How President McCain Might Have Handled Iran

Days like today are one reason I supported the no-nonsense war hero John McCain over Barack Obama.

After the presidential election in Iran was apparently stolen, thousands of protesters took to the streets. Instead of the United States boldly supporting the cause of liberty, and defending dissidents, President Obama meekly said, "It's not productive given the history of U.S.-Iranian relations to be seen as meddling."

That -- of course -- was not a great moment in leadership.


President John F. Kennedy did not say we would "bear any burden -- so long as we don't interfere." Nor can one imagine Winston Churchill saying, "We will fight on the land -- so long as we don't meddle." Nor can one imagine Ronald Reagan saying "Tear down this wall! -- if you're cool with it..."


If the strongest nation in the free world is not willing to take a stand and at least provide moral support for those willing to risk their lives for liberty, the America I know is long gone. While it is understandable for Obama to not invade a nation over this injustice, it is quite another thing to not even bother to forcefully condemn it. Having a humble foreign policy does not preclude one from moral clarity.


Meanwhile, Republican House Whip Eric Cantor (R-Va.) released a statement calling on Obama to "take a strong public position in the face of violence and human rights abuses." Cantor added that the United States has a "moral responsibility to lead in opposition to Iran's extreme response to peaceful protests." Cantor's full remarks are here.


We'll never know what President McCain would have said, but it's pretty safe to say that he would have taken a forceful stand -- once again positioning America as a beacon of freedom and the last, best hope on Earth.


Instead, we risk becoming a cynical nation that makes decisions based on perceived short-term diplomatic gain.


That's not change I can believe in.



Tags: Car Dealer Pictures, credit repair va, F&I Manager Blog, credit repair blog, dealership denial solution, f&i compliance blog

Live Within Your Financial Means

Actually, you should live below your means!

The most important way to generate wealth is to live within or below your means.

For example, if you make $30,000 a year, then live like you make $25,000 a year and save, pay down debt, or invest the remaining $5,000.

So many of my friends that have incomes over $50,000, $75,000 and even $150,000 have spent everything they’ve earned and have almost nothing to show for it.

Don’t try to compete with your friends or neighbors, don’t spend money fruitlessly, and most importantly, don’t spend more than you make.

Many people read this and think, “I’d love to spend less money but I can’t, I have to pay my car payment, the credit card bills, groceries, I need a vacation, I need new clothes for work, etc, etc.” Most of these expenses could be avoided or deferred (like a vacation, a car purchase or buying clothes).

The other expenses (like your credit card expenses or mortgage) could likely have been avoided if you had lived within your means when you created the expense.

For example, your car payment would be less if you’d opted for the used versus new car, or your credit card expenses would be lower if you hadn’t bought that new computer or those 5 pairs of shoes.

Even your mortgage or rent could be less if you chose a different location to live. With that said, there is a fine line between spending appropriately and spending above your means. Just remember that it is always better to forego purchases until you can pay for them in cash rather than to borrow from the future to meet your needs now. The most common exception to this rule is buying a house.

Although it will raise your cash expenses dramatically, it is often wise because 1) it’s an investment which will add to your future net worth, 2) the interest is tax deductible which effectively lowers your income tax liability, 3) your mortgage payments will add to your net worth as you pay down the principal on the loan, and 4) you were probably paying rent anyway so it will in effect turn your rent payment into an investment.

Great advice!

Check out: The Chronicles of Barack Obama, Credit Repair va, repair credit, f&i, Credit Repiar Blog, F&I Manager Blog

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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The Credit Restoration Factory

Automotive Finance F&I Insurance:

The Credit Restoration Factory exists to help restore good credit to good people. We employ a team of prior mortgage loan officers and automotive finance managers with years of loan approval experience.

Together, we have created the Credit Restoration System. The system is tailored to the individual needs of each client and the results of our personal touch will amaze you at the speed with which your credit will become "good" again.

I just left the dealership where I was approved for my first new car and got a low interest rate. Thank you Credit Restoration Factory!

Our CommitmentAt the Credit Restoration Factory, we treat our clients with courtesy and integrity. We guarantee a taylored, realistic, credit repair plan and honest financial advice that will achieve results. We will lead you on a course to financial freedom. Our consistent track record of uncompromising ethics instills confidence and trust.

We use personalized cutting edge technologies to help remove negative items from our client's credit reports. Along with sound financial advice, our goal of restoring our clients good credit and keeping it restored will become a reality.

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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.

Merry Christmas 2007 !!!

Merry Christmas 2007 !!!

Finance Blog

Happy New Year 2008

Happy New Year 2008.

Maybe I can keep 2007's resolutions this year.

Finance blog

Posted by Andrew Simone at 11:43 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)
Are these words important? You be deciduous!
Mr. Kottke linked to the new book 100 Words Every High School Graduate Should Know with the sneer, "Alternate title: 100 mostly useless words."

Here's the complete list.

