Does credit count if lease is paid in full?

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My mother and I would like to get a car for my niece who does not have good credit, we do not want to cosign and we want the car to be in her name. If we pay the full lease amount at signing will her credit be an issue?

Quite possibly. Credit determines whether the bank will fund the loan based on likelihood to repay it, but there are other variables too, such as whether they believe that they will get their asset back at the end of the lease. A one pay lease could help approval odds, but it’s not a guarantee if their credit is very poor.

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Absolutely, yes. The residual is roughly 50% after you make all your payments, and credit is how they model the risk of whether it will be returned in the expected condition.

Unless her credit is disqualifyingly bad (repos? Open bankruptcies?), Mom can cosign as long as her credit is A Tier. Different captives will have different underwriting guidelines, but I’m guessing she isn’t getting anything luxury?

Free advice from an Internet stranger: don’t cosign or volunteer to help beyond researching the deal.

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Yes on the credit ?. Free internet advice, https://www.reddit.com/r/personalfinance/wiki/credit_building
has great credit building resources. But honestly, unless your niece plans on A. actually paying upfront, and B. Actually treating the car like HER car, then I don’t recommend doing this. at all. like run. now.

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Depends. I was able to get a TFS lease approved with no score experian.
Tier1 on a corolla one pay

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More you know, thanks Cody! (Kinda why I left a ?, there’s always Santander or something right?

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Get one of those easy lease brands like any American badge will do

They basically begg for people to lease

Chevy is easy
Cadillac would be a no go

Same with Benz. No score on Transunion but with heavy down or a 1 pay you can get it done

No score and bad credit are two very different things.

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Chevy and Cadillac are under the same umbrella with the same underwriting requirements. I find it hard to believe someone would be easy on a 50k Tahoe but fail miserably on a 50k CT6

She says her score is 550, due to medical bills.

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I’ve had medical bills, and my scores are in the 830s/840s.

I think she means medical bills that she did not pay. :wink:

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Just take the one pay amount and buy her a used car.

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Ha, correct and important distinction, but it wasn’t her fault she is a kid and her mother was supposed to pay the bills, and told her she did, then simply didn’t.

This. All day.

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Since she is a minor she can’t enter into a contract, and isn’t liable for the bills.

She needs to address this with the creditors.

They can’t report her bills late or charged off if she doesn’t owe the money.

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Was she actually a minor during the medical treatment, he never said the age of her niece.

I recommend she gets free copies of her credit report from
https://www.annualcreditreport.com

Also she can download the Experian app and get a free month trial of their creditworks or identituworks product. Make sure to cancel it immediately after signing up so dont run the risk of renewing after the 30 days. This will give her all 3 credit bureaus fico8 scores and also auto, bank, and mortgage scores for experian.

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Honestly, I know this is Leasehackr and all, but this really is the best advice. Take the amount and just get a used Prius. It’s the best longer term strategy.

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I guess he could have meant that she’s a young goat.

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