Auto Finance Tips

From: Edmunds.com

Making sure to finance a vehicle properly will greatly reduce the cost of your next new or used car. "Auto Financing" is a general term meaning how you pay for the vehicle. In most cases, cars are financed by taking out an auto loan to buy or lease the car. This involves getting a credit check. By checking your credit history first, and answering all the tough car finance questions up front, you will be more prepared to handle issues at the dealership.

In the articles on these pages we will not only look at the general topic of car finance but we will consider the related topics of credit history, car loan refinancing, auto insurance and all issues pertaining to special car finance considerations. Although most people don't like to think about the subject of auto financing (instead they like to focus on that shiny new car) it is actually the most important part of car buying. While your credit will be checked by the salesman, often before negotiations begin, this is not the only way you can go to get your new car. You do not have to throw yourself at the mercy of the dealership even for special car finance situations. Being prepared before you get to the dealership will mean that you can take charge of your credit and get the new car loan that serves you best.

Keep this in mind: when you negotiate with the salesman for the most favorable auto loan, nothing is permanent until you have it in writing. The sales contract is prepared once negotiations seem to be over. This is handled in the finance and insurance office (the so-called "F&I Room"). It is here that the deal is made or lost. By reading these articles on new and used car financing you will be better prepared to get the best auto loan possible. And who knows? With the money you will be saving, maybe you can move up to that more expensive new car you've been eyeing.

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Virginia Credit Repair Laws
Because of my bad credit, I recently contacted a credit repair company. They claim that, for a fee, they can clean up my entire credit record. Is that true and, if so, how can they do it?
In today's society, where credit cards have become as commonplace as cash, credit purchases have become more and more popular. This means that a greater number of consumers are being plagued with credit problems and bad credit histories. With this surge of bad credit comes the credit repair companies, promising to undo the damage the borrowers have done.
These credit services businesses often make promises to the consumer that they can clean up or repair the consumer's bad credit record for a fee. What these companies do not tell the consumer is that only outdated or incorrect items may be deleted from his/her credit history. The fact is, consumers can do that themselves. They will also promise to obtain credit cards or other extensions of credit for those with blemished credit histories, or with no credit history at all.
Another problem associated with some credit repair companies is the fact that they are transient, operating out of temporary offices or through post office boxes. Many charge the consumer in advance for their services. When the consumer realizes that little or nothing has been done to fix the consumer's credit, the company has often closed or left town, leaving no trace.
The Virginia Credit Services Businesses Act requires credit service companies to register and post a bond with the State Division of Consumer Affairs (DCA). This allows DCA to identify those credit repair businesses operating within the State, and to verify if the businesses are, in fact, disclosing the required information to consumers.
In addition to companies promising consumers they will improve or obtain an extension of credit, the Act also covers companies charging money simply for referring a consumer to another institution for credit. It is illegal for credit repair businesses to charge for this referral if the credit that would be extended is under the same terms as those available to the general public. Exempt from this law are financial institutions insured by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) or the Federal Savings and Loan Insurance Corporation (FSLIC), licensed real estate brokers, lawyers, consumer reporting agencies, certain nonprofit organizations and broker-dealers registered with the Securities and Exchange Commission or the Commodity Futures Trading Commission.
Companies also are prohibited by law from making any misleading or untrue statements to creditors or consumer reporting agencies regarding a customer's credit worthiness. The business must provide each potential customer with a written information statement outlining the consumer's rights under the Fair Credit Reporting Act, and giving a complete and detailed description of the services to be performed by the credit services business and the amount due.
Credit Services Businesses contracts must contain a three-day cancellation clause. Under the Act, the credit repair company cannot charge or receive any money until their services have been performed in full.
The Fair Credit Reporting Act
The Fair Credit Reporting Act gives consumers the right to obtain whatever information is in their credit file. If a consumer has been denied credit, the creditor is obligated to disclose the name and address of the credit bureau from which they received the information. The bureau will give the consumer a report on his/her file free of charge if the inquiry is made within thirty days of the credit denial. Consumers can contact the credit bureau if any of the file's contents appear to be inaccurate or incomplete. The credit bureau is required by law to reinvestigate any information on a consumer's credit record that he/she disputes. If the information is proven incorrect, it must be deleted from the file. If the facts are true, however, nothing can be done to have them removed from the record. Most negative information, such as late payment on bills, can be kept on file for seven years. A bankruptcy will remain on record for ten years. Time is often the only way to cure a bad credit history.

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Small bump in credit score could mean a cheaper loan

Bob Tedeschi, New York Times

When lenders issued mortgages to anyone who asked, borrowers could largely ignore their credit scores, the most important and most incomprehensible determinant of a loan's interest rate.

