I recently moved to the US and am trying to lease a 340i. My FICO is nowhere near where it needs to be but I’m keen to lease, just looking for some advice. My FICO is currently pulling at 620 (magically took a 50 point hit before the application, which is super annoying). All accounts are up to date, but history is short and limited. This combined with the fact I want a 24 month/10k lease is not setting me up for winning any awards but I want to see if you think this can be taken any further.
MSRP: $56,480
Sale Price: $50,267 (11% discount)
MF: 0.00236 (ouch!)
Lease credits: $2500 ($2000 BMW, $500 costco)
Drive off is ~$2551 (First month, license, acquisition, tax, $0 down payment)
Monthly is $667 incl tax
I’m also being denied the loyalty credit since my last BMW was owned in the UK, which is super disappointing. It’s tempting to walk away… but I need to get something soon and the MSRP discount is reasonable at least.
You know which BMW has an amazing discount? The gently owned pre-owned lease return.
Use that, finance a small part of it, build your credit and soon you will be driving a 340i for half that price.
All the best and why have you come here to steal our jobs?
lol yeah I agree, the market is flooded with 15/16’s around $15k, try to find one with 30k miles or so. you’d end up paying roughly the same as your lease and you’d have paid off vehicle, which is nice. It’ll help you build your credit and it’ll qualify you for future loyalty rebate
Thanks all. Can anyone offer any insight on the credit tier in play here, and what the MF should be? As long as I’m not getting marked up too hard vs the pre-set tiers it’s possible i’ll stomach the difference.
Other than the MF, are the terms here pretty reasonable?
Anything above 720 qualifies as T1/A but FICO is not the scale dealers use so that score may not be the best score to go by. Dealers use classic credit score.
you getting dinged hard from the short credit history too. Finance looks like your credit score, your credit history and length of history.
Financially, your better off just buying the cheapest most reliable car your ok with and drive it for a yr. Within a yr since credit history has improved with US based Credit cards and utlities, you should be able to hit tier 1 long as you dont have any huge debt and be able to get lot better deal.
if you really need it now, best thing you can hope for is research your area and see if BMW offers multiple msds to buy down the rate. There was a thread on here in certain areas of the country BMW does allow multiple msds.
Not really - I’ve had used cars all my life (including a BMW CPO, and a privately bought BMW). Really wanted to try for a new car. Used cars are almost always a point of some stress after you drive off, even the CPO I bought had several small issues I had to get rectified. I may take the hit in this instance, or at least back off for a month and see what happens to my fico.
I’m In the same boat. Leased cars since I was 19 in the UK with no problem but it’s very much a case of ‘computer says no’ here. I dont have a FICO Auto score yet (apparently you get it after 6 months of having a credit account) I managed to get my score up to 706 easily enough by transferring my UK amex but then took a very annoying 30 point hit by applying for a really decent Lexus deal on an RX350.
Both Lexus and Volvo were a hard no - because I’ve no auto loan history. The finance manager of both advised the score isn’t the issue is the lack of any car finance as both advised their cars are rarely ‘first time’ cars.
What doesn’t make sense is that we’ve been approved for a Highlander lease via my partner who got a credit card one month before me - even though I thought Lexus use TFS too, but I guess they have different acceptance parameters. It was Tier 2 but only because the Lexus 30 point hit on both our profiles otherwise it would’ve been tier 1.
Friends have used expat programmes from BMW, Audi and Volvo and independent brokers, but all of the deals sound pretty awful. I’m looking to get into a 330e but I guess i’ll be waiting until Christmas time to get my FICO auto score.
I was at the same situation. I actually financed car thru Texas credit union which had expat program. They gave me 4% interest rate for my car. It has been boosting credit score and giving me a car history.
But for you: You can consider either one payment lease. You will pay whole amount of your lease with one payment. You ll get approve at BMW (my personal experience) or pick a brand which allows MSD. MSDs help a lot to get approve if you don’t have enough history. As a last option, co-signer with a car history should also work for you.
Don’t think the way, you will have credit score 720 and above and get automatically approved. Unfortunately still won’t have car history.
A lot of good information here already, especially about trying to transfer your Amex card from the UK to US if you had one. Depending on your visa you might be best getting a loan from your bank or credit union as they’ll know what your income is so should have lower hurdles and normally offer lower interest rates.
I moved over ~18 months ago from the UK, we managed to use the Audi and Mercedes expat programs to get vehicles but you’ll struggle to pair it with getting a good deal.
Finance a beater you can pay off in a year or two then look into upgrading.
I wouldn’t finance a BMW that isn’t under warranty though. Go with something more reliable until you have the credit history to finance or lease a car that’s under warranty. You’ll save money and unnecessary stress.
Wow, this topic is priceless. Currently in the same boat, spent 2 weeks trying to get a deal on 2018 i3, and have been building credit history for 1.5 years before moving to the US, however got declined by BMWFS having 740 score because of “inability to verify your employment and limited credit history”. Don’t know what’s the reason with employment verification, however I was hoping that 1.5 years of having credit card is enough to get a $350/month car.
BMW is known for approving anyone with a pulse. Only requires a 675 FICO Auto 8 for best rates/MF. Rates get higher below that. They pull Experian but dealer might pull other bureaus. I’d be surprised if they denied you.
