Whenever a car is leased, there are several tricks that put more of your money needlessly into the dealer’s pocket. A common tactic is for dealers to offer a fantastic lower interest rate, which in reality is much higher. How?

Most of them give you the interest rate without other fees, such as administrative costs, security deposit, title fee, tags, etc. These charges are enormous and by the time you discover them it will be a little too late.

Another shameless trick dealers use is the money factor. Typically, the money factor determines how much you'll pay in finance charges over the life of a lease: the higher the money factor, the higher the monthly payments. Money factor is expressed as a four decimal, such as .0053. To get a good idea of your actual interest rate (APR), the money factor has to be multiplied by 24. In this case, .0053 multiplied by 24 is 12.72. While showing you the offer, the dealer mentions the money factor, saying that the interest is 5.3.

How to avoid: make sure you know exactly how the interest rate works. Read the fine print or even get a friend to go with you. There is no shame in that.