Financing a Harley with a bad credit score?
Road Warrior
Joined: Sep 2008
Posts: 1,557
Likes: 6
From: Fort Lauderdale, Florida
Let's talk about priorities in South Florida. Down here people drive brand new Range Rovers and have brand new Road Glides and live in a 2 bedroom house built in the 50's with 8 cars parked on the front lawn and 8++ other people sleeping on the couch and in sleeping bags on the floor with clothes piled up all over the place.
You see, it's more important to have the "Image" of success rather than actually be successful. Image is everything down here.
Freakin' pathetic if you ask me. Sad but true.
Seasoned HDF Member
Joined: Aug 2013
Posts: 35,774
Likes: 38,462
From: Post Falls, ID
Let's talk about priorities in South Florida. Down here people drive brand new Range Rovers and have brand new Road Glides and live in a 2 bedroom house built in the 50's with 8 cars parked on the front lawn and 8++ other people sleeping on the couch and in sleeping bags on the floor with clothes piled up all over the place.
You see, it's more important to have the "Image" of success rather than actually be successful. Image is everything down here.
Freakin' pathetic if you ask me. Sad but true.
You see, it's more important to have the "Image" of success rather than actually be successful. Image is everything down here.
Freakin' pathetic if you ask me. Sad but true.
Seasoned HDF Member
Joined: Aug 2013
Posts: 35,774
Likes: 38,462
From: Post Falls, ID
You can't buy a new Harley, your character hasn't earned it.
Last edited by upflying; Mar 3, 2015 at 10:26 AM.
Grand HDF Member
Joined: Mar 2013
Posts: 4,922
Likes: 589
From: Running with the gators
If you do buy the bike now, at least make double and triple payments. Continue the process and you will save thousands of dollars of interest. So say you finance $10,000 at 19 percent over 72 months. If you double your payments you could save about $6,000 or better. Then also try to add your tax return each year.
But of course as others have said, chances are that if you have bad credit now, you'll not take my advice and will continue to repeat the past.
But of course as others have said, chances are that if you have bad credit now, you'll not take my advice and will continue to repeat the past.
Cruiser
Joined: Sep 2012
Posts: 176
Likes: 12
From: in a house
ok, since some have said I haven't given enough info to answer my question, my credit score is in the 500s bad I know. I know my whole question comes with a lot of backlash from those saying to fix my credit then worry about a bike. That's great advice, but that wont get me on the road anytime soon. I also never said I couldn't put money down, I simply asked if I could get a loan without putting money down. I do not care about paying a high rate, because it will get me on the road now rather than saving,fixing my credit and waiting. Call it impatience or whatever, I want a bike now. On a side note, would buying a used bike make any difference?
Pretty easy to see where that horrendous credit score came from...
I'm 35 and sitting on a score that hovers right at the 800 mark. That score was EARNED by not giving in to impulsive buying and never buying based on what kind of PAYMENTS I could afford but what kind of PURCHASE PRICE I could afford. You need to SERIOUSLY re-think your whole outlook on money, financing and responsible spending.
Of course, I know full well that I just wasted 20 seconds of my life typing that...
Things have certainly changed.
When I was coming up, to be a motorcyclist was to be a master of your machine. You knew it inside and out. You understood its operation. You lovingly took care of it when it needed taking care of. Customizing it meant getting out your tools, not your checkbook. You bonded with other motorcyclists through your shared experiences dealing with your machines. If you got stuck working on it, your buddy would ride over with a phone call and you'd get it sorted over a couple of beers.
"Poor men have poor ways", we used to say as we jerry-rigged this or that. Got things done that way.
Didn't need money to ride. Determination was enough.
Apparently, today the "poor ways" are long term loans at usury rates so the poor men can pretend they aren't poor. Works great until it doesn't.
When I was coming up, to be a motorcyclist was to be a master of your machine. You knew it inside and out. You understood its operation. You lovingly took care of it when it needed taking care of. Customizing it meant getting out your tools, not your checkbook. You bonded with other motorcyclists through your shared experiences dealing with your machines. If you got stuck working on it, your buddy would ride over with a phone call and you'd get it sorted over a couple of beers.
"Poor men have poor ways", we used to say as we jerry-rigged this or that. Got things done that way.
Didn't need money to ride. Determination was enough.
Apparently, today the "poor ways" are long term loans at usury rates so the poor men can pretend they aren't poor. Works great until it doesn't.
Club Member
Joined: Jul 2014
Posts: 11,467
Likes: 3,569
From: Idaho
Here's the rest of the info we need: How much cash do you have right now?
Dave Ramsey is nary a financial advisor, his message is eat beans and rice so you can pay off your mortgage and live debt free. He leaves out the part where I pay 3.375% interest on my house and make on average more than 10% just in mutual funds. Between the tax deduction of the mortgage interest, and the delta I am making a ton by NOT paying off my mortgage.
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How much cash do you need to pay a months worth of expenses, all in? Include in your expenses funding your retirement, your kids college fund, etc.
Multiply that by six. That's how much cash you should have on hand.
However much you have, cash on hand, over that amount is how much you can spend on a motorcycle. In total. Not monthly.
Club Member
Joined: Jul 2014
Posts: 11,467
Likes: 3,569
From: Idaho
Keeping a mortgage for the tax deduction isn't a good idea. Let's say you pay $10,000 a year in mortgage interest. You would get a $10,000 tax deduction, sounds good doesn't it? But if your in a 20% tax bracket that $10,000 you paid in interest saves you $2,000 per year on your taxes. How does paying a bank $10,000 to not pay the IRS $2,000 make any since? I'd rather pay the IRS $2,000 and keep the other $8,000 for my self. In good years you can make more on mutual funds then you pay in mortgage interest but what happens in years like 2008 when the market crashed. I'd rather pay off my house then invest the money I'm saving by not paying mortgage interest. That's the kind of stuff Dave Ramsey teaches. You can learn all you need to know by listening to his radio show which doesn't cost anything.
What happens in years like 2008 when the market crashed? If you don't cash out your investments, nothing. We're now back to higher than we were then.
Equity is an expense. If you own a $200,000 house free and clear, you've got that money sitting there doing nothing, costing you money on lost investment opportunity.
If I told my financial adviser that I wanted to cash out $200,000 in investments paying 6%-8%-10% in annual returns in order to pay off a 4% mortgage, he'd punch my teeth in. In fact, given where current mortgage rates are, if you owned your home free and clear, you'd be financially better off to take out a new mortgage for as much as you could borrow, and invest it.
Of course, that assumes you can sleep at night, but that's an entirely different subject.
Last edited by IdahoHacker; Mar 3, 2015 at 01:02 PM.