Gravity Lending Auto Refinance and Lease Buyout Loans: 2024 Review

Full Review of Gravity Lending

Gravity Lending partners with a network of approximately 70 lenders — including several top federal credit unions — to provide auto loan refinancing and lease buyout loans. It also offers cash-out auto refinancing, so borrowers with vehicle equity may be able to receive cash with a new refinance loan. Gravity Lending doesn’t offer purchase loans.

When you submit an application, Gravity Lending will attempt to pre-qualify you with its lenders using a soft credit check, which will not affect your credit scores. However, lenders you are matched to may use a hard credit inquiry to move forward with approving your loan, before you see and accept the actual pre-qualified offer. Because of this, Gravity Lending may not be the best choice if you’re on the fence about getting a loan and only shopping rates.

Through its network of lenders, Gravity Lending offers a great deal of flexibility for loan applicants — including lenders that have no minimum credit history or income requirements. Unlike many other auto loan aggregators, Gravity Lending doesn’t have origination or processing fees itself, although a few lending partners could charge such fees.

The majority of Gravity Lending borrowers can be matched to lenders that offer an interest rate discount of 0.25 to 0.50 percentage points when automatic payment is used.

Table of contents

Gravity Lending at a glance

Gravity Lending may be a good fit for those who ...

Do you qualify for a Gravity Lending auto loan?

How to apply for a Gravity Lending auto loan

How auto loan rates work and how we collect them

How do we review auto loan aggregators?

Gravity Lending at a glance

Gravity Lending works with many different lenders, so the information provided here is general and can reflect the high or low end available among its lending partners.

• Restrictions

  • Maximum vehicle age: 15 years for refinancing; 5 years for lease buyouts.

  • Maximum vehicle mileage: 150,000 miles.

  • Other vehicle restrictions: Does not refinance or do lease buyouts for commercial use vehicles.

  • Loan amount minimum: Prefers $10,000 but can make loans for a lower amount.

  • Loan amount maximum: $250,000.

  • Maximum loan-to-value ratio: 186%.

  • Refinance time restrictions: Will refinance as soon as the previous loan's paperwork is complete and the title can be transferred.

  • Bankruptcy restrictions: Minimum of one month since bankruptcy discharge.

• Other loan details

  • Approval speed: Immediate in most cases.

  • Initial deferred payment: Up to 90 days.

  • Existing loan payoff: Funds are sent directly to the previous lender, electronically if possible. Otherwise by check.

  • Selected payment due date: Borrowers can select their payment due date at any time during the application process.

  • Maximum debt-to-income ratio: Can be greater than 100%.

  • Hardship plans: Does not know if lending partners offer hardship options.

• More lender details

  • Contact options: Phone, email, text. Spanish-speaking agents available by phone, email and text.

  • Availability: Mon-Fri 8 a.m.-6 p.m. CT, Sat 9 a.m.-1 p.m. CT.

  • Online resources: Offers a resource page with topics about refinancing a car, a glossary of common refinancing terms and auto refinancing FAQs.

  • Related services: Offers guaranteed asset protection (gap insurance), depreciation protection, vehicle debt protection, vehicle service contracts and vehicle protection plans. If selected, these can be rolled into the auto loan for an additional price.

Gravity Lending may be a good fit for those who:

• Want assistance with the loan process. Applicants receive one-on-one assistance from a loan officer throughout the process.

• Need more flexible loan requirements. The Gravity Lending network includes lenders that have no minimum credit history or income requirements.

• Could benefit from having a co-applicant. Gravity Lending can match applicants to lenders that allow both co-signers and co-borrowers. Having a co-applicant can help borrowers who might not qualify alone.

Do you qualify for a Gravity Lending auto loan?

Gravity Lending’s basic eligibility requirements to apply for an auto refinance or lease buyout loan include the following:

• U.S. citizens, permanent residents, individuals with an ITIN and anyone with a work visa may qualify.

Here are Gravity Lending’s minimum borrower requirements to qualify for an auto loan. Note that meeting these requirements doesn’t guarantee approval. However, since aggregators work with a network of various lenders, some may be more flexible with minimum requirements when considering an applicant's total financial picture.

• Minimum credit score: 500.

