I recently petitioned a foreign worker for my company, and I am trying to help him get into a car. He is here legally, will be getting his Social Security number in a couple weeks, and he starts Monday. I remember back in the day there were a few lease options where you could get prime rate with little to no credit. Does anybody know if there are any of these deals available? He will have no cosigner, and he will be making good income, but he doesn’t have a lot of cash and I would hate to see him have to go to a buy here pay here. does anyone have any advice? the goal is to get something as cheap as possible.
He can buy a cheap japanese car, but would need to finance it and I am sure he would get ripped off on financing despite having stable employment.’
No form of transportation. He landed in the states this morning, and starts on monday. He will be using uber and public transport for the short term, and I will be picking him up on a few days since he’s pretty close to my house, bit the idea is to get him fully independent over the next few weeks
These were executive leases from MB/BMW IIRC, typically for executives coming from Europe or Canada, who often already had an AMEX. If this is more like an H1b/TN1, I don’t recall seeing anything like that.
I am sure some dealers or brokers will chime in here, but it is going to be tough to get them financing without any credit history. Even if they do get financing, they will probably have to put some money down.
Whenever they can, I would recommend that they open a checking/savings account with a local credit union.
Buy a beater in cash, pay the ridiculous insurance rates for new drivers with no history, get a Secured Credit card from Discover, let credit age for atleast a year. Credit should be more than 720 by then.
You are asking about a market that doesnt exist and it doesnt exist for a reason.
There seem to be some misconceptions around what leasing is and who benefits from leasing.
The people who benefited most from leasing were those who were going to drive BMWs, Mercedes, etc anyway and found leasing as a way to lower their TCO (total cost of ownership).
They could do so because they had the cash to put down MSD, had loyalty from prior ownership, or had corp/fleet from working at a select list of companies, knew about OL codes and had bought CCA membership, etc etc. And had deep, excellent credit.
Leasing also benefited people who wanted … let’s call them “toys” for lack of a better word and again had the financial security to easily afford the overlapping monthly payments and insurance coverage on those extra cars. People who could pick up a Camaro V8 on a whim, an extra Mini to toss around, maybe even a Jaguar F-type.
Leasing generally does not benefit someone outside of the use-cases you see on this forum. In fact, it’s probably quite harmful to their long-term financial health to put them on a hamster wheel of perpetual payments and higher insurance costs.
A friend who is a recent legal resident bought a used BMW 428 for 20K with 10K financed at 9% apr. which is not bad given that he has little history. The real bummer was that he got sold 850/mo insurance ( single guy in 30s in Cali) because dealer didnt let him drive off without. He cancelled that month next month but still paying $250/mo.
I remember pre-pandemic you could get a forte or elantra for around 200/m, and with bad credit that just went up to around 250. that’s better than 20+% financing even on a cheap car. historically those cars depreciated like crazy so ownership wasn’t great. Kia and Hyundai seem to be a lot more in-demand now though, so I was thinking about those nissan deals. Thanks for the advice though
This has been great advice for 30 years but I think it needs to be retired for the time being. Used Hondas and Toyotas are just to expensive to make sense. Even if you are ok with a 10 year old car with 100,000 miles you will still be paying at least $10,000. It just doesn’t make sense to me. Most of these cars will be fine but at that age and mileage plenty will require expensive repairs within the first year.
If you can in anyway swing the payments a new base model Jetta, Elantra or Impreza is a much better buy. I know we got a Jetta has a second car/car for nanny to use because both new and used prices on Civics and Corolla’s were nuts. Multiple dealerships looked me in the eye after a test drive and were asking around $20K for 3-4 year old Civics. I bought my new Jetta for $23.5K.
With rates now back to more like historical averages this is right. It doesn’t make sense for the average person to constantly be financing the RV + outstanding payments.
Company should advance him $5K-$10K and he buys a beater in cash until he builds up his credit. Personally, I would rather drive a beater than getting ripped off in finance office even if I can afford payments. Not much he can do about the insurance other than getting quotes from all the reputable insurers. Of course, he shouldn’t pay way above the market for the beater as well. Advise him not to walk into a random used car shop; he will be taken to the cleaners. Internet is his friend.
This. Also VW/Audi. These programs work for people coming from countries where these brands have a robust financing presence and can consider the customers credit history from those markets. UK/EU/CA as mentioned.
Having an AmEx goes above and beyond this. My wife is from the UK and lived in SG for a number of years before coming to the US. She got approved at T1 with HMF due to AmEx international credit history transferring to US credit reports because it is a US based global bank.
But if you don’t have an AmEx (with good credit history of course) and don’t come from a country the aforementioned German brands’ finance arms have a robust presence (and want a car from those brands) then you will likely have issues getting good rates.
Im already advancing for living costs, (first month, last, security deposit), paid all visa fees, company laptop, company phone, etc. I really wish I could do more but we are a small company
