I haven’t been able to sucessfully locate a thread on this topic and may have not been searching correctly .
Looking to do the bulk of my lease negotiation online before going into the dealership. I’ve already did test drive of vehicle and that separately .
Online trying to obtain a quote sheet from dealership seems to be like pulling teeth. Maybe I’m not asking the correct way. I have a few quotes via email format and want to know when other memebers move forward with putting in the credit application before quote sheet or after quote sheet?
Live in Bay Area california and looking at Acura MDX hoping to get conquest incentive and haven’t been able to locate many 2019 so focusing in on 2020 MDX base as it meets the criteria we need for vehicle
Any feedback welcome or point me in the right direction within the forum great
You should never have to fill out a credit application to get a quote. If you have a good idea of your credit score ask them to send you a quote with that, if you don’t know what credit tier you qualify for with that bank or manufacturer, you can talk to them about it, but I wouldn’t fill out an app until you have a specific car you are going to lease and are ready to sign for the deal.
First - get your score from a reputable source - not Credit Karma.
Second - go to Edmunds and ask for money factor for your score and the car you are interested in.
Third - base your quotes on that money factor.
Don’t get anyone to pull your credit until you are on the lot and actually picking up the car.
All this. First negotiate price before incentives, then you’ll have incentives/residual/MF from Edmunds and know from the calculator what the floor is.
When you finally req lease payments, you can tell them your credit is A-Tier/Tier-1 and to base their payment estimate on that.
When I have agreed on deal and I’m ready to go get it, I fill out their online credit app just before heading to the dealership. It saves time if they already have approvals in hand, avoids any “come back with…” stips, and if they change/blow up the deal I already know what’s possible and I’ll go get it elsewhere (multiple pulls won’t matter at that point). Others may suggest waiting until you are there in person, by the time I’m ready to go sign I have a good sense of whether it’s happening or not. My last two leases were in and out in 45 minutes including the delivery.
Back to the topic of this thread (mostly) - is it true that dealers can’t quote accurate numbers for someone with less than Tier 1 credit without a credit app? It’s never come up for me, but I recently helped a friend lease a vehicle and I heard that repeatedly, including from several friends who are in sales.
What I was told isthat the dealers know the best rates their lenders offer but don’t know all the other rates or where on the scale a particular person will fall. So, they can give you an accurate quote based on the best rate, but that’s it. This seems to make sense to me because ifyou look at anything lenders advertise be it credit card, mortgages, car loans, etc. the only rate they publish is the best one and there is a disclaimer that it’s only for “well qualified borrowers”.
That said, I’ve only been asked to fill out a credit app prior to making a deal once. It was after I drove 2.5 hours to NJ to look at a car I had an appointment to see and they refused to let me look at it until I submitted the app. Needless to say I drove straight back home.
If you are set on a specific car, find out which credit bureau the captive lender uses.
Go on to MyFICO.com and pull the specific credit report. It will provide a comprehensive report with all scores, FICO 8,9,2,4,5,auto,credit card,mortgage,etc.
Know what the score required for different tiers and which score type they use.
Also, you can play dumb and try to get the dealer to get an override and/or buy down the rate.
Information is power. Less is more. Let the dealer have as little wiggle room as possible.
So back to the question. DO NOT fill out a credit app before hand.
