my buddy is going through this right now, if you get approved for the manufacturer's CC, you don't have to have full coverage on the bike (kawi might make stipulations as far as how much the bike costs or whatever, but generally this is the rule). if you get approved through a bank or lending institution, then you have to have full coverage on the bike.

 

You do not have to carry full coverage because it's not a secured loan. It's more like an open credit line. I just got financed the same way. I still recommend full coverage but kawasaki does not require it when they do their special financing through household.

 

if you get the Kawasaki Good times credit card then you don't have to get full insurance because the bike is not considered colleratall against the money you owe them. instead it works just like a normal credit card with a high limit. it would be the same as if you went out and put the bike on a visa or something (Kawi just gives you a good interest rate). they hold you responsible for the money but the bike is fully yours and not considered financed for insurance purposes.

I would still get full coverage if you can swing it, generally I think if you can find it for less then $50 a month it is well worth the money, especially if you are planning on buying a brand new ZX6, it would be a real bummer to wreck it and have nothing but still have to pay off the $8400 or whatever that you owe.

I am new to bikes but I work in the finance field.

 

Thanks homies!

 

I am still in the same boat....got approved for bank financing, but cant afford full coverage. I wanted to increase my kawa line so i could finance that way and not have to pay for full coverage. They raised my limit 500, so now its at 5500. They said that since im only 21 and have good credit I qualify for good times, but since I have only had credit for 3 years I wont get the limit I want until I keep up a good history for a few more years.

 

I went to the dealer today and got approved from the Kawi card at 4.9% for the full amount! They even cut the freight and handling charges to bring the price down a bit. My credit score is 696 and I'm only 21 so I was in pretty good shape. Also I confirmed the insurance deal and no I don't need full coverage, just liability. For me that's about $70 a month since I don't have tickets within the last 3 years. That's with progressive, and I haven't taken the MFS course yet, (even though they don't do discounts with it anyway). I will probably sign papers and ride my new silver ZX-6R this weekend or the next.

 

I went to the dealer today and got approved from the Kawi card at 4.9% for the full amount! They even cut the freight and handling charges to bring the price down a bit. My credit score is 696 and I'm only 21 so I was in pretty good shape. Also I confirmed the insurance deal and no I don't need full coverage, just liability. For me that's about $70 a month since I don't have tickets within the last 3 years. That's with progressive, and I haven't taken the MFS course yet, (even though they don't do discounts with it anyway). I will probably sign papers and ride my new silver ZX-6R this weekend or the next.

Congrats....did you have any other debts in your name??....I am 21 with a score of 674 and they said that some of the reasons they cant raise mine for the full amount is I have a car loan in my name as well as 2 credit cards and student loans.

 

jebus.... $70*12 = $840 a year for liability only. that is rough. go to an actual insurance agent, they may be able to get you a better rate. you aren't locked into progressive, you can change at any time.

 

If you can't afford to get full coverage on a bike you have to finance, maybe you all need to reconsider the purchase. If anything happens to your bike, you're stuck paying on a loan with nothing to show for it. At the very least get Gap coverage. I also have the Kawi credit financing. But apparently, they jacked the rates up now. I'm at 3.99%. My understanding is that you need to carry full coverage on the bike if you finance anything over $10k. Also note that your minimum payment also goes up. It'll be $79 vice $49 a month if it's under $10k.

 

jebus.... $70*12 = $840 a year for liability only. that is rough. go to an actual insurance agent, they may be able to get you a better rate. you aren't locked into progressive, you can change at any time.

I agree, I'd look into that. my full coverage is about that much, I found just liability for about $250 a year.

I ended up going through these guys: http://www.sentry.com/CP/ContactUs.aspx

 

Congrats....did you have any other debts in your name??....I am 21 with a score of 674 and they said that some of the reasons they cant raise mine for the full amount is I have a car loan in my name as well as 2 credit cards and student loans.

I have a car loan for 9K, a credit card and another motorcycle loan for 3K. I don't know why you wouldn't qualify, yu're only a couple of points under my score, I qualified with no problem though.

update:
Today I sold my 500 and will be buying my brand new ZX-6R tomorrow!!!!

YEAH!!!!!!!!!

 

If you can't afford to get full coverage on a bike you have to finance, maybe you all need to reconsider the purchase. If anything happens to your bike, you're stuck paying on a loan with nothing to show for it. At the very least get Gap coverage. I also have the Kawi credit financing. But apparently, they jacked the rates up now. I'm at 3.99%. My understanding is that you need to carry full coverage on the bike if you finance anything over $10k. Also note that your minimum payment also goes up. It'll be $79 vice $49 a month if it's under $10k.

Yeah that's right. Anything over 10K MUST be insured with full coverage, anything under 10K can be liability. I'm getting liability and comprehensive just in case my bike gets jacked.

Also, my payments are supposed to be 49 (not that I'll ever send the minimum), but I'll check if they are going to bump up t0 79.

 

I got in on the financing this spring as well. Household doesnt require that you keep full insurance on the bike, but they do have a lien on it (meaning they keep the title til its paid off). This was the way it was explained to me at the dealer and I found it odd but didnt care to argue. On contacting my insurance company (state farm) they said Household does require collision coverage on the bike. Once again, I didnt care to argue since i wanted coverage anyway (since i got the gap insurance). This works out to $500/yr + $300 for 5 yrs of gap (or however long the bike is financed) so i feel pretty well covered. It would suck to have a $8000 loan for a pile of scrap parts sitting in my garage.

