I don’t recommend car loans, but if you have one, do this. Tips on food too. 
The average borrower who refinanced saved more than 2.2 percentage points on an interest rate last quarter.
Here’s a helpful tip courtesy of the Wall Street Journal: Now Is a Great Time to Refinance Your Auto Loan
Americans are finding that one of the few ways to save money in the car market is by refinancing their auto loans.
Drivers who refinanced in the first quarter of 2026 saw a 2.24 percentage point interest rate decrease on average from their original loan, compared with a 0.47 point decrease two years earlier, according to the credit bureau Experian. The number of car owners refinancing has nearly doubled over that time to about 111,000 in the first quarter of this year.
Most other costs associated with owning a car have gone in the other direction. Car prices have risen sharply since the industry faced a series of pandemic-era supply-chain issues. Car maintenance and insurance costs have risen faster than inflation in recent years, and gas prices have surged in recent months.
But lenders have been lowering rates on refinances since the Federal Reserve began cutting interest rates in 2024. Buyers with high payments found that refinancing drove their costs down by an average of $81 a month in the first quarter.
“Being able to refi and save almost $100, that’s pretty considerable,” said Melinda Zabritski, head of automotive financial insights at Experian.
For Kayla Barkdull, a 39-year-old manager at a Las Vegas bar, refinancing cut her interest rate in half.
Barkdull got her 2019 Volkswagen Atlas in 2023 at 11.8% APR with monthly payments of $641. She was rejected just over a year ago when she tried to refinance. But she decided to check her chances again once her credit score hit the high 600s earlier this month. Navy Federal Credit Union offered her a 5.7% interest rate.
“I cried when I got approved,” Barkdull said.
My Top Tips for Everyone
- Get a freezer
- Buy what is on sale
- Buy only what is on sale except for items you cannot freeze or store
- Shop on sale days
You can save 30 to 40 percent or more buying meat on sale. I routinely save 33 percent or more on my whole grocery bill.
Albertson’s / Kroger has 10 percent off on the first Wednesday of every month. That is on top of any other sales.
Albertson’s / Kroger has an app. Some deals requite the app. The is hard to use and confusing, but get the app and use it. If you can’t find an item in the app (stuff is missing all the time), get assistance at checkout.
These app deals are often 2 for the price of one, but in limited quantities. Try to buy meat on those days.
I believe there are sale days for veterans at some stores.
Take advantage of all of these options.
Are people really borrowing 50k plus for a car? Cars are generally a terrible investment. Unless it is a zero interest loan buy a beater car for five years and put the payments you would have made in the bank and buy a one year old lease return car in cash after 5 years. Then keep putting the payments you would have made in the bank for your next car.
Five years of pain for a life time of peace of mind.
Another hint don’t try and impress people with a fancy car, impress yourself with a car you own and a bank balance.
Five years? Haven’t you heard that 7 years is the new 3 years term?
Refinancing cars, considering that they are getting to be as expensive as houses used to be. Was at the Glendale Galleria recently. A set of SUV’s were on display. The standard size was over $60,000 as equipped. A super size me version was over $100,000.
I hear next years vehicles will come with driver safety surveillance equipment as standard equipment.
Our credit union, First Tech, has car loan refinancing at 5%.
When we bought our car in late 2022, we financed, via the credit union, the entire $50K. I figured that the loan costs would be less than we could earn in the stock market. I was right and we paid off the loan in 18 months.
The stock, housing and other asset price market’s relentless ascension has created all manners of bad decisions. Yours wasn’t one of them but for many folks it has fostered the “found money” approach to spending. Gas prices didn’t stay high long enough nor has the market had a meaningful non-pandemic-related decline in a very long time, hence the entrenched mindset that one can spend insane amounts of money without concern as the market will just give it to you to do so. Vendors, including car salesmen, know this and have raised prices constantly without concern.
It’s a mindset. You need to be in a culture of saving money and doing so on everything when possible. America has a paradigm problem where folks that are frugal are deemed “cheap” yet Americans that buy TSLA at a low aren’t called cheap. Oddly if you get gas at the least expensive station in town you aren’t called cheap. But, if you take the approach of looking for deals in most everything you are called cheap.
Then, when markets turn, which they NORMALLY should do after years of excess, the same folks that did NOT participate in then profligate madness are tapped to pony up to save those that called them cheap. I’ve seen it and will again.
