Confused how to enter employment information on auto loan

[Skittles591]

Hello,

im filling out an auto loan and yesterday was my last day at my old job (gave 2 weeks notice). I have an offer letter for a new job and I accepted it already and the tentative date is in August. My background check already passed, I'm just waiting next week to finish my i9 appointment to get an official start date. 

Would I be able to put employed right now on my loan application? Or should I put in unemployed? Right now I'm in between the 2 jobs so technically unemployed. But I do have an offer letter in hand so I do not know how to approach the employment question.

The only options are employed and unemployed. No options for other. 

[Boragard]

You always want to put employed on any application.  If you ever put unemployed on an application you will get denied.  If you want a vehicle say you are still employed with that company.  You can prove the last two most recent paychecks, and you don't want your most recent one to get too old because they (the car dealership) will probably want to see a new one if you were to go in a week or two from today. My suggestion would be to do it soon or wait until your first couple paychecks in August.  Furthermore, it's the end of the month, you are more likely to get a better deal on a vehicle because sales persons want to meet their end of month quota. 

[MrZero]

It might depend on your history and stability of employment unless you have some solid scores then the gaps are less an issue. How long were you with your previous employer? The higher your scores are the less it matters but I think most lenders like to see consistency in income from what I've seen. It's a reason I'm trying to hold off on changing employers for the time being.

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@Boragard wrote:

You always want to put employed on any application.  If you ever put unemployed on an application you will get denied.  If you want a vehicle say you are still employed with that company.  You can prove the last two most recent paychecks, and you don't want your most recent one to get too old because they (the car dealership) will probably want to see a new one if you were to go in a week or two from today. My suggestion would be to do it soon or wait until your first couple paychecks in August.  Furthermore, it's the end of the month, you are more likely to get a better deal on a vehicle because sales persons want to meet their end of month quota. 

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Unfortunately I don't believe meeting quotas is much of an issue these days.

[disdreamin]

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@MrZero wrote:

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@Boragard wrote:

You always want to put employed on any application.  If you ever put unemployed on an application you will get denied.  If you want a vehicle say you are still employed with that company.  You can prove the last two most recent paychecks, and you don't want your most recent one to get too old because they (the car dealership) will probably want to see a new one if you were to go in a week or two from today. My suggestion would be to do it soon or wait until your first couple paychecks in August.  Furthermore, it's the end of the month, you are more likely to get a better deal on a vehicle because sales persons want to meet their end of month quota. 

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Unfortunately I don't believe meeting quotas is much of an issue these days.

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I thought the same thing when I read that comment. At this time, there typically isn't a lot full of vehicles that dealerships are trying to clear out at months-end. Many lots are nearly empty, and oftentimes whatever comes in is already sold before it ever hits the lot. I would not count on end of the month to bring any pressure to bear to receive a better deal.

OP, I'd do your homework on the car you want and what a reasonable price would be to pay for it. As @Boragard mentioned, you might want to shop soon or wait to get established with your new employer and then go car shopping. In the meantime, assuming you are buying new and know the exact vehicle you want, you might reach out to local dealerships and see what they have inbound that isn't already claimed/sold.

Personally, I've been low-key keeping an eye out to replace my vehicle and was considering a Forester. I've found it to be a struggle to find one in the trim level I would want. It seems some manufacturers are leaning toward producing higher trim levels for their greater larger profit margin. Depending on what you're looking for and how flexible you are, finding the right vehicle can be pretty challenging lately.