Financial advice regarding purchasing a car

[Carlyle]

Hi all! I'm starting D1 this fall at one of the expensive 400K+ schools and plan on doing it all through loan. Have about 15k left from undergrad. Since I need a vehicle at where I'll be attending, a family member has generously offered to give me the $ to purchase a new vehicle for school as a gift.

My question is simple really, since I'm taking out the full brunt of loans, does it help my credit at all if I stash the $ for the car and pay it off incrementally at a 0.0% APR, or to pay it off full when I purchase? Any other advice on anything prudent that one might recommend?

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[Glimmer1991]

If you can get a 0% loan, you might as well take it. Theoretically, you can keep the money in a high yield savings account and be earning interest on it while you pay the car off in chunks. If you pay in full, you don't have that opportunity.

Also, if you are responsible with the loan, I'm sure it will help your credit score. A mixture of different types of credit is good.

 

[Illfavor]

If you can get a 0% loan, you might as well take it. Theoretically, you can keep the money in a high yield savings account and be earning interest on it while you pay the car off in chunks. If you pay in full, you don't have that opportunity.

Also, if you are responsible with the loan, I'm sure it will help your credit score. A mixture of different types of credit is good.

 

[Glimmer1991]

It makes me sad to hear the interest rates that used to be around!

Here I sit with 0.87%... and it's about as good as I can find.

Still better than the 0.01% I used to get with Bank of America!!!