One other thing I thought i'd mention in case anyone hadn't figured it out: The minimum payments on a typical bike with the kawi financing is a BAD idea. I financed $8700 to get my ZZR plus maintenance, gear, and gap ins. This means that I would be paying around $40 a month in interest and $9 toward the principle. At the end of the 24 months, the refinance would be killer! They would probably stick you with over $200/mo in payments, since the balance will still be pretty high. I have been paying the bike off as fast as I can to try to get it done inside the two years. Unless you have a reasonable principle (under 5k) I would strongly reccomend you do the same.

 

this is exact reason I was thinkin of getting one then turn my head the other way just cause after the 2 years intro % etc.. there gonna stick it to you when they raise the % back up. I like the idea of no full insurance but dont worry I had to take out a 26% personal loan just to get my 600r. Your probally thinking **** 26% but thats with no calatoral or whatever you call it, and the fact my credit score was 690 and not a 720 since 720 and on up usually gets you better interest rates.

 

this is exact reason I was thinkin of getting one then turn my head the other way just cause after the 2 years intro % etc.. there gonna stick it to you when they raise the % back up. I like the idea of no full insurance but dont worry I had to take out a 26% personal loan just to get my 600r. Your probally thinking **** 26% but thats with no calatoral or whatever you call it, and the fact my credit score was 690 and not a 720 since 720 and on up usually gets you better interest rates.

26% is a very high interest rate, I thought the highest legally was 21. I got a loan without a collateral before I applied for the Kawi credit and my rate was 13.9, you should check to see if you can get a better rate cause that don't sound right with your high credit score.

 

26% is a very high interest rate, I thought the highest legally was 21.

I think you're half right. As far as I know, it's 21% + prime, which means if prime rate is 7%, you could be paying 28%.

 

I applied at the time for 3-4 other loans, 2 wanted collateral but at the time I didnt have anything for them and they wanted a cosign so I went with the 26% cause it was instant on the spot check for $3000. Im trying now to actually get another loan thats lower and buy a newer bike and let my friend thats 19 take the $100 payment on my zx600 and pay me for it.

 

I applied at the time for 3-4 other loans, 2 wanted collateral but at the time I didnt have anything for them and they wanted a cosign so I went with the 26% cause it was instant on the spot check for $3000. Im trying now to actually get another loan thats lower and buy a newer bike and let my friend thats 19 take the $100 payment on my zx600 and pay me for it.

Good luck homie, I hope it all works out. Keep looking, you'll find what you need.

 

I just received my kawi credit card in the mail and it says the APR is 18%. How are some of you guys getting 4 and 5% APRs? They approved me for a $7000 line of credit. I was hoping the interest rate would be lower b/c i might as well buy it with my visa card with those kinds of rates. BTW i'm 22 and my credit score is 738. Can anyone give me some tips on how to lower the rates?

 

Thats just insane to pay 18% when you got a credit score of 738. Im 22 and my credit has dropped in last year cause of too much revolving debit basically I ow alot of $$ on bills but my payment history is solid 100% on time. Usually if you have a score of 720+ you get the best interest rates. With your score it might pay to find a loan with lower apr and consolidate this kawi card to it. Do it fast too while your score is 738 cause soon as credit reports find you got a $7000 balance on credit you might drop from 738 down to 700 easy. Let me put it this way, I had a credit score of 680-700 and I coudnt get from anyone a loan for $3000 to buy my bike so I had to take out a woppping 26% interest loan just cause I didnt have a 720+ score.

 

What do you mean find a loan w/ a lower APR and consolidate the Kawi card to it? Do you mean just buy the bike w/ the kawi card and pay it off using the loan from another unsecured loan? I could probably find a lower APR unsecured than 18% but i won't be able to find one thats down into the 4 and 5% range. This was the main reason i applied for kawasaki credit, theres no way i can afford full coverage on a sportbike and i thought this was gonna be my ticket. I wonder if there is anyway i can renegotiate the APR on the card? Thanks for the help.

 

If you can away with no full insurance and pay 18% then your breaking even in my view. I would pay 18% for a new bike anyday as long as I can just put basic insurance on it. Curious if you bought a new bike and how much the payment a month is.

 

Well from what I understand the Kawasaki credit through Household is just like a regular credit card, so I think there is just a minimum payment (not recommended), so its pretty much up to you depending on how long you want the term to be. If i used my whole kawi credit limit ($7000) and wanted to repay it in 3 years, my payments would run about $265 a month. With an APR of 5% my monthly payment would be about $215, about $50 less per month. The payments on a 4 yr term @ 18% is $215. So basically the difference between an APR of 5% and 18% is paying the same amount for a 3 yr term v. a 4 yr term. So, as you can see, getting a lower APR is very important.

 

sbc44,

You need to contact HRS/Kawi credit and find out why your rate is so ridiculously high. My credit scores are a bit higher than yours and I got the 3.99% promo when they had it going. You mentioned your credit score is 738 but what are the other ones? Remember, creditors look at all three credit bureaus. If the 738 is an average of your three scores, I wouldn't take that 18% interest rate and will definitely call them to protest. Heck I had no problems getting them to approve me for another $10k increase on the Kawi card. Took the customer rep 10 minutes to process my request and it was also equally quick when I initially applied for the credit card. If it were me and I was faced with an unexplained high interest scenario, I would have waited on buying a bike. To finance a bike with such a high interest rate is like burning your money. And something you all may not have noticed. The Kawi card charges interest on a daily basis. It's a subtle difference but it does affect the ultimate interest you pay over the life of the loan.

 

Ok i just talked to Household and the woman i spoke to told me the 18% was the default rate. At the time of purchase there are usually promotions that apply so the APR that i end up with will depend on if i qualify for the dealer incentive i guess. Does anyone know of any promotions going on right now, or are they usually geographic? I'm gonna run up to the kawi dealer here in town later today and see if they have any ZZR600s in stock