and went in and picked out what I wanted. My payments were 575 for 60 months. I wont do that again ever.

 

True, the payoff is probably only ~$20K. Even if it's re-fi'd, the end total pay out will be in the $24K range, maybe more. It sounds like the trade-in was upside down and now the problem is compounded.

If the goal is reduced payments, the term will have to be stretched out to 60-72 months. It'll be tough to get terms like that on a five-year-old vehicle.

OP: Hope you find a way to resolve this. Dave Ramsey would probably tell you a second job is in your future.

 

Yeah, same thing happened to me. I was working construction and the builder I was working for bought the bar that we frequented (A LOT). So we were toasted and BSing and I mentioned something along the lines of "so, since I have been running the company for the past 2 years, do you want me to run it while you run the bar??" I did say it in a relatively joking manner, and he responded something along the lines of, "you say that as a joke, but I was thinking the same thing..." Well, obviously I wouldn't take a drunken conversation into account...but the tranny was going out of my Intrepid (again) and I was tired of rebuilding it so I was looking at trucks. I then got more serious and confronted my boss about the conversation and mentioned I am thinking of buying this truck, I need to know if you were serious about me running the show (and having a job) before I go through with it. He was all like yeah, of course, blah blah blah...so I went and bought the truck...6 months later he gets possesion of the bar and decides he wants nothing to do with construction anymore..which I found quite stupid cuz he had $90,000 worth of tractors that he was still making payments on and let them sit in the yard and rot. But ohwell. In the same phone call of telling me no more construction, he asked me for help remodeling the bar and "I'll pay you when we get up and running anf ahead a bit" I LMAO. Anyway, it took me 2 years to find another steady job...Luckily I have a rich daddy who helped me with the payments in that time, until I finally lowered my job standards and took a minimum wage job just to pay for the truck (and hated every day of my life since)

So the best solution for you, like someone mentioned, take a second job, or find a sugar-mama or something...Or I'd think about taking a second mortgage out or something and pay the truck off. Lots of people think this is a bad idea, but it really isn't, as long as you can cover the payments. The reason it is not a bad idea is because you can write off the interest paid for a house on your taxes, and you can stretch the $24k still owed on the truck over like 30 years which would help...just don't get the payments over your head you don't wanna lose your house over a truck