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Clearlane Auto Refinance Review
If you’re curious about refinancing your car or buying a car you’re leasing, this online lender may be exactly what you need.
Clearlane, an online auto lending platform that’s powered by Ally Bank, offers auto loan refinancing and lease buyout options for borrowers with nearly any type of credit score. They do so by utilizing a nationwide finance network and offering fast and easy online quotes. They even let you get pre-qualified online and without a hard inquiry to your credit report. Keep reading to find out how Clearlane works, where it falls short, and why you might want to consider it.
Clearlane Auto Refinancing: Key Takeaways
- Refinance your current auto loan or borrow through Clearlane to buy out your lease.
- Use your Clearlane loan to purchase a new or used car.
- You don’t have to share your Social Security number to get pre-qualified.
- Get loan quotes from multiple lenders in one place.
- Interest rates run from 3.64% to 21.9%.
- Borrow between $5,000 and $100,000.
Clearlane Auto Refinance Review: Solid Auto Loans for All Credit Types
If you currently have an auto loan with a less than stellar interest rate, you may want to consider refinancing your car loan with a company like Clearlane. According to stats from the lending platform, refinancing an auto loan saves the average consumer $107 per month and $1,687 in interest over the life of their loan.
Of course, those savings are predicated on qualifying for a lower interest rate with Clearlane. While the company does offer rates that start at 3.64%, keep in mind that the best rates and terms only go to consumers with excellent credit. If your credit is poor or just okay, it’s likely you’ll pay more than the lowest advertised rate. Then again, refinancing could still be a great deal, but only if you’re able to secure a lower rate than you’re paying now.
That’s why auto loan refinancing is usually best for consumers who have improved their credit substantially since they first took out their car loan. With a better credit score, Clearlane and other auto refinancing companies may be able to get you into a new loan with a lower monthly payment and better terms.
In addition to auto loan refinancing, Clearlane also lets you use their loan to buy out your lease. And with either option, you can get pre-qualified online without a hard inquiry to your credit report.
Clearlane also offers auto loans for new or used vehicles, although cars must be less than 10 years old. Their loans also come with no application fee or hidden fees.
What to Watch Out For
Clearlane does offer some low starting rates on their auto refinancing and lease buyout loans — but keep in mind that these loans aren’t for a new car purchase. Clearlane does offer auto loans for consumers who want to purchase a vehicle, but you can’t apply for them on the Clearlane website.
Another downside of Clearlane is the fact that they don’t originate any loans themselves. Instead, they work as a loan marketplace that connects users with a nationwide network of banks and lenders. That’s not necessarily a bad thing, but you’ll need to do some research on any lenders you might end up connecting with once you get pre-qualified.
Another thing to consider: Any time you refinance a loan to get a lower payment, you could be extending your repayment timeline in the process. If you choose to refinance your auto loan with Clearlane or any other company, make sure to keep that in mind. You may want to score a lower monthly payment, but perhaps not at the cost of paying on your car loan for several more years.
As a final downside, Clearlane doesn’t offer any specific eligibility requirements for their loans. This lack of transparency makes it difficult to know if you’ll qualify, although they do let you get pre-qualified without a hard inquiry on your credit report.
Who Clearlane Auto Loans Are Best for:
- Consumers who have auto loans with high interest rates but may be able to qualify for a new loan with better terms.
- Anyone in a lease who wants to purchase their vehicle.
- Consumers with good credit who can qualify for Clearlane loans as low as 3.64% APR.
How We Rate Clearlane Auto Loans
At The Simple Dollar, we aim to provide a general overview of a lender’s products and services through a standard rating process. After a thorough research and discovery period, here’s how Clearlane stacks up:
How to Apply for Auto Refinancing with Clearlane
Clearlane makes it easy to apply for auto refinancing or a lease buyout through their website, and they even let you get pre-qualified by offering only your auto details, loan payoff amount, your name, your birthday, your email, address, and your annual gross income.
Once you get pre-qualified, you can look at a selection of loan offers tailored to your unique borrowing needs. If you don’t like your options, that’s perfectly okay. But if you do, you can move forward with the full loan application by including more details such as your Social Security number, housing payment amount, and employment information.
If you’re approved, you may receive your loan funds or have them applied to your old auto loan within a few business days.
Too long, didn’t read?
Refinancing an auto loan can make sense if your current loan isn’t that great. It’s possible your credit score and financial standing have improved enough that you could qualify for a better deal, so why not give it a try?
Still, there are a lot of lenders that offer auto refinancing and lease buy-outs, and you should definitely consider more than one. Make sure to see how auto lenders stack up in terms of the interest rate you can qualify for and any fees they charge before you move forward.
Keep Reading
Methodology
We’ve created the SimpleScore™ to help you objectively compare products and services here at The Simple Dollar.
Our editorial team:
- Identifies five factors to compare across each brand
- Determines the rating criteria for each factor
- Calculate an average of those five factor scores to get one SimpleScore™
We break down each of these five factors and their rating criteria for our review of the best auto loan companies of 2020.
Why do some brands have different SimpleScores™ on different pages?
Some brands like Bank of America, Wells Fargo, and Chase have different SimpleScores™ because they offer more than one financial solution — like auto loans, home loans, personal loans and banking.
For instance, in our Bank of America Mortgage Review, we give the company a 3.8 out 5 based on our five rating factors for mortgages. In our Bank of America Auto Loans Review, we give the company a 4.4 out of 5 based on our rating factors for auto loans. By tailoring our SimpleScore™ to each financial solution, we’re able to give you a more accurate view of their services and how they compare to competitors’ services.
Minimum new car rate
Companies that look out for new car buyers with lower rates receive higher scores from us.
Minimum used car rate
We also give higher ratings to companies that look out for used car buyers by offering lower rates.
Maximum loan size
Having enough money to cover your auto loan is important –– that’s why companies with higher maximum loan amount receive better scores from us.
Customer satisfaction
We use the J.D. Power 2019 Consumer Lending Satisfaction Study℠ to find out how customers rate their experience with each company. (If a company is not included in J.D. Power’s study, we skip this rating factor and average the remaining factor scores.)
Fees
Fees can add up very fast –– that’s why we give a higher score to companies who have fewer fees.
