What a car buying service costs, and what we charge

A car buying service or car broker costs anywhere from nothing (dealer-funded programs) to about $1,000 for a full-service human negotiator. SnagMyCar costs $499 in total: a $99 deposit when you sign up and $400 only after the dealer's buyer's order matches the price you picked. If we don't beat your best written quote, you pay nothing.

What you pay SnagMyCar

The fee does not change with the price of the car, and it is not a percentage of what you save. The $499 is the whole fee from us. Anything you pay for the car itself, including delivery, goes to the dealer.

The guarantee

If we don't beat the best written out the door quote you already have, your $99 deposit is refunded and you pay nothing. The comparison is total against total: the out the door price you bring us versus the best out the door price our dealer rounds produce for the same car.

This guarantee is measured against your own written quote, not against MSRP. That matters, because almost every buyer already pays below sticker. Kelley Blue Book data put the average transaction price about $1,763, or 3.4%, below average MSRP in August 2026. A service that brags about savings off sticker may be taking credit for a discount you would have gotten anyway.

Factory orders and exotic brands

The fee is the same if you are factory ordering a custom build: $99 at signup and $400 once the dealer's paperwork matches the price you picked. You send us your configurator build code or summary, and we get written quotes on that exact build from the brand's dealers in your radius, covering the price relative to sticker, any market adjustment, deposit and refund terms, and estimated delivery timing. We then handle the dealer through order confirmation and delivery.

The same applies to luxury and exotic brands sold through US dealers, such as Ferrari, Lamborghini, Bentley, Rolls-Royce, McLaren, Aston Martin, Lotus and Maserati. On allocation-limited models, the fee often buys a removed market adjustment, a fair deposit and a firm delivery slot rather than a discount off sticker. Weigh it on those terms. See factory orders and luxury and exotic cars for details.

What we never charge or collect

We never take money from dealers or lenders, and we never handle the money you pay for the car. Your $499 is our only income from your purchase. That is why we have no reason to steer you to a particular dealer or loan.

What you pay the dealer vs. what you pay us

People sometimes mix these up, so here is the split. Everything for the car goes to the dealer. Only the service fee comes to us.

Doc fees deserve a look because they vary so much. CarEdge's dealer quote data puts the national average at $477, with some states capping the fee and others not. That data comes from a competitor's report, and state rules change, so check your state's current rule. Our doc fees by state guide covers the states we serve.

How much other car buying services cost

These are the published fees we found on each company's own pages, as of October 2026. Prices change, so check the linked source before you decide.

Why "free" is not always free

Free programs are paid for by dealers. That is not a scandal, but it shapes what you get. Jalopnik's comparison of these channels describes the prices from Costco and TrueCar as fair rather than the best available, notes that out the door totals are often missing, and points out that Costco matches you with one dealer rather than several. A dealer-funded program has no reason to make dealers bid against each other. A buyer-paid service does.

If a free program gets you a written out the door quote, that is useful. Bring it to us. It becomes the number our guarantee has to beat.

When a car buying service is not worth it

We would rather you keep your $99 than pay for something that cannot help. Skip us, and probably any negotiator, in these cases:

• Direct-sale brands. Tesla, Rivian, Lucid and Polestar sell at a set price with no franchised dealers competing. There is no one to negotiate with.
• Hot models selling at sticker. When a model has waitlists and every dealer has buyers lined up, dealers have little reason to compete. Automatch's own Jalopnik writing notes that waitlisted cars leave little room for discount. A service can still remove junk add-ons, push back on a market adjustment and pin down a delivery slot, but if you are only after a discount, the savings may not cover a fee.
• You already have a strong written quote and the time to shop it. If you are willing to email a dozen dealers yourself, you can get much of the same result. Our comparison of hiring a broker vs. negotiating yourself lays out the do-it-yourself path.
• Cars with only one or two dealers nearby. If only one or two dealers within your radius have the car, there may not be enough competition to beat a good quote by more than the fee. Widening your radius or accepting delivery can help.
• Used cars and leases. We only handle new-car purchases right now.

A simple break-even check

Take a hypothetical $40,000 car and say your best written out the door quote is already a few percent under sticker. Our fee pays for itself if the dealer rounds beat that quote by more than $499 on the total. If the rounds beat it by less than $499, you still save some money but less than the fee. If they do not beat it at all, the guarantee refunds your $99 and you owe nothing.

Our guide to whether a car broker is worth it works through more scenarios, and the out the door calculator helps you check a quote you already have.

Financing is separate, and free

We do not sell or arrange loans, and we earn nothing from them. Before you start, get a pre-approval from a credit union or bank. Then let the dealer try to beat it. Experian put the average new-car loan APR at 6.35% in Q2 2026, and dealers can mark up a lender's rate, so a pre-approval gives you a firm number to compare against. This costs you nothing extra.

To see the whole process from deposit to delivery, read how SnagMyCar works. To compare services side by side, see our car buying services roundup.