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Current auto refinance rates remain about the same, but monthly savings keep adding up.
● The current lowest approved interest rate is 2.46% for a 48-month term for borrowers with Excellent credit (750+).
● July’s average refi savings reached a new record high — borrowers saved an average of $103.93 per month after refinancing their auto loans.
● Borrowers with Poor credit saved the most last month after refinancing: $114 per month.
Here’s the Auto Refinance Rate Report for August 2021.
Current average interest rate
📝 The current average auto refinance interest rate is 5.63%. This is an average across all loan terms (36 to 72 months) and all credit profiles for loans approved in the RateGenius network over the last 30 days.
Read more: Today’s Current Auto Refinance Rates
Overall, interest rates have remained about the same — low — since July’s report. The current average auto refinance interest rate dropped by 0.04% since last month, from 5.67% to 5.63%.
Among our approved auto refinance applicants, those with credit scores below 700 did see slight increases in rates. For example, in July a 72-month loan term with a Poor credit score had an average interest rate of 9.28%; this month’s average is 9.52%.
On the other hand, rates for borrowers with Excellent and Good credit remain competitive, below 3% across all loan terms with the exception of 48-month rates for Good credit (3.09%).
The auto refinance outlook is looking great this month thanks to competitive interest rates, high used car values (and thus, low loan-to-value ratios), and lenders’ growing interest in refinance loans.
Interest rates are still low and are expected to remain this way for quite a long time. Plus, auto refi borrowers are still benefiting from record-high used car values. Our report found that these high vehicle valuations not only increase your chances of getting approved, but can also help you get an even better loan too.
Ultimately, though, it’s up to lenders to decide if they want to offer auto loan refinancing, and they do. Credit unions and banks want to lend money, and auto refinance loans only account for about 4.5% of the market — that means there’s lots of opportunity for growth for them and savings for you.
But the general advice is, if your car loan interest rate is higher than the current auto refinance rates, and your payoff balance is over $10,000, there’s a good chance you can save money refinancing.
Pro tip: Use Loan Finder to anonymously see auto refinance rates without impacting your credit score.
📝 The average overall auto refinance interest rate in July was 6.60% across all customers approved for refinancing. Among borrowers who completed the auto refinance process, the average auto refinance savings was $103.93 per month, and the average auto loan balance refinanced was $24,265.
If the chart seems above seems a bit boring, well, that’s a good thing. While we haven’t had a dramatic drop in interest rates since March of 2020, we also haven’t seen them rise too much either.
This is the second month in a row where the overall average interest rate has dropped, down 0.07% from this year’s peak of 6.67% back in May but still 0.39% higher than this year’s low of 6.21% in February.
Now, this is a much more exciting chart. Check out those auto refi savings as they continue to grow every month.
July’s average refinance savings reached a new record high — borrowers saved an average of $103.93 per month after refinancing their auto loans, $4.07 more than the previous month. Borrowers with Poor credit scores are saving the most after refinancing, $113.88 per month. The second highest payment savers were borrowers with Fair credit, with a car payment reduction of $107.53 every month.
The average auto loan debt refinanced increased by $315 from June to July, up to $24,265 which is the highest this year.
RateGenius analyzed data on customer applications for auto loan refinancing made between January 1, 2020 and August 8, 2021. This dataset included thousands of anonymized completed auto loan refinance applications. We examined annual savings, changes in interest rates, auto loan debt, and application volume, broken down by credit tier and/or loan term. Savings and interest rate averages are based on approved loans across all loan terms, 36 to 72 months.
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