Every expense in a budget should be scruitinized as to its necessity, value, price. Can you use less (electricity, water, food), can you change away from a brand without sacrificing quality or taste. None of this means one buys an inferior product as this mindset doesn’t mean sacrificing quality or long-term value or effectivenss.
But as long as we hear labels of “cheap” many folks who are capable of saving money will run the other direction lest they be labeled as such.
Our government has set the tone–there is no budget, there is no constraint of hard money, the borrow infinitely from the future with a complicit fed and willing bond market. Imagine if that weren’t so.
Remember, simply cutting the deficit…but still running a large one…is immediately considered and labeled draconian! Oh the agony of only running a smaller deficit vs actually balancing a budget. The horror! Same is true on a personal level. Imagine if the government had to pay the damn-near usury rates of personal credit cards given they’ve always paid but are technically insolvent and incapable of actually paying it off. Or, on the flip side, imagine how much spending would rise if personal credit cards were set at 4%? Well, we see this now with the locked up housing market since nearly every house mortgage prior to 22 is ultralow.
However, to Mish’s point, I had never even heard of anyone refinancing a car loan–in all the stories they’ve either been paid off at the original rate and amout, paid off early, or defaulted on.
Haven’t had a car loan since the 20th century, and still regret that loan.
Bought last car outright with cash. Saved on interest. Who knows where things are in a few years.
My brother works in car financing. He never mentioned refinancing a car loan, only rolling the old loan into a new one when a new car is purchased. Cars depreciate the moment they roll off the lot and become worth less than owed. I’ve heard of mortgages and to some extent student loans being refinanced, so it isn’t a stretch to hear car loans are now being refinanced.
Cars cost what houses used to, so it was inevitable.
Your brother almost certainly is working for dealer financing (ie GM, Ford etc). I do not believe you can refinance those loans (they usually are in the 3-4% range anyway for good credit when buying new cars).
This is for people doing car financing through their banks.
WTI is just under $70 per bbl and regular gas is $4.79?
The day of the election, Gas was $2.65 with WTI just under $70…
Thank Trump for increasing gas prices by $2.14 per gallon!
Who does Trump work for?
RBOB
https://www.cmegroup.com/markets/energy/refined-products/rbob-gasoline.html
State, county. city taxes not included
This shows that crack spreads are dramatically higher and profits for the oil companies will be massive. Retail markups are significant at this point as well.
Ship Tracker does not show significant increases in shipping through the Strait Of Hormuz so the WTI price appears to be out of touch with supply.
Vacation travel is significantly lower in many tourist destinations.
$70 is oil futures.
Eating more vegetable and less meat saves money.
Yeah, but then you live longer and need more money.
Eating meat is terrible for your heart health — especially as you get older. I’d love to know @Mish ‘s CAC Score.
Mish hikes a lot so he is active. I doubt eating meat is a problem for him or any active person.
To save money, live within your means. Have margin in your budget.
Buy a dependable car and keep the maintenance up-to-date. My 2005 Tundra is going to rust out before it fails mechanically. Bought it over 17 years ago with 46k miles on it and hope to get at least 3 more years out of it. Paid $10k; paid the loan off (early) in 2.5 years ($868 in total interest) and have not had a car payment in 15 years.
11.8% interest rate? 🤮 I’ve had credit cards with 12% interest rates. Before they even said it, I figured credit score issues. We weren’t told if that was one of those 84 or 96 month loans. Maybe so.
Financial slavery/servitude/indebtedness is real. Don’t let your kids fall for the illusion. Show them how to be frugal.
I’ve never paid more than 1% in a car loan, and why not? Then again, I never got or paid off a car loan longer than 3 years. Why, I’ve never scored “in the high 600s” or bought a VW Atlas. Call me cheap… or rich.
In Nevada, Smith’s Foods (also a part of Kroger) has gas stations and one can earn fuel points when shopping. One point per dollar, multiplied by four on Fridays, green bag points (use recycle bags instead of store supplied plastic), and having Smith’s branded credit card all save me up to $1.05 per gallon when I buy gas. Kroger also has a satisfaction survey on it’s website which will add 50 fuel points once per week.
good sensible advice considering the way prices have shot up
and about trump on that oil gouging, price is back to where it was 80 to 85 days
ago also back to where it was in 2006 approx so no more inflation then