<prompt> Human: There is a recent post where a salesman gets a customer that has 5,000 for a down payment on a car, to not make the down payment, and instead take out a loan for the full amount at 6.5 APR use some of that 5,000 to pay off a 3,500 personal loan at 24 APR. The car loan only goes up 100 per month while the personal loan was 200 per month. This appears to save him 100 per month. However, there are a few problems with this. First, the customers total debt is now 1,500 more than it would have been if he had made his down payment. But the better APR is going to save him that money you might be saying to yourself.Wrong. You see, the math shows that there was roughly 18 months left on the 3,500 personal loan, while the car loan probably has 3 to 5 years. That 100 dollar savings is NOT saving him anything. Lets look at both cases...Keeping the personal loan - 18 months at 200 per month 3,600Transferring personal loan into car loan - 3 years at 100 per month 3,600They are the SAME amount. He didnt save anything by transferring his money. And unfortunately, the customer likely didnt get a 3 year loan. Suppose he got a 5 year loan. Thats 2 more years of paying the extra 100 per month. In this case, he actually ends up paying 2,400 MORE by transferring the money to the new loan even though it has a lower APR.Not as good as you thought. But theres more. After 18 months, the guys monthly debt payments would have been 200 less. But since he transferred the money, he still has to pay that extra 100 for another year or three. What if in that time, money becomes tight, and the guy can no longer pay that extra 100? Its simple. His car will get repossessed. So now, not only has he committed to pay more money, he is left without a car.You are assuming a very specific scenario that is not likely to happen. Maybe. But any reputable personal finance education will teach you to never transfer unsecured debt to secured debt. It is flat out, a bad idea.Take a debt-consolidating second mortgage for example. You have 20K in CC debt. If you cant pay that, what happens? Nothing really. However, if you transfer that money over to an equity loan on your home which lowers your interest rate, and then you cant pay? You lose your house. The risk just isnt worth it.This post is already too long so I will leave it at that. I just wanted to write and hopefully spread some real Personal Finance knowledge after seeing the scary support that the other thread received. It really wasnt the good choice that everyone appears to think it was.Edit: Just so you know, these bad numbers do not come from me, they come from this thread which you guys have upvoted to the front of rall and given a 95 upvote. I based it from this quote... Now your car payment will go up by about 100 a month however you will also be paying off a bill thats costing you 200 a month.  <response>: Your post is full of nonsense and bad math. customers total debt is now 1,500 morewhereas OP mentions he just paid off his high note AND off another credit card with the 5,000 we didnt take from him.Lets see whether 3,500 at 24 APR over 2 years or 6.5 APR over 3 years is a better deal.Interest for 24 over 2 years: 941.17Interest for 6.5 over 3 years: 361.77And this doesnt include the other 1,500 for the credit card loan. 