I would never buy this book in a million years, but that's not because I think these words are "mostly useless." Some of them, though, you'd have to have been totally playing hooky to get through high school without, no? For example,

chromosome
circumnavigate
deciduous
equinox
gerrymander
hypotenuse
impeach
kinetic
laissez faire
photosynthesis
respiration
suffragist

And others, though perhaps not as widely used as they should be, are very far from useless, or even uncommon. It's quicker to pick out the words I don't use or often read than to list the ones I do, but I can't imagine doing without these:

auspicious
facetious
feckless
homogeneous
impeach
incognito
infrastructure
interpolate
irony
lugubrious
metamorphosis
obsequious
omnipotent
plagiarize
precipitous
reciprocal
subjugate
tempestuous
totalitarian
usurp
vehement

Interesting. Post a comment?

Here is an absolutely fabulous article!!!

Strategic Options for Growth for Auto Financing Sources
By Marguerite Watanabe
Page 1 of 3


With 81 percent of top lender executives looking for changes to pricing, a new pricing software tool that’s emerged could change the game. Market insider gets behind this and other trends that continue to fuel lender growth while keeping automotive retail afloat.


In the world of auto financing, we can always say there is a challenge being faced. There was the subprime fallout of the early 1990s, the leasing problems that plagued the industry later that decade and into early the next decade, taking out a few players. More recently, the Detroit captives have been under great duress, having the dual responsibility of being the main financial contributor to their owners’ bottom lines while having to look good when held up for sale. Then there’s the subprime mortgage problems, which are looming over the nonprime auto financing industry like a dark cloud.
Despite these challenges, it is easy to point to the positive impact automotive financing has had on the automotive industry. Consumers can buy a car or truck today more easily and faster than ever. Special lease payments and zero-percent financing programs have helped bolster sales for manufacturers and build showroom traffic for dealers. The availability of financing to credit-challenged buyers has also provided a better opportunity for dealers to close the deal.

What’s clear is that auto financing sources and products are keys to building the strength of the auto industry. While the competition is quite intense and pressure on margins continues to mount, auto financing sources remain persistent as they continue to find ways to grow their businesses profitably for their dealer base and for their shareholders. The more solid the auto financing bank or company is, the more confident dealers can be in placing their trust in these industry partners.

There are a number of strategy options financing sources can employ to grow business: place, products, pricing and promotions. We’ll also throw in procurement and partnership. Let’s look at each growth strategy in more detail.

Place: Lenders Look to Expand Through Deeper Dealer Penetration

“Place”can mean geographic or market expansion. Auto financing sources can choose to broaden their reach by offering financing in new cities, metropolitan areas, states or even countries. Auto financing companies will typically expand into a new territory as they grow confident in their ability to meet the needs of their dealers and owners.

Auto financing has even gone global. Automotive captives and several U.S. auto financing companies are doing business in Canada. Names include AmeriCredit and Wells Fargo Auto Finance. A number of the automotive captives have international operations with offices in North and South America, Europe and Asia, supporting their manufacturers and dealers in these markets. We must keep in mind that it goes both ways, as several foreign financing companies have taken an interest in the U.S. auto financing market — the Bank of Scotland owns Citizens Bank of Rhode Island and HSBC’s global base is in London. Banco Santander of Spain recently bought Drive Financial. And Aozora Bank of Japan is part of the investment firm Cerberus, which currently owns 51 percent of GMAC Financial Services and now owns 81 percent of Chrysler Financial.

Place can also mean deeper sales penetration among dealers, the “place” where the retail contracts or leases are originated. Dealer penetration includes increasing volume from current and active dealers, as well as those with signed but dormant dealer agreements. Of course, signing on a completely new set of dealers is always a growth option. More recently, independent dealers have become a target of auto financing sources. While independent dealers are almost always looking for additional financing sources, auto financing sources are looking for the best candidates among the 44,000-plus independent dealers with which to partner.

Page 2


Products: Full-Spectrum Lending Only Part of Trend
Offering new “Products” to dealers or customers can also allow an auto financing company to grow. Dealers arrange retail installment, lease and balloon contracts on behalf of auto financing sources. In the past, it has been generally clear as to what type of paper an auto financing source would purchase. More recently, auto financing banks and companies have chosen to extend criteria either up or down the credit spectrum or have become a full-spectrum financing source by moving in both directions simultaneously. There is much to learn from dealers and auto finance companies on how successful this strategy will be with originations and servicing processes varying both ends of the spectrum greatly.

New technology and processes are also allowing auto financing sources to differentiate themselves in a Product-like fashion. For example, the implementation of e-contracting and e-processing has already become a means to gain a competitive advantage against other financing sources. It has also become a way to improve dealer satisfaction. Decisioning and funding times have become a race on the originations side. There will likely be other ways in the future in which technology will allow financing sources to gain an edge with their dealers. While dealers will not judge a financing source on the amount of technology it has implemented, they certainly will evaluate their financing sources on what that new technology can do for them. That’s why auto financing companies must be alert to how they can meet customer needs.

Direct financing product offerings allow an auto financing source to build brand equity and consumer relationships. While these products do not provide a revenue stream to the dealer and may even be viewed as a competitive product to the dealer, more full-spectrum and nonprime auto financing companies are introducing these products. Some are doing so in defense of their own territory, others as a full-out growth strategy.

