Update: my car loan payment dropped from $489 to $312 in 3 weeks and I did it without a single sales call

Grant Dixon · 2026-11-05T07:25:04.987007+00:00

I posted here back in January about being upside down on a 2019 Sentra I bought during a bad week. Payment was $489 at 13.9% and I owed about $4,200 more than the car was worth. First thing I did was pull my actual credit report instead of guessing, and my score had jumped 74 points since the loan started, mostly from a card I paid off last summer. I walked into my local credit union in Rockford with the payoff letter and the report printed out, and the loan officer ran it as a straight refi, no trade, no dealer involved. Three weeks later I signed at 7.4% and the payment landed at $312 with the same term length. The part that stung was realizing the dealer markup alone was costing me around $90 a month for two years. My question is whether it makes sense to throw the extra $177 at the principal now or just let it ride and keep the cash for brake work in the spring, since the car needs rotors soon.

Rigidtalk

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Update: my car loan payment dropped from $489 to $312 in 3 weeks and I did it without a single sales call | Car Payment Regret - Rigidtalk