The older I get the less I can tolerate incompetence. I went into my credit union two weeks ago and said I wanted to buy-out the lease on my son's 2019 civic. A man took me into his office to help. He looked up my account and told me I was pre-approved and good to go. Just bring in the buy-out packet from Honda and that's all I needed. He quoted me the rate, and said there was no hurry. I could come in anytime up until the lease matured (which was about 60 days). I said aren't you going to need to verify and run my credit. He said no, you are good to go.
It seemed weird to me, but I don't do much banking with my credit union and thought maybe it is different with a credit union.
So, fast forward to today when I happened to be in town, and in the area, and just left the dealership after some routine maintenance on that car and decided today was a good time to go ahead and do the buy-out, even though I technically had one payment left. Good thing I did, because the MOD CUT - NOT HERE, VENT WITHOUT PROFANITIES who initially helped me got everything wrong. The lady said I don't see a pre-approval in your account; and I don't see an application. I shared with her what the other man had told me to which she replied, I'm sorry it doesn't work that way. And in fact the rate he told you is now a 1/2 % higher.
I was furious. I would've done it that day if the man told me what she did. I then said to her, what was his name and pointed to the office we spoke in. She told me his name and I said, let me guess, he no longer works here. She said, how did you know that? Incompetence can't hide for too long.
Anyway, I went through with everything with her; she was great and expereinced to work with. It was a painless process and she created the buy-out check on the spot to fed-ex to Honda Financial Services. The half percent only moved my payment $3 a month. So, oh well. It's the same payment as the lease was. The whole point was to get him a safe, reliable guy for college at a reasonable price. Below $250.
The cool thing was the residual was only $14,875 on the 2019 civic EX. My son only put 20,000 miles on a three year lease; it their appraisal came back at $26,556. That was more than I paid for the vehicle three years ago. No wonder they contacted me about thirty times to get the car back and put me into something new. My payments probably would've doubled in today's market and the unavailability of cars. I knew there was no way I was going to give that car back. Kelly blue book said the private seller price was $26,000-$28,500.
