If you need to buy a vehicle and don’t have ample savings to buy it outright, you’ll need financing. Fortunately, there are steps you can take beforehand to improve the auto loan rate you can get.

The first step before making any expensive major purchase is to decide ahead of time how much you can afford to spend. Deciding this based on the state of your finances, rather than the vehicle you’d like to own, is smart move number one.

Next, you’ll want to inspect your credit report and score. The higher your score, the lower the interest rates lenders will offer you. So it’s worth spending time on this well ahead of car shopping. If you see errors on your report, you can request they be corrected or removed, which may raise your score.

If you can swing it, it’s also wise to pay down balances on other loans or credit cards before applying for the new auto loan. How much debt you currently hold, as compared to your income, is an important determinant of your credit score, so the smaller your total debt, the better auto loan terms you’ll be offered.

Once you feel your credit report and score are as boosted as you can manage before needing to buy a vehicle, it’s equally critical to diligently shop around. Auto loan rates vary wildly across lenders, but researching them is not difficult online. Oftentimes, credit unions offer the lowest rates, but you may unearth a better rate from a bank or an online lender.

It’s true this homework will take you a little bit of time. But maximizing your credit score and then choosing the best rate from a number of options can save you hundreds or even thousands of dollars for just a few hours’ work.