Financing Options

[T&R]

What companies have folks used to finance their trailer? Somewhat recent threads have been Essex, Bank of America and USAA (we're non-military).

Unfortunately our preferred local credit union is hung up on the fact ETI doesn't publish in NADA so we got approved last week by Essex but have not yet heard from our loan officer despite several emails and phone messages. After looking online and reading about lots of other folks that have had similar (poor) experiences with our same loan officer we've decided we need to start exploring other options.

So what other lenders have folks used that don't mind working with the special circumstances of purchasing from ETI?

Thanks,

[rbryan4]

Yes, Essex does have an issue with responding promptly. We just stuck with it. Figured that a rate of 3.49 was worth the bit of frustration. It was.

[T&R]

How long did it take from the time you submitted your online application to when your loan closed?

[rbryan4]

Originally Posted by T&R

How long did it take from the time you submitted your online application to when your loan closed?

I think it was about 5 weeks. The good news was that it was funded and Escape got the check on the very day it was closed. And, although Essex insisted on 20% down because Escape wasn't in NADA, they were too ignorant to understand that exchange rates change. The funded amount was actually about 89.5% of the total balance once the funds were converted, so we really only paid 10.5% down.

Don't know that I'd use them again, but the rate was the best out there.

[GRINGOandTICA]

Essex sucks hands down. I bet I've dealt with the same loan officer. I only got her on the phone after I complained to management. The terms of an RV loan are nice if you are looking to pay it off in 15yrs. I really don't see much of a tax right off, but yes one exists.

I don't have 5 weeks to try closing a loan, so I will share my options.

1) pension loan at 5%, lenght is short so payments are high.

2) take a loan from my 457 plan, 5.5% interest rate that I pay back to myself. Not sure of the lenght, waiting to hear back.

3) personal loan from a credit union. 72 months at 5.5%.

Something else that turned me off about Essex is the rates are high unless you borrow more than $25,000. Up around 9%.

I've never made a minimum payment in my life, so terms of a loan don't really concern me, but in case of an emergency I like to feel comfortable with the payments.

[GRINGOandTICA]

One more thing. With a personal loan, I will own my trailer, and have a title in hand. If I ever need to sell, this will make for a smooth transaction.

[rbryan4]

You're right Vinny - they're pretty bad. I do like the low rate and payment though. We never really take a loan to term either, usually paying it off early. I do like the idea of loaning to yourself and having a Title in case you want to sell. There are plusses and minuses to any financing I guess.

[GRINGOandTICA]

Originally Posted by rbryan4

You're right Vinny - they're pretty bad. I do like the low rate and payment though. We never really take a loan to term either, usually paying it off early. I do like the idea of loaning to yourself and having a Title in case you want to sell. There are plusses and minuses to any financing I guess.

Yup lots of pros and cons with every finance option. To capture Essex's low interest rate with 10% down, the trailer will need to have almost every option due to the current exchange rate.

[T&R]

Thanks for the feedback on Esssex. I think it needs to be known on this forum that they're not the easiest to work with. I've never had trouble financing anything in the past so was thinking going through them would not be an issue. Little did I know at the time of applying that they have the reputation they do. Our experience thus far is on par with everything else (negative) I have read about them.

Customer service is very important to us ( which is why we chose ETI for our trailer!). We'd rather pay a little more interest to a company that cares about their customers and have confidence the loan will get funded by our completion date. We don't want to lose out on our trailer simply because Essex wouldn't follow through with our application in a timely (or at all) manner.

[rbryan4]

Originally Posted by T&R

Customer service is very important to us ( which is why we chose ETI for our trailer!). We'd rather pay a little more interest to a company that cares about their customers and have confidence the loan will get funded by our completion date.

It's important to us too. And yes, it's the reason we chose Escape. But, despite the fact they were a PITA to work with, they did fund the loan just in time. Seems that's their modus operandi. If you can live with that, they do have an excellent rate. We tried to use USAA because we've always had excellent service from them. We were even pre-approved. Once we went to finalize the loan, they informed us (to our shock) that they could not finance a foreign trailer. Ugh.

[T&R]

Thanks for breaking down the options you have explored. It appears that at times one has to get creative with financing to be able to pay for in full an out of the country trailer that you do not yet have possession of!

I'm currently in talks with my local credit union whom now won't send a payment out of the Country for a trailer I won't have possession of until September. So we're exploring other options with them that will be a little more work up front but will be a guarantee the trailer will be paid for in full by our completion date. Something that I don't want to trust to Essex.

Originally Posted by GRINGOandTICA

Essex sucks hands down. I bet I've dealt with the same loan officer. I only got her on the phone after I complained to management. The terms of an RV loan are nice if you are looking to pay it off in 15yrs. I really don't see much of a tax right off, but yes one exists.

I don't have 5 weeks to try closing a loan, so I will share my options.

1) pension loan at 5%, lenght is short so payments are high.

2) take a loan from my 457 plan, 5.5% interest rate that I pay back to myself. Not sure of the lenght, waiting to hear back.

3) personal loan from a credit union. 72 months at 5.5%.

Something else that turned me off about Essex is the rates are high unless you borrow more than $25,000. Up around 9%.

I've never made a minimum payment in my life, so terms of a loan don't really concern me, but in case of an emergency I like to feel comfortable with the payments.

[T&R]

As a follow up about our Essex experience; we went ahead with "plan B" through our local credit union and paid for our trailer in full about four weeks before the completion date.

We then called Essex to cancel our application. That was over three weeks after submitting our initial online application to them. During that time period the only communication we received from Essex was the initial "congrats" email saying we'd been approved (the day after submitting our online app) and the same day we submitted the requested documents. We also received a copy of our credit score in the mail. That was it. So after over three weeks our loan with them had not gone anywhere despite several emails and voicemails to our loan officer and even a call and conversation with the folks answering their 1-800 number.

Granted it is summer and their "busy season" (which is the excuse we got when we called their 800 # to talk to a live person). Folks may have better luck off-season but either way if you're planning on attempting a loan through them be prepared that it may not be the smoothest and/or quickest process.

[rbryan4]

Trenton, sounds like you got one of the really bad loan officers. Most of them at Essex are in that category. Only a couple that actually follow up and stay in touch with the borrower. Anyway, glad you got a lender that actually responds.