RV Loan Lenders, Recommended and Not Recommended

The friendliest place on the web for anyone with an RV or an interest in RVing!
If you have answers, please help by responding to the unanswered posts.
See posts with no answers
R

rhugga

Member
Joined
Sep 29, 2022
Posts
5
Location
Austin, TX
About to purchase a 5th wheel. Putting about 40-50% down. Credit in the 700s.

Can someone recommend a good lender and/or list any to absolutely avoid. Normally I use my credit union for auto loans and stuff but after looking there stuff over they don't seem like a good lender for RV.

Also is it dumb to put that much down?

TIA
 
rhugga said:
About to purchase a 5th wheel. Putting about 40-50% down. Credit in the 700s.

Also is it dumb to put that much down?
Click to expand...
Only you can answer that. Something said about ownership. That said, what is your loan (to be) interest rate. Can you take your money and invest it, and do better than that interest rate? Tough to answer in todays market. I would shop your local banks as well, a decent down payment tends to get a better interest rate.
 
I used the bank I've been with for 28 years. I put almost 50% down on my coach and ended up paying it off early by almost a year. At this point in my life, everything I own is paid for and I never carry over a balance on my credit cards.
 
I'd shop around the big names that do RVs, e.g. Bank of the West or US Bank and get some quotes on rates and time periods. Many credit unions finance RVs as big expensive cars, with maybe 72 month payoffs. That's maybe ok unless you are looking for 10-15 years. Bankrate.com has suggestions too. Also, let the selling dealer provide you a quote. Maybe tell him what interest rate and time you are willing to consider. Dealers often have excellent financing available, better rates than you can get just walking into a bank.
 
Where ever one gets the best deal in terms of interest percentage and term. Also watch out for closing costs, registration fees, and such. They add to the cost of the load.

We ended up going with a local bank as they offered the best deal. And that happened NOT to be the one we've banked with for 25+ years. In so many words, they don't make RV, boat, and vehicle loans. They make great real estate loans which of course one can't take up and move, unlike RVs, boats, and vehicles.
 
The big issue is that interest rates have sky rocketed in the last 9-12 months, and by all indications they are going to keep going up. So if you have to finance, better to do it soon, as deals are unlikely to get better.
 
Zulu Kono said:
It's dumb to finance anything that will depreciate.
Click to expand...
Tell me how I was dumb:
Bought a 2012 rig in January, 2020.
Traded in a paid for 2010 rig.
Put $45,000 cash down.
Paid about 1/3 towards outstanding principle twice.
Going to pay outstanding balance next month.

Granted, RVs should never be considered an ‘investment’. And we admittedly totally lucked out getting into this deal at the very beginning of Covid. And because of that and what Covid has done to RV prices/values, we could sell our rig for what, or above, what we paid for if. But even if all the impact of Covid on inflating RV values is removed, what was dumb about financing in our situation?
 
Laura & Charles said:
Tell me how I was dumb:
Bought a 2012 rig in January, 2020.
Traded in a paid for 2010 rig.
Put $45,000 cash down.
Paid about 1/3 towards outstanding principle twice.
Going to pay outstanding balance next month.

Granted, RVs should never be considered an ‘investment’. And we admittedly totally lucked out getting into this deal at the very beginning of Covid. And because of that and what Covid has done to RV prices/values, we could sell our rig for what, or above, what we paid for if. But even if all the impact of Covid on inflating RV values is removed, what was dumb about financing in our situation?
Click to expand...
Spending money you haven't earned yet is dumb.
Spending money you haven't earned yet, plus interest,
on something that will certainly depreciate is really dumb.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
When I bought my 2017 Ram Big Horn CC 4WD in 2017 the price out the door was $38.5k. I could have paid cash for it but the loan interest rate was less than I was making with the money invested. Another incentive was a $500 bonus if financed via FCA. I wrote a $15k check and financed $23.5k at something like 3.5%.

I paid the rest of the loan off in a year. To me it made sense.

Right now I can make about 4% risk free on my money so if I can get a loan at anything near that, it may make sense to finance.
 
Last edited:
You may prefer to avoid something for any of a variety reasons, maybe good ones or maybe just that it's more comfortable for you. But "dumb" is pejorative, casting aspersions on the person who chooses another approach. So we can talk about the risks or rewards of financing, but we need to stop calling other members "dumb". That kind of disrespect won't be tolerated here.
 
Gary RV_Wizard said:
You may prefer to avoid something for any of a variety reasons, maybe good ones or maybe just that it's more comfortable for you. But "dumb" is pejorative, casting aspersions on the person who chooses another approach. So we can talk about the risks or rewards of financing, but we need to stop calling other members "dumb". That kind of disrespect won't be tolerated here.
Click to expand...
Calm down.
Nobody called anybody dumb.
The OP asked if something was dumb.
Some things are dumb, as in they're a bad idea.
Who hasn't done dumb stuff?
That's different than calling someone dumb.
I, for one, am glad interest rates are going up, and I hope it continues.
Borrowing money is generally a bad idea, i.e. dumb, and should be painful.
 
We all have a limited amount of time left, and as I see it there is no point in putting off buying something you know you plan to buy one day, just in order to avoid paying interest, if that will not put you in some type of financial hardship.

Remember it is not about who has the most money in the bank when they die
 
Financing is such a personal decision there is no way anyone could decide what's best or "dumb" from the limited information the OP provided. We don't know if he's living paycheck to paycheck, retired spending his RMD's or a day trader with 5 homes. We know what we would do in this situation, but odds are excellent none of us has the same financial picture as him.

Mark B.
Albuquerque, NM
 
Zulu Kono said:
Spending money you haven't earned yet is dumb.
Spending money you haven't earned yet, plus interest,
on something that will certainly depreciate is really dumb.
Click to expand...
Zulu: I owe you an apology. I sometimes forget to humble myself in presence of intellect so great that they know what’s best for them, with such conviction, that it certainly is what’s best for everybody. I failed to recognize your superiority…. I hope you can forgive me.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Zulu Kono said:
Spending money you haven't earned yet is dumb.
Spending money you haven't earned yet, plus interest,
on something that will certainly depreciate is really dumb.
Does that make you get an angry face?
Awwwwwww.......
Click to expand...
How about borrowing money to buy an RV instead of liquidating investments that are earning money at a higher rate than the interest rate of a loan would be, or ones where you would be hit by capital gains tax if you were to sell to get the cash on hand to buy an RV outright. Without knowing details, such blanket statements are dumb.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Latest posts

Members online

Total: 1,125 (members: 25, guests: 1,100)

Forum statistics

Threads
131,996
Posts
1,388,831
Members
137,742
Latest member
BTRDYS
Back
Top Bottom