Loan Shopping and Hard Pulls

[Anonymous]

I have been in the market for a new car and finally found one that I liked. I applied for financing and as per usual, my application was shotgun around as many places as possible. This much I was totally expecting so no big deal there, but when I pulled my report to see just how wide a net they cast, I found that some of the hard pulls were listed as "Loan, Personal" and "All Banks, Non-specific".  I'm concerned since there are hard pulls that state "Loan, Automotive".  Does anyone have any insight into how these hard pulls are classified and how that might affect the "loan shopping" protection I was expecting?

[Anonymous]

I have seen the same thing in the past when I allowed a dealer to shotgun my loan apps.  It seems that about 1/2 of them were listed as personal instead of auto.  Hard to say what the impact is.  That was years ago, I have learned it is best to just join a good credit union and get preapproved through them, nearly all the time they can beat the dealers rate easlity and you get one HP.  Also gives you nice leverage when you walk in the dealer, if there is a factory sponsored rate I let them shoot my app only to their captive, never to the other 5-9 lending partners they have.

[Anonymous]

Those dealership!!!! 

We should start a thread on "DO NOT APPLY FOR AN AUTO LOAN AT THE DEALERSHIPS" credit unions.

Not sure of the specific impact BUT the HPs are there, and those are already negative on your credit profile as is...specially with so many.

[Anonymous]

Well, I sort of lucked out in a way. When the finance guy asked what sort of interest rate I got from the credit union, I said 2.9 is what they offer people with good credit. What he heard was I had good credit and got 2.9. When he asked if he could run my credit in the off chance they could do better I said sure. He came back fifteen minutes later rather dejected and said he couldn't match the 2.9, but after twisting the arm of his corporate contact he could manage 4.9 and he could throw in a spare tire and 12 months of XM radio. I had an offer for 9.8 in my pocket that just stayed there quietly. I didn't mean to mislead him but I certainly was not going to volunteer to pay more in interest.

I'm not overly concerned with the inquiries. I had been preening my credit for months to get a good car loan so I'm taking a break for a bit. I just didn't want to be penalized for two years if I didn't have to.

[Anonymous]

congrats then!!

[Anonymous]

So we can amend your don't apply for a loan at the dealership rule to at least don't do it until you've accidentally lied to the entire finance department.