How much down when ordering? - Montana Owners Club

dsprik · 02-12-2006, 06:00 AM

I considered this posting this topic for some time. We are getting ready to order our 3400RL. Since we need it by the end of May, we need to order it before the end of March.

We will be dealing with a credit union. I am NOT going to put anything down. (Have to buy a tv, too - using all my cash for that). This is not up for debate, regardless of differing financial philosophies on this. I have a long term plan that I am not going into here, that will serve us very well financially - tax-wise and such.

With that said, here it is...

What do those, who have ordered from the factory, done as a financial strategy (once you have agreed on the price) for down payment (earnest money, etc) when ordering? Some, I know want to keep this as low as possible - $0 to $100. Others probably have no problem paying most up front... I do. I could use all the ideas you guys want to hand down. I can then tailor responses to fit into our personal situation.

Thanks in advance. I may have to clarify things as this thread progresses, but this should get us off to a roaring start.

NOTE: I would like to have people refrain for the urge to give "strong opinions" on finances in general rather than "friendly advice". Thinking of my 79 yr old father... "I don't want to tell you what to do, but...", implying that if I don't follow his "advice", I'm an idiot, and out of the family will. I love my dad, but he can be overbearing sometimes. I am just interested in what everyone did in this case.

stiles watson · 02-12-2006, 06:27 AM

My experience in buying this rig was a little out of the ordinary. None of it may apply to you request. But I thought it was worth sharing. I offered the man a down payment. He said, "No, I will let you complete your financing package." We had discussed what I intended to do with my credit union and the approximate length of time required to get it completed. We then shook hands and that was that. I thought it was refreshing for two guys to determine that their word was their bond and a deal could be sealed with a handshake.

Of course, when I got to the credit union, there was nothing but paperwork. I thought a 4% loan on the entire preowned rig without any equity in either the TV or the trailer was exceptional.

CountryGuy · 02-12-2006, 06:28 AM

Dave, I don't think our dealer would order with $100 down, I want to say that they required $3000??? But, that is my memory and ole gal's memory is weak sometimes. Call around to a couple of dealers and ask, hey, what do you require to have up front to order one of these babies. Call a number of dealers, to get a feel for it.

dsprik · 02-12-2006, 06:32 AM

Thanks, Carol... great idea!

Sunshine · 02-12-2006, 06:35 AM

When we found our pre-enjoyed Montana we traded a 30' Prowler Regal pull trailer and an 8' camper, and the dealer asked for $1000 down besides. Don't know if any of that would apply to ordering one off the line.

steves · 02-12-2006, 07:58 AM

I believe I put $1,000 down. I would not put down anymore than that. Why depart with your money before you have to.

Broome101 · 02-12-2006, 08:23 AM

My dealer since this was the third unit we had bought over 5 year period ordered ours with nothing down. Just my word I would take it.

richfaa · 02-12-2006, 08:47 AM

Don't know what the dealer we are purchasing from will require.We have agreed on the purchase price and down payment was not addressed.When we purchased our 43K plus truck last Feb the salesperson asked me how much I wanted to put down and I said 100.00 and he said ok. When you order you sign a sales contract so you have agreed to pay the money or have done the financing on the spot.Don't know why they even require any money down,Ernest money I guess. I give them as little as possible or as much as I want to upon ordering.When I was selling these things after we had "sold " the camper and had the signature on the dotted line the buyer went over to the finance person and they completed the sale (financing etc)Once the financing is completed at the time of sale/ordering you have the money. The sale is not going to happen or the order submitted till the dealer knows he is going to get his money...

scattershot · 02-12-2006, 09:04 AM

Just ordered a 2955RL from Beaudry in Tucson, they required a $5,000 deposit before they would order the unit.

Emmel · 02-12-2006, 11:30 AM

We ordered both of our Montys from the same dealer and we were not required to put anything down. We did trade in our 3255 for the 3280 and believe this, I did the order over the phone! We had enough confidence in the dealer and we had a dealer sheet in hand so it was fairly simple. If you can get by with no down payment, go for it.

