Happy New Year! I hope everyone enjoyed the holiday season. This week, the Office of the Attorney General\u2019s \u201cConsumer Caution Corner\u201d sets out good practices to follow when buying a used car:<\/p>\n
What should I do before I start shopping for a car?<\/strong><\/p>\n 1) Decide what kind of car you need and how you will use it. Ask yourself:<\/p>\n a. Do I buy a new or used car?<\/p>\n b. How many passengers will usually ride in the car?<\/p>\n c. Do I need extra space to carry bags, tools and other things?<\/p>\n 2) Decide how much you can pay for a car. Think about:<\/p>\n a. The cost to register the car<\/p>\n b. Car insurance and whether a warranty is included<\/p>\n c. Gas<\/p>\n d. Maintenance costs<\/p>\n 3) Decide how you will pay for the car. You might decide to borrow money. Compare offers from several lenders. Ask the lender to pre-approve your loan.<\/p>\n How do I avoid a problem with dealer financing?<\/strong><\/p>\n 1) Ask the dealer if your deal is final. If it is, make sure the deal is written in the contract.<\/p>\n 2) If the deal is NOT final, the terms of your financing could change.<\/p>\n a. The dealer will not sell your trade-in vehicle before the financing is approved<\/p>\n Get a written promise that:<\/p>\n b. The dealer will return your down payment if the financing is not approved<\/p>\n 3) Remember: If the dealer offers you another deal, you do NOT have to accept it.<\/p>\n 4) Read the contract before you sign it. Check the financing terms. That means the annual percentage rate, length of the financing, and amount borrowed. Are they what you expected?<\/p>\n What if I have a problem with dealership financing?<\/strong><\/p>\n \u2022 If you have a problem with financing you got from the dealer, report it to the Federal Trade Commission. Call the FTC at 1-877-382-4357. Tell the person on the phone what happened. You can give as much or as little information as you want. Go online: ftc.gov\/complaint.<\/p>\n Each week, the OAG\u2019s Consumer Protection Education Program aims to provide consumers and businesses with the \u201cknow-how\u201d to identify and protect themselves from unfair trade practices and marketplace schemes. If you would like to file a Consumer Complaint, please pick up a Form at the OAG (in Capitol Hill) and then please submit it by email to consumer_counsel@cnmioag.org. (Michael J. Cyganek, Special to the Saipan Tribune) <\/p>\n Michael J. Cyganek is consumer counsel at the Office of the Attorney General.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Happy New Year! I hope everyone enjoyed the holiday season. This week, the Office of…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[2626,162,14971,86],"class_list":["post-243831","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-local-news","tag-attorney-general","tag-car","tag-consumer-complaint","tag-oag"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/243831","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/11"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=243831"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/243831\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=243831"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=243831"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=243831"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}