• Minimum credit history: At least one lending partner has no minimum length of credit history requirement. Among lenders that have a minimum, the shortest is three months.

• Maximum debt-to-income ratio: Can be greater than 100%.

• Minimum annual income: At least one lending partner has no minimum income requirement. Among lenders that have a minimum, the lowest is $24,000 annually.

Before you apply for auto refinancing or a lease buyout loan

Check your credit. You can get your free credit report on NerdWallet or at AnnualCreditReport.com. If you find errors, file a credit dispute to correct them before you apply for an auto loan.

Figure what monthly payment you can afford. Use an auto refinance calculator or lease buyout calculator to determine what APR and repayment term you need to get monthly car payments that fit your budget. An auto refinance calculator also shows how much you can save by refinancing.

Gather your documents and information. Gravity Lending requires the following to submit an initial auto loan refinancing or lease buyout application: address, time at address, phone, email, birthdate, employment status, employer name, income, housing status, housing payment amount, basic vehicle information.

» MORE: Compare auto loan refinancing lenders

How to apply for a Gravity Lending auto refinance or lease buyout loan

1. Apply to pre-qualify on Gravity Lending’s website. Use the “Apply Now” button to submit information like employment status, income, housing information and basic details about your current car. You also have the option to provide your Social Security number, which helps to match you to the correct credit bureau information. Gravity Lending also has the option to apply by phone at 888-602-1125. At this point in the process, pre-qualification with a soft credit inquiry is used to determine whether you can be matched with a network lender. A matched lender will do a hard credit inquiry to move forward with approving your loan, and this could occur before or after you accept the pre-qualified offer. A hard credit inquiry may cause a slight, temporary drop in your credit scores.

2. Discuss and accept your loan offer. If you pre-qualify and are matched to one or more lenders, a Gravity Lending loan officer will present what they determine to be the best offer from a single lender. The lender’s offer may show you options for different loan terms and payment amounts.

3. Stay on top of your loan payments. According to Gravity Lending, all of its lending partners report loan payments to the three major credit bureaus, so on-time payments will help build your credit score, but missed payments will hurt it. Setting up automatic payments if available is a good way to make sure your payments arrive by the due date.

How auto loan rates work and how we collect them

The auto loan APR range NerdWallet displays is provided by the aggregator. We make every attempt to keep rates updated, by sending out bimonthly rate surveys and encouraging aggregators to send us updates when rates change. We also compare these rates to APRs on the aggregator's website, if available. The accuracy of our rates depends on the information aggregators provide to us. It’s always a good idea to check average auto loan interest rates, and compare to similar aggregators or lenders, to determine if the provided rate seems realistic.

We ask aggregators to provide the lowest rate among their lending partners without including any potential rate discounts. We also ask that the provided rate be one that at least 10% of applicants applying for the lowest rate have qualified for in the previous three months. The lowest rates shown are typically available only to borrowers with good or excellent credit (a FICO score of 690 and above).

We also ask aggregators for the highest rate among their lending partners, which typically reflects rates available to borrowers with fair or bad credit (a FICO score in the mid-600s or below). The highest interest rates result in higher monthly payments and more total interest paid.

Actual rates received by this aggregator’s auto loan borrowers may be different from the rates shown in this review.

How do we review auto loan aggregators?

NerdWallet's review process surveys companies that offer any combination of new car purchase loans, used car purchase loans, auto refinance loans (traditional and/or cash-out) and lease buyout loans. These companies include direct lenders and aggregators; the latter group doesn't have in-house loan products but matches borrowers to third-party lenders within a network. Our aim is to provide an independent assessment of providers to help arm you with information to make sound, informed judgements on which ones will best meet your needs. We adhere to strict guidelines for editorial integrity.

Because aggregators are not the actual lender and servicing of the loan passes to the lender in most cases, NerdWallet focuses most heavily on the front end of the loan process. This includes level of service/support and transparency, with less focus on the actual loan product. In all, our survey for aggregators includes more than 60 data points. NerdWallet independently confirms product details and, when necessary, follows up with company representatives. At least two writers and an editor verify the facts for every lender review to ensure data are accurate.

To receive a star rating, an aggregator must respond to NerdWallet’s annual auto loans survey. Star ratings are then assessed from poor (one star) to excellent (five stars).