DiananColin · 02-12-2006, 12:15 PM

We were at the Montana Rally in 2004 when we saw the 3400RL. We had to buy it in Canada and I called the Dealer in Canada from the Rally. They had a 3400 in stock and it seemed to be what we wanted, color etc was great and it was fully loaded. They had someone who wanted to buy it coming that evening and we were not going to be back from the Rally for 2 days. We put $5000 down on our Amex Card on the agreement that we would see it before making the final decision. We were not financing and in fact they did not put our credit card through until we had said it was what we wanted. Diana

DHenry · 02-12-2006, 01:51 PM

I ordered my 3670 from a dealer 200 miles away, over the phone. I had never set foot in the dealership. They did not require any money down to order it. When it arrived they called me and that is when I drove there to see the Montana and finish the deal. If you are required to put money down maybe you can get a advance on the Montana loan from your credit union and use part of the funds that you were going to borrow for the down payment. If you have a purchase contract I would think the credit union would loan you the down. Just a thought.

Dustytuu · 02-12-2006, 02:06 PM

We bought a new left over 2004 on the lot. We bought it on the phone. This dealer was highly recommended to us. We knew what we wanted from doing research. Sent them $500 to hold it. When we could get to Texas we traded our former 5th wheel in on it. They got us great financing worked out over the phone. It was over a month before the weather permitted us to travel to Texas from Colorado. We picked it up a year ago this month.

ols1932 · 02-12-2006, 04:16 PM

Our dealer, Ketelsen RV of Hiawatha, IA, has never required anything down when we have dealt with them over the last 30 years. That may be because they are very reputable and they knew me well. But if your dealer knows you, I don't think they will make you put down anything.
Orv

dsprik · 02-12-2006, 05:01 PM

Just got back home a read your responses. They are really GREAT! All these ideas are terrific and I can't tell you how much I appreciate your help.

My credit is not perfect, but I am working on my credit reports, and my score is rising. I am working closely with the VP of a credit union.

While I am pleased at the overall improvement in my credit rating over the past 7 months, it is a painfully slow process of taking two steps forward, then one step back. It is a lot of hard work and takes an unusual level of persistence and fighting off discouragement when I hit a "speed bump".

Pressing forward in the face of a storm is the only way to accomplish anything worthwhile in life. One of my God-given strengths is that I am not a quitter. While I am FAR from perfect, this trait has served me well many times in the past. I have total faith that it will serve me well in this endeavor, too.

As I said, I am very appreciative of all of your help. I look forward to reading about more experiences on this thread. Thanks!

snfexpress · 02-13-2006, 01:37 PM

Dave,

One way to improve your credit score in the next 30 to 45 days, is to make sure that any balances on credit cards do not exceed 40% of your high credit available to you. If you don't have the cash on hand, you can shuffle some balances by using the balance trade feature of most credit cards.

Also, paying off charge-offs, judgments, etc. can actually have a negative effect on your credit because the credit bureaus take the activity as "recent negative" activity.

Having spent more than 20 years in the mortgage brokerage business has taught me a few things about credit.

Michael & Kathy
Sierra Nevada Funding, Inc. in Nevada, Washington, Oregon, Idaho, California and Colorado.

dsprik · 02-13-2006, 01:49 PM

Thanks, Mike. We are maintaining our balances at 50%. Is that too high? We don't have a lot of credit card debt. Less than $1K on 3 credit cards. We got this from a TransUnion publication. Do you think we should change this to 40%? They do recommend NOT to pay them down too far as it does not demonstrate your ability to handle credit correctly. Obviously, running account to, or near, the max is really bad.

snfexpress · 02-13-2006, 01:53 PM

Dave,

Forty percent is the actual "black box" number to get to, so yes, you should get them down to 40% of your high credit. And, you should use at least one credit card every 30 days so that it shows that you can manage your credit.

Michael

dsprik · 02-13-2006, 02:02 PM

Thanks, Michael. We will take care of this immediately.

richfaa · 02-13-2006, 02:52 PM

snfexpress..question, or I guess opinion.We have several credit cards with very high credit limits but rarely use any of them. we do as you advise try to use them from time to time for small purchases to keep them current as some will drop you if they are not used for a year.The only ones we use are the Discover card and American Express blue and only for things like booking airline tickets, reserving hotels/Motels/ rent a cars and paying for these travel expenses.The bill is most usually paid upon receipt or withing a month or two. We thought we had to many credit cards with too high limits .We had one with a limit of 25,000. We decided to cancel some cards and lower most limits.We were told by a banker that this was not a good idea as the fact that you might have say 10 credit cards with a total credit limit of 100,000 but were only using 2,000 of it was a good thing to the credit folks.Our credit score is very high. What do you think????

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