For anyone looking at buying a new car, there’s often a big disparity between finding the car you love and actually paying for it. We’ve all been there – you find the vehicle that you want, you meet up with the Finance Manager, and you get approved for the credit. Then you get to see the “real” price of what you are paying – and boy is it a big jump!
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Dealer's Doc Fees
So what does this mean for the payment of my car?
How to refinance your auto loan and save thousands of dollars
Dealer's Doc Fees
You’ll likely feel a sense of surprise, and no doubt be wondering why the price has increased so much. As you comb through the various costs, you’ll spot something that stands out among the rest of the fees….the Dealer Doc fee. What is that?
Sadly, this is a fee that all dealers (apart from Carvana) will charge you. Your doc fee is a fee that has been brought in by regulatory bodies to help pay with the cost of office personnel. This is to cover the cost of the admin staff who handle your claim, basically. The fee can be wildly different depending on what you buy, though. It’s common for it to be as little as $50, but it’s also not uncommon for it to reach as high as $1,000 – that’s quite the variance, right?
So what does this mean for the payment of my car?
Basically, it means that you’ll be paying a fair bit more for your car than you had probably first assumed. It means you’ll likely have to tap into your money a bit more than you had expected when you first went to buy your new car. To put things into perspective, your doc fee will be adding to the monthly cost. In the simplest terms, a doc fee of $600 would mean, if you took a 60-month term for payment, that you would be paying around $10 extra per month than you would have expected.
Below, we’ve got a great table that you can use. This breaks down the average doc fees by each state, so that you know exactly what kind of extras you should be expecting. It’s another expense to take into account, so we recommend you look closely before diving in and making a purchase agreement.
Please be aware, too, that some states don’t have a minimum for the doc fee. That should worry you naturally, as it could mean paying a lot more than you had first assumed. The numbers in our chart are simply the average for states; given some don’t put a maximum, we’ve tried to find the average for you.
How to refinance your auto loan and save thousands of dollars
As always, we're trying to find ways for your to lower your monthly payment on your auto loan. Saving on fees can be one of those ways. However, as we demonstrated in our blog 'The best way to lower your rate? Make your payments!', being disciplined with your payments can improve your interest rates by much more - up to 10% in some cases.
Therefore, refinance your car loan now: WithClutch.com is a fully digital platform that lets car owners like you do so from the comfort of their own home. No need to set a foot in a bank or credit union. You can lower your rate or get cash in as little as 20 seconds.
Follow three simple steps to refinance your auto loan, get approved in seconds and save thousands in minutes.
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