Hi all, I’ve decided to purchase my 2020 Bolt for the residual value of ~$20,000 when lease is up in May. I would like to finance about $12,000 of this purchase. Any recommendations for no-hassle lenders that will not try to upsell me on gap insurance or unnecessary stuff? I have great credit (758 FICO). So far Tresl is top of my list but I haven’t gotten my official rate yet from them.
Also, I’m a bit confused as to the lending process for lease buyouts because I’m reading reviews about a lot of these lenders and seeing that its taking several months for buyers to get their title and documents transferred. It sounds like this process is more complicated than getting a used auto loan.
Thanks @drdvrgs - I did comb through this thread but didn’t see much by way of good lenders that are easy to deal with. My question here is more in regards to ease of process as opposed to best rate.
The main frustration with credit unions is lethargic service, but you have two months.
I went with the lowest bidder (DCU @ 1.49% at the time) for my lease buyout. Yes, DCU was slow, but the major hassle was dealing with everything that the Ohio BMV required… which took more than one trip to a physical BMV location (including getting new plates).
The hassle part wasn’t variable based on who did the loan.
If you apply today it almost doesn’t matter who you choose, the main variable will be how long you wait for the lender to do their thing(s).
Hassle free lending I chose Lightstream (suntrust bank) alot, but their rate now is super high, 5.99% 36mos. Money deposit into your checking as soon as 24hrs. All you need is 2 W2s and quick phone call from a rep. I’ve done small loans under $15k with them and they were approved within 90 seconds. This is lien free lending that requires tier 1 credit. Only catch here is that autopay is required and paperless billing.
Lightstream is the best option as it is unsecured loans if you’re doing a lease buyout. You pay extra for convenience, as they won’t put their name on the title and rely on you having assets that they could seize in case of default AFAIK.
Does LS deal with the lessor directly on the payoff and facilitate any of the ownership transfer documentation for you, or do they just ACH the money to you and tell you to deal with all of that yourself?
I would imagine it’s the latter since they don’t have a security interest in the vehicle.
On my DCU-funded lease buyout, DCU dealt with BMWFS, and essentially did everything except go to the BMV for me, which is how a standard lease-buyout loan from a bank/CU would work.
It appears to me that the only step you save with LS is you don’t have to provide them with the payoff statement from the lessor, which generally consists of uploading one PDF to a secure web site.
In exchange for avoiding that trivial task, you have to take on all of the overhead of dealing with the payoff lender and ownership transfer paperwork.
The only benefit I see with LS is a shorter time from application to funding (and OP has ~2 months).
Some would correctly argue that with LS you also don’t have to remove the lien later, but I recently did this and it involved showing up at the BMV for an appointment and having the guy eyeball his computer screen to verify that the lien had been canceled by the lender, and then he stamped the title and handed it back to me.
My perspective is when you sell it, you have no lienholder to payoff or satisfy immediately, so you have a bit more freedom.
An example would be a volvo buyout with mythical equity. You use a lightstream to purchase the car, pay tax which dips into your equity, then sell the car with no lienholder immediately, meaning you have your equity in pocket quicker in which to payoff the unsecured loan once complete.
This’d leave you open to less risk, shorter funding, lien removal, etc. no?
There are use cases where not having a lien makes a sale easier, like selling a beater in a private-party transaction for cash on Craiglist. Probably others.
And in other situations, speed of closing may be more important than making the time for the additional overhead and coordination involved with the original finance company and government agencies.
OP was asking what would be most convenient, and I don’t think LS is it for most people most of the time. (Which doesn’t mean it isn’t a great option for certain circumstances.)
Thanks for the input everyone. I tried lightstream but was denied despite having great credit and 40% down payment. My debt to income ratio is slightly high but nothing outrageous. Guess lenders might be tightening restrictions, especially considering all this SVB stuff going down.
I’m trying my hand with Cal Coast Credit Union since someone mentioned in the mega thread that they’re easy to work with. The application was pretty easy and communication has been quick and thorough thus far.
I’ve been talking with a rep at Tresl too who was very nice but they insist on calling me for every little thing and it’s very difficult for me to take calls during work hours. I still don’t know what rate they’re going to offer me and I’m getting tired of all the back and forth.
I do think having a CU do the transaction for me is worth the extra time it might take. I think it’s really my only option at this point anyway.
Update: I was able to secure a loan at around 6.25% from CCCU and they were able to approve and fund within 48 hrs. I was really impressed with the process which was almost entirely done online. I only needed to have one phone call and all other communication was via their secure messaging center. All instructions were super clear and concise.
The other lenders I just kept playing phone tag with and refused to communicate via email which really held up the process for me since it’s not easy to take calls during work.
So yeah, any folks in socal looking for a quick easy lease buyout I recommend them so far.
