If you've ever read my website at www.InsiderCarSecrets.com you know that I highly recommend that you arrange your own car financing - preferably before you go car shopping - and that it is absolutely imperative that you keep the car financing out of the price negotiation by not negotiating a payment.

Always negotiate the selling price of the car without car financing and without a trade-in. This is the only way you can be sure what you are actually paying for the car.

The car dealership Finance Office or F & I office has so many ways to make money on you it's staggering. Very often the car dealership will make more profit from arranging the car financing than they do on the sale vehicle itself. This is profit at your expense.

Once in a while a Finance Manager in a car dealership will be able to get you a lower interest rate than you can get yourself, and it's perfectly OK to let them arrange your financing under those conditions as long as you follow these simple steps to protect yourself:

• Always carefully read the car loan contract before you sign it.

• Check the car payment on the loan contract to make sure it's what you're expecting.

• Check the car loan interest rate to make sure it's what they told you it would be.

• Check the "Amount Financed" on the car loan contact to make sure it's what you're expecting.

• Make sure the "term" in months is what you are expecting.

• Make sure the car loan contract has your "cash down," including any rebates listed in the appropriate location.

• Read the car loan contract and the sales order carefully to make sure the car dealer is not adding things like credit life and or disability insurance, an extended warranty, GAP insurance (which is good to have, but that's for another discussion), or anything else such as window etching, appearance protection package, etc. - unless of course - you actually want any of these items.

Some other important things to watch out for are:

• Remember that if you have a trade-in with a payoff that the payoff will be added back into the new loan and it will raise the "Amount Financed," so be ready for the shock.

• If you do indeed have a trade-in with a payoff make sure you get a signed, written statement from the car dealership stating that they will indeed pay off your trade loan and make sure there is a date on the statement as to when the payoff will be made.

• Last but certainly not least get a written and signed statement from the Finance Manager or the Sales Manager stating that your loan is already approved by the loan institution that is taking your loan. If the loan is not actually approved yet don't sign the paperwork and don't take the car until it is.

  If you do, and the loan is not actually approved then they can come back to you and say there was a problem with the car financing, and they have to charge you a higher interest rate or take the car back or whatever. At the very least you have to sign all new financing papers, and the odds of them sticking it to you go up significantly.

  I repeat . . . don't sign or take the vehicle unless the car loan is officially approved by the lending institution. Make the dealership give you written proof of that fact.

Listen, you may be dealing with a completely honest dealer as most of them are, but you must protect yourself. You can't just assume that they are looking out for your best interests. That's your responsibility.

This article was written by Tony Iorio of www.InsiderCarSecrets.com