Upside down on your car loan in Des Moines? Here are your options
Auto loans · Des Moines
Upside down on your car loan in Des Moines? Here are your options
If you owe more on your car than it’s worth, you’re not stuck — and you’re not alone.
Being upside down (also called negative equity) is common, especially in the first couple of years of a loan. It’s not a dead end. You’ve got a few real options: keep paying the loan down, look at refinancing, or roll the situation into a different vehicle. Here’s how each one actually works, in plain terms.
What “upside down” actually means
Upside down means the balance on your loan is higher than what your car would sell for today. It happens for normal reasons — cars lose value fast in the early years, longer loan terms pay down the balance slowly, and rolling an old balance into a new car can start you behind from day one.
The gap between what you owe and what the car is worth is your negative equity. The CFPB explains what to weigh when you owe more than your car is worth. The good news: it shrinks over time as you pay the loan down, and it’s a number you can work with — not a verdict. The first step is knowing where you stand, not panicking about it.
Option 1: Keep paying it down
Sometimes the simplest path is the right one. Negative equity closes on its own as you make payments and the car’s value settles. If your payment is manageable and you plan to keep the car, just staying the course often gets you back to even — no new loan, no new paperwork.
If you can put a little extra toward the principal when a month allows, the gap closes faster. But if the payment is the part that’s hard right now, that’s worth a conversation — don’t wait until it’s a crisis. The CFPB lays out practical steps for when car payments get hard. We’d rather hear from you early.
Option 2: Refinance the loan
Refinancing means replacing your current loan with a new one — same car, different terms. People do it to make a monthly payment more workable or to change the length of the loan. Whether refinancing makes sense depends on your current loan, how much you owe versus the car’s value, and where your credit sits today.
Being upside down doesn’t automatically rule out refinancing, though the negative equity is part of what any lender looks at. The honest answer is: it depends on your situation, and the only way to know is to run the actual numbers. That’s a free, no-obligation conversation — more on that below.
From a real Affinity member, Eli, on Google: “Today I refinanced my car with them and it was easy and Megan was great to work with.”
Option 3: Roll into a different vehicle
If the car no longer fits your life — too expensive to keep, too small, unreliable — you can sometimes move into a different vehicle and carry the remaining balance into the new loan. If shaky credit is part of what’s steering the decision, here’s how buying a car with bad credit actually works in Des Moines. This is how a lot of negative equity gets created in the first place, so it’s worth going in with eyes open: rolling a balance forward means starting the next loan a step behind.
That doesn’t make it the wrong move — for some people it’s the most realistic one. The point is to understand the trade-off before you sign, not after. A lender who’ll actually walk you through it beats a dealer who just wants the deal done.
Most banks want you when you’re already doing well. We work with you when you’re not.
Not sure where to start?
Affinity offers free financial coaching — no account required, no pressure, just a conversation about where you are and what would actually help. Ask for Gage.
- Free
- No account required
- No pressure
How a member-first lender looks at more than your score
Here’s where Affinity is different. We’re a credit union and a CDFI — a Community Development Financial Institution, chartered specifically to work with people the bigger institutions screen out on a single number. That charter isn’t a slogan; it’s why we look at more than your score.
When a dealer or a big bank sees negative equity or a credit score that isn’t where you’d like it, they often stop reading. We look at the whole picture — your income, your existing debts, how long ago any hard part happened, and what you’re actually trying to do. Sometimes that means we can work with a situation that got a flat no somewhere else. We can’t promise an outcome — every decision is individual, and no honest lender would guarantee one. What we can promise is a real conversation and a straight answer.
Most banks want you when you’re already doing well. We work with you when you’re not. If your credit is part of the picture, we can talk through that too — here’s our guide to rebuilding credit in Des Moines.
Not sure which option fits? Run the numbers first
Before you decide anything, it helps to see your actual situation on paper — what you owe, what the car’s worth, and what each option would really look like. You don’t have to figure that out alone, and you don’t have to commit to anything to ask.
Gage, our financial coach, will sit down and run the numbers with you — no account required, no pressure, no obligation. It’s a conversation, not an application. You leave knowing your options, whether or not you do anything next.
We’re a Des Moines credit union — you can reach us at our Hoffman Lane or South Army Post Road branches, and we’ve been working with members here since 1949.
Your financial coach
Gage
Financial Coach · Affinity Credit Union
No account, no application, no pressure — just a free conversation about where you are and what would actually help. Bring your questions; leave with a plan you understand.
Frequently Asked Questions
Sometimes, yes — being upside down doesn’t automatically rule it out. The negative equity is part of what a lender weighs, along with your current loan and where your credit sits. Whether it works depends on your specific situation, so the honest move is to run the actual numbers rather than guess.
It depends on where you’re starting. Refinancing can make a payment more workable or change the length of your loan, but it’s not automatically better for everyone. The way to know is to compare your current loan against what a new one would actually look like — that’s a free conversation with no obligation.
It means you owe more on your car loan than the car is currently worth. It’s common — cars lose value quickly in the early years — and it shrinks as you pay the loan down. It’s a number you can work with, not a dead end.
We look at more than your score. As a credit union and a CDFI, we weigh the whole picture — income, existing debts, how recent any trouble was — not just one number. We can’t promise an outcome, but we can promise a real conversation and a straight answer.
Reach out early — that’s the most important thing. We’re the kind of credit union that wants to hear from you before it becomes a crisis. There’s no judgment in asking, and the sooner we talk, the more options there usually are to work with.
Your next step
You don’t have to sort this out alone. Gage, our financial coach, will run the numbers with you and walk through your options — keep paying down, refinance, or roll into something different. No account required, no pressure, no obligation — just a conversation. Reach out and we’ll work with you from there.
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