I’m waiting for my L1A visa and have set up a US corporation, leased a condo and office now I’m looking for a car.
I want to lease in the Corporation’s name (Tax beneficial) for when my business partner and I are in the US but currently only have an ESTA.
My new corporation is based in Miami, fully owned by larger holding corporation based in the UK, no credit history in the US for the corporation, good credit for the UK business that can be checked easily.
No personal US credit history at all.
Will I be able to lease a car this way (who is best to approach?) or will I need to buy one outright?
Appreciate any feedback, I’ve done all the deal research and pricing via this forum already it’s been really useful as I’m not in the US at the moment to go and speak with people, not a lot of responses to emails either, thanks all!
What is the structure of the company? B-Corp? LLC taxed as a corp?
Even as a wholly owner foreign subsidiary, without business or personal credit history and no income history in the US I’m almost certain the answer is no.
Business leases have different stips as personal. For pass through entities you can often personally guarantee (though it doesn’t appear on your credit) but you don’t have that either. Business credit like a D&B (which functions very differently from personal credit) might help if you were established.
Unless you bank with a large US bank who is also a captive (eg Chase) who have some flex in their underwriting to use internally scoring: you’re “a ghost” which means no lease unfortunately.
I’ve got Amex organising US cards as a referral from the UK business and various other agreements going through to build the credit rating as fast as possible, I think BMW have an international exec program that might help but it leaves limited options.
I was hoping I’d missed an opportunity for the parent business to guarantee the lease or something, but wasn’t too hopeful
If you’re looking at BMW, suggest calling BMWFS and asking them to see what their underwriting guidelines are and what stipulations they have (what you need to provide). For a business it’s typically 2 years tax returns and D&B but it’s worth asking.
If I have a good personal credit with history and I want to set up the lease through my fresh LLC it will appear on my personal credit (putting myself as a guarantor)?
I got bunch of business credit cards (they used me as guarantor for the application and they don’t show on my personal credit)
Most of the sales or finance guys at dealership they don’t know what I am talking about
Years ago I had a vehicle purchased through my LLC with me as the guarantor and it showed up on my credit. It was a traditional loan rather than a lease though.
Depending on the brand, it’s unlikely the sales people will know and questionable whether the finance manager will know (in a volume Ford/Lexus/Range Rover store for instance they should).
What state is the LLC registered in, and how many members? What state do you reside in and are trying to lease? How fresh is it?
I can understand why you might want to do this, but the lease and the insurance will likely be higher, and it may still appear on your credit. I’ve looked at this many times and always end up leasing in my name and washing it through the business and personal tax returns.
Business credit cards I was always able to get immediately (personal guarantor but don’t appear on my credit report.
Business LOC (unsecured debt) was personally guaranteed and did not appear on my credit.
An interesting note about guaranteeing the vehicle purchase personally…
about 2 years into the ownership, I decided to buy a house. I ran into some issues during the qualification because when they went over my w2s, my income was lower due to the vehicle write offs, but I also had the loan on my credit. So the ~$750 payment that really only cost me about $500 a month after all the write offs actually showed up as about a $1800 hit to my monthly income.
And I can’t see anyone hanging a business lease on that, even with stips.
Were I you, I’d lease a Taco as myself so everything was AS CHEAP as possible (payment and insurance) and write it off. If sub-200$/mo tanks your DTI then work on getting that I up before you take on more D (as Grandma used to say, she loved the sailors home on leave).
