When interest rates drop, refinancing your car loan could save you thousands of dollars.
Say you bought a new car two years ago and there were a few dings on your credit. You might have been charged 9 percent on a five-year loan for a $23,000 car. Your payments are probably about $525 a month.
Now let's say your credit has improved, and so have interest rates on car loans. You could now refinance the balance of your car loan at 3 percent and lower your payments to about $445 a month for the remaining three years. That's a savings of $80 a month and $2,880 over the life of the loan.