Finally, additional dealer financing products can strengthen dealer-customer relations. These dealer financing products may include floor plan financing, capital loans, equipment loans, cash management services and wealth management and planning. While captives tend to have a deeper penetration of floor plan accounts, banks can often provide a more-rounded offering of financial services.

Pricing and Promotions: Competition Leading to Changes

Pricing and policies can be modified to promote an auto financing source’s portfolio volume and growth. Often this is done in reaction to competitive activity. However, pricing and policy changes must be made carefully for a number of reasons. First, dealers are looking for consistency and dependability from their financing sources. Constant changes in pricing and policies can quickly work against this desire. Also, in order for auto financing companies to be reliable, they must remain profitable.

As the concept of a non-profit, auto-financing source has yet to emerge, auto financing sources must look for ways in which to offer the best product pricing within their own limits of survivability and profit. New tools have emerged to help auto financing companies measure this (see side bar on page 60).

Dealers often ask for consistency and buying depth from their auto financing sources. One area in which auto financing sources can improve consistency is with pricing. In fact, in a recent pricing survey of the top 21 auto finance executives, 81 percent plan to improve pricing processes in the next year.

Page 3


What might fuel this change is an emerging pricing software tool. It is designed specifically for the auto financing industry. It is a game-changing approach that creates a competitive advantage for auto financing sources and dealers by revealing valuable insights about the impact of price on customers and performance. It also enables pricing executives to make decisions within a strong compliance framework.
Based on an analysis of historical data and an understanding of current pricing and performance, the software can review a series of peak performance objectives and how these objectives compare to baseline performance. It provides visibility into the impact of each objective and helps determine which objective to pursue for the portfolio, product or particular segment. Auto financing sources can basically combine their art with science in changing prices. This enables a more targeted dealer/customer-centric approach to pricing.

Auto financing sources must also make decisions on policies and “financeable” products as part of their financing package for dealers. These policies, including those relating to reserve, advance amounts, terms, etc., will impact the banks and auto financing companies’ level of competitiveness. This also applies to the exception policies granted. Moreover, the number and type of “financeable” products allowed can also help or hurt an auto financing source when it is looking to build volume. While one policy cannot grow or shrink volume tremendously, all policies and procedures can have some effect on business.

Financing Promotions can also be offered by auto financing companies. The most common and visible are the subvention programs offered through captives. Volume-based incentives and retail-wholesale incentive programs are often available. Other consumer-focused programs include financing offers designed for specific groups, such as college grads.

Procurement: Mergers, Acquisitions and Portfolio Purchases

“Procurement” could represent several new growth strategies — mergers and acquisitions (which are almost always acquisitions), intra-company divisional integration and portfolio purchases. Mergers and acquisitions often lead to an expanded footprint, sometimes not.

Capital One Auto Finance grew by design with its purchases of Summit Acceptance, Onyx Acceptance, PeopleFirst, followed by Hibernia Bank and North Fork Bank. When Wachovia bought WFS Financial, it did so with the intention of growing the auto financing portfolio. However, when it bought SouthTrust Bank, the bank exited the auto leasing industry. Then there’s Wells Fargo Bank, which merged with Wells Fargo Financial Acceptance to create a new Wells Fargo Auto Finance division.

Portfolio purchases have become more common, with the Key Bank portfolio being sold to Capital One and Bank of America being among the largest and most visible. Additionally, whole loan sales are becoming less rare with the largest sold between GMAC and Bank of America. Many smaller deals are being sold on a frequent basis with a variety of “packaging options” available.

Partnership: Dealer Relations and Financing Partners

Lastly, growth can be gained through “Partnerships.” The most obvious partnership for an auto financing source is with its dealers. It is certain that dealers would say they are looking for buying consistency, long-term commitment, reliability and dependability. They are also looking for auto financing sources to understand their business needs. In reality, dealers with a short-term strategy (and memory) look only for the lowest price. Dealers with a longer-term viewpoint are looking for financing “Partners.”

With the consolidation of lender operations, the evolution of dealer financing platforms, auto decisioning and other technologies, the direct relationship a bank or company has with its dealers has changed dramatically. The number of touch points with dealers has decreased over the last several years. Some financing sources see this as an opportunity to grow by allowing more direct contact with the bank or company. Not all financing sources see it this way, but there are those who view dealer relations as their No. 1 competitive advantage.

“Partnerships” created with other financing companies also represent business. Pass-through and private-label programs allow a bank or company to provide a wider range of financing to dealers with an adequate amount of transparency. The awareness of these partnerships with the dealers will vary by type of program and by execution. The goal of these partnerships is to allow finance companies to move toward full-spectrum lending without having to build the infrastructure to support it.

Sign me up!

The idea of an Automotive Salesperson is a good idea. We need to join together to make it work.

I think the job security would be a plus. Maybe the hours would be better and still keep the same avg. pay?

Two recommended finance blogs

Check out these two new finance blogs I've found:

www.FandI2.blogspot.com
www.FandI3.blogspot.com

My secret postAuto Finance F&I Compliance New Car insiders advice

Check out my other 2 sites:

www.Finance2Blog.blogspot.com
www.Finance6Blog.blogspot.com

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