0% loans for 84-months at Midwest Chrysler dealers

A growing trend of seven-year car loans has been widely reported, but this holiday shopping weekend some dealers in the country's heartland are adding a twist to the lengthy term.

Through Monday, Dec. 1, Chrysler dealers in certain Midwest states including Illinois, Missouri and Wisconsin are offering 84-month financing deals with 0% interest through Chrysler Capital the company confirmed with Cars.com.

The deal is also only good on three models at this time — the 2015 Chrysler 200 (excluding LX trims), 2015 Chrysler Town & Country and 2015 Dodge Grand Caravans.

No good deal is without the fine print, however, and when it comes to financing offers it all hinges on the shopper's credit score. To secure loans like this, your credit score generally has to be top tier, think 720 and higher. One estimate suggests only 15% of car shoppers generally qualify for 0% offers, and the requirements may be even more stringent for this particular offer.

So why make a big splash with this deal? It's a great hook to get shoppers into the dealership just like any other flashy claim on cash back or other incentives.

But if you qualify and are in the market for one of these cars — or any car with a zero percent deal for that matter — there is nothing wrong in a financial sense for choosing it.

"The few Americans with the sort of sterling credit to even qualify for an 84-month car loan at zero percent clearly have their financial ducks in order, which means they may actually benefit from something like this by leveraging the time value of money," said Cars.com Consumer Affairs Editor Kelsey Mays, who points to investing the savings to generate interest.

Let's say you're buying a 2015 Chrysler 200 for $25,000 with 20% down and sales tax of 7.25% at 0% for 84 months. Your monthly payment will be $259.67. At 1.9% that would be $277.52 over the same term, and at 3.9% it would be $297.14.

But if you did 0% for a more traditional 60-month term, you'd be looking at a payment of $363.54, which takes more than $100 a month out of your hands that you could be putting elsewhere.

Shoppers can use Cars.com's payment calculator (here) to do their own research before they buy. And as always, we recommend shoppers be prepared before heading to the dealer.