A fool and his money are soon parted.
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You might have some equity in that vehicle so look into just buying it
A used car loan from a credit union, even if you overpay a bit in this market, on something that will be reliable long-term.
You are not lease candidates now based on your credit - ANYONE telling you otherwise is taking advantage of you.
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Thanks everyone.
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So I’m looking to lease a car, but my credit is low (500s) and I don’t show a ton of income either.
That being said, I could prepay the entire lease and/or find a co-signer, but I’ve been told some companies won’t accept me regardless.
This seems a bit ridiculous, but I guess I’ll have to deal with it. Does anyone know what manufacturers will lease to me? Ideally, they won’t give a damn about credit and just let me pre-pay the lease as I’d prefer to avoid having to have a co-signer. I don’t even mind if I need to pre-pay and put up additional security deposits.
And no, I don’t want to buy a used car.
Do you know what is causing the low credit score? And do you know your auto 08/09 fico scores? I’d say the odds of a lender approving you on a lease is less than 5% if your auto-specific ficos are that low. It doesn’t matter to a lender that you can prepay the lease when you are in the lowest tiers that exist.
If you’ve had a prior repo you’ll need to wait until that drops off.
I don’t recommend anyone with challenged credit and low proof of income to attempt to lease a new car. Save yourself the brain damage and time spent trying to find a lender that will buy your current paper and take the time to build up your credit. You’ll save a ton of money.
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If you have the liquidity to prepay a lease, have you considered financing a cheaper used and reliable car? You can always put a very large down payment on it and make low monthly payments over a short period to quickly build your credit.
I’d recommend three year old camrys or accords. Those are well below the 20k range and shouldn’t be too hard to secure financing with a large down payment.
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That answers that.
What they said.
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Have you considered reaching out to VW regarding a lease extension, provided that your current payments are manageable? I believe the Atlas has an excellent warranty, at least when it first was released. That may have changed since but that wouldn’t have any impact on you. Depending on the length of the extension they will offer that could buy you some time to fix some credit issues as well as ride out the current market conditions.
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It still bears repeating. Individuals in credit building mode should not be trying to buy/lease cars during the most expensive car buying time in modern history.
Then again, maybe we can quickly infer what the true culprit for their poor credit is.
Just bad money chasing after bad. Gotta break that cycle somehow. Sometimes we have to make that “sacrifice” by deciding to do what needs to be done, and not what we want done.
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Don’t waste time getting denied for a lease over and over again. It will hurt your score too.
Take whatever cash you would have used to prepay a lease and add the minimum loan amount from a CU that would approve you. Combine those two amounts and that’s your budget for a new car.
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Do you have a car now? If yes, what make and model.
How much cash are we talking? $15k?
No clue, but if I were in your shoes I would not be looking at leasing a new car. Given current market conditions and your low credit score, leasing might end up being more expensive than financing a car through a credit union.
Why is that?
Don’t have a car as I’ve been living in NYC. Had a loaded 3 series lease prior and financed a 135i before that. In terms of cash I have the funds to buy a car if I wanted, even at $50k or more, but that’s not going to work for a variety of reasons.
Sounds like you have a non-problem. But a civic for two years while you build your credit and then lease the baddest car you can find afterwards?
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Spending 100% cash isn’t going to improve your credit. Paying off an auto loan on time every month will improve your score.
You have to use the cash as a down payment that will lower the LTV on a loan to within their lending limits given your credit score.
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I don’t really care about improving my credit right now. My dilemma is that I have cash, but don’t want to own a car in my name. Kind of ridiculous that I cannot prepay a lease. I guess I’ll have to look into buying a car through an LLC or something.
You’d rather go through the hassle of establishing an LLC and misrepresent the lease usage as opposed to just building credit for future use?
Have at it.
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Even if you pay the lease in whole, you’re only paying for part of the vehicle cost but holding the entire vehicle. As such, your credit is looked at all the same. It’s not just about if you’ll pay for the lease.
HELLO THIS IS EVERY CAPTIVE IN AMERICA: we are not lending our collateral to someone like this. Consider any of our exciting financing options in Tier 7, but we are not buying a car and renting it to you, whether you 1-pay or not. Humans with credit scores like yours are notoriously bad at returning other people’s property, on time, in the agreed condition.
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The consistent theme in these types of discussions is the gap between perception and reality.
Statistics consistently show that someone with a FICO in the 500s has a high likelihood of missing multiple payments, defaulting, disappearing with the vehicle and/or returning the vehicle at the end of the term in rough condition. Sure, 3-5% of the people in that tier will perform better than that but lenders don’t care.
If you are in this credit tier, you need to dig your way out over time by making a ton of good credit decisions along the way. You’ll need to adjust your expectations of what is a realistic vehicle you can drive in the mean time.
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