But now that banks have tightened their lending standards considerably, borrowers must sometimes search for ways to eke out a point or two more on their credit scores to qualify for loans or for more favorable rates. Mortgage professionals say that some knowledge about the scoring system helps.

"Sometimes, I'll tell borrowers their score, and they'll start yelling at me," said Debra Killian, president of the Charter Oak Lending Group, a mortgage broker and lender in Danbury, Conn., who teaches courses on the credit-reporting industry. "And I have to explain I'm not the one who's generated the score."

The reports come from Experian, Equifax and TransUnion, credit bureaus that evaluate the financial-management abilities of millions of Americans.

Credit-card companies, utilities and other creditors send reports to the bureaus, which rely on software from the Fair Isaac Corp. (creator of the FICO score), along with their own, to grade a borrower on an ascending scale of 300 to 850.

The software is a black box of sorts, whose workings are known only to the companies involved. Each credit bureau will weigh certain factors differently - the number of late payments, for example, or the number of credit-card accounts open.

To account for those differences during the mortgage application process, loan officers review the scores from all three credit bureaus and base their loan offers on the middle number. If a couple - married or not - is jointly applying for a mortgage, the loan officer will choose the middle score of the partner with the lower score.

That score essentially dictates the loan terms that a lender offers. For instance, a borrower with a credit score of 699 will often get a higher interest rate than a borrower with a score of 700. And the higher the interest rate, the bigger the broker's commission from the lender, known in the industry as a yield-spread premium.

That is why, mortgage executives said, borrowers should be proactive about this part of the mortgage process. Killian of Charter Oak said borrowers should ask the broker or lender to explain how their score changes the terms of the transaction.

Brokers buy reports from services that supply data from the three credit bureaus, and each report gives details about items that adversely affect a score.

If a consumer wishes to challenge such items, credit bureaus will do so on the consumer's behalf, or consumers can also call or write creditors directly. Credit-repair services can also help, although people should review their terms carefully because they are popular fronts for scam artists.

This article appeared on page K - 9 of the San Francisco Chronicle

Dealership Sales Methodology

Dealership Sales Methodology
by Arzu Algan

People love cars and the decision-making process: the model, equipment, color and so forth. They take pride in the possession of a new car. What they generally don’t like is the experience of shopping for a new car. They often feel manipulated and mismanaged. Regardless of the deal they negotiated, there is always the feeling they could have done better, or that they were “taken.” Many are convinced that an undercurrent of dishonesty runs through the retail automotive business.

The basics of the automotive sales process are well known. First you advertise to get people in the door. As soon as they are on the premises, you determine the model that interests them and explain the product highlights. While conducting this walk-around presentation, you point out the performance, safety and comfort features. After a test-drive around the neighborhood, you get down to the basics of making the deal: checking and appraising any trade, presenting your first offer at pricing, and taking a deal to management (or sometimes taking management to the deal). With offers, counter-offers and negotiations complete, it’s time to talk financing. After presenting the other dealer services, an F&I (Finance and Insurance) manager calculates the financing, rate and monthly payments. By the time the customer picks up the new car, the salesperson is already focused on the next customer.

That’s the way cars and trucks have been sold for more than 70 years. Today’s consumers require better service, professional qualities and excellent product knowledge. The only way to guarantee an enjoyable shopping experience for your customers is to follow a sales process that is firmly grounded in meeting customer needs and exceeding their expectations:

Attract new customers without relying merely on price-oriented advertising.
Welcome the prospective buyer and establish a relationship, removing the customer’s apprehensions about the process of shopping for a new car.
Determine your customer’s needs, then target your presentation of product features and benefits to meet those needs.
View the delivery process as the beginning of a productive relationship – not the end of the sales process.
These procedures not only help turn prospects into buyers, but set the stage for long-term customer relationships that result in both repeat and referral sales. Today the customer cannot be manipulated by old-fashioned, high-pressure sales techniques. Instead, their needs must be identified through communication.

The same rules apply to the transaction in the Finance Office: customers expect the open communication, respectful treatment, and superior product knowledge they experienced on the sales floor to continue while they meet with the F&I Manager. Should this expectation be disappointed, the customer is likely to abandon the transaction all together.

In the past, F&I Mangers and salespeople alike may have spent 10 percent of the time building rapport with the customer, 30 percent presenting products and 60 percent closing the deal. Nowadays successful F&I personnel and salespeople invest 50 percent of the time building rapport, 40 percent presenting products and dealer services, with the remaining 10 percent usually more than enough to close the deal. Today’s focus is on the relationship between the customer and the dealership personnel, rather than just the mechanics of the deal.