by. Michelle A. Samaad

Despite their attempts to negotiate pricing just as much, if not more than white consumers, Hispanic and black car buyers still receive higher interest rates on loans financed through dealers.

That finding was revealed in a new report, Non-Negotiable: Negotiation Doesn’t Help African Americans and Latinos on Dealer-Financed Car Loans, from the Center for Responsible Lending, a Durham, N.C.-based nonprofit research and policy organization.

The CRL said it gathered data for the report by conducting a telephone survey of 946 consumers who had purchased a car at a dealership in the prior six years.

Thirty-nine percent of Latinos and 32% of African Americans reported negotiating their interest rate, compared to 22% of white car buyers – yet people of color received worse pricing, according to the CRL report. Minorities also received higher interest rates compared to white buyers who did not attempt to negotiate at all.

More borrowers of color reported receiving misleading information about their loans from car dealers, the data showed.

continue reading »