Did You Know the Best Place to Buy Gift Cards Can Save You on Your Auto Loan, Too?

by Gary Leff

A couple of months ago I told you about a credit union that allows you to:

  • Join online
  • Fund your initial deposit with a credit card and earn miles
  • Buy visa gift cards online with free shipping, and have your name embossed on them ($3.95 for $500, and you could activate PINs on them to use as debit cards)

That’s a pretty good deal, right?

A funny thing happened on the way to using Agricultural Federal Credit Union (AgFed) just for gift card purchases. And oh by the way I’m told hundreds of readers opened accounts.

They turn out to have some pretty good financial product deals, too.

I’m a big bank kind of guy, I’ve done business mostly with the Chase’s and Citi’s of the world. I’ve naturally had accounts with Suntrust (Delta debit card). So it took a deal like this to get me to pay attention to some of the valuable options this credit union has to offer.

(I’ve paid attention in the past to Pentagon Federal, for their credit card bonus category spend and mortgages but never jumped on either.)

AgFed has some great auto loan rates. Here’s where they are as of this writing:

These are better, even, than some manufacturers’ subsidized rates (“1.99% for 36 months!”). And they’ll offer these rates even on used cars.

And they even sent out a marketing piece to new members (that’s us!) offering .25% off a loan.

Just a public service reminder to shop around, and to take advantage of deals you may be eligible for – like great rates offered to you just because you you wanted an easy, cheap way to buy pin-enabled gift cards.

About Gary Leff

Gary Leff is one of the foremost experts in the field of miles, points, and frequent business travel - a topic he has covered since 2002. Co-founder of frequent flyer community InsideFlyer.com, emcee of the Freddie Awards, and named one of the "World's Top Travel Experts" by Conde' Nast Traveler (2010-Present) Gary has been a guest on most major news media, profiled in several top print publications, and published broadly on the topic of consumer loyalty. More About Gary »

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Comments

  1. there was some confusion I saw reported in the other thread about what cc you could use? Someone suggested only their CC was an option. Can you confirm that any will work? I don’t want to sign up for everything only to find out …

  2. Looks like someone’s feeling guilty for dumping a pile of unprofitable customers on a small FI…

  3. Fairly low but somewhat typical credit union auto rates. Since the interest rates have been so low the banks aren’t willing to fund auto loans at these levels. Credit unions since they are member owned don’t have to make much profit so they are able to offer the lower auto rates. I did a refi on several cars about 2 years ago with locked into rates at 2.5% and no fees.

  5. I got 0.9% directly with Honda when I purchased back in December, so not earth shattering, but I get the points of the post and agree CUs offer much better products and services than the other crooks.

  7. FreeTravelGuys, car manufacturers often offer a choice of a low rate loan or a rebate. I bought a Toyota and was given a choice of a 0% loan or a $500 rebate. Given that my credit union was willing to give me a 1.99% loan, it was more lucrative to take the rebate.

  8. Hi Gary,

    I just placed an $500 giftcard order for testing. I can not manually input personal names in ‘Embossed Message’. are they going to emboss purchaser or recipient name on my card? Thanks

  9. Can you please give more details on the .25% discount for new members? Is there a code needed for that, or is it included in the current rate? Thanks.

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