What is the car dealer doing?

Anonymous · ‎12-30-2018

Yesterday I went in to buy a new truck. The salesman got the deal I was comfortable with then I went to see the money man. He gave me options and we went back and forth on the extras. I get home and find 4 emails from credit karma and two from capital one saying changes have been made. I figured they were inquiries. Funny thing is he said my loan was thru FCA but FCA was not on the list. This morning I get more emails and FCA is on that list and this afternoon Capital One is on the list for the second time in two days. What gives? I feel I’m about to get that call cause I looked through the paperwork and a bailment agreement was one thing I signed. I emailed the finance mgr and he assured me twice with a promise that all is good. Anyone have any insight to what is going on. That’s 7 inquiries since yesterday.

flan · ‎12-30-2018

@Anonymous wrote:
Yesterday I went in to buy a new truck. The salesman got the deal I was comfortable with then I went to see the money man. He gave me options and we went back and forth on the extras. I get home and find 4 emails from credit karma and two from capital one saying changes have been made. I figured they were inquiries. Funny thing is he said my loan was thru FCA but FCA was not on the list. This morning I get more emails and FCA is on that list and this afternoon Capital One is on the list for the second time in two days. What gives? I feel I’m about to get that call cause I looked through the paperwork and a bailment agreement was one thing I signed. I emailed the finance mgr and he assured me twice with a promise that all is good. Anyone have any insight to what is going on. That’s 7 inquiries since yesterday.

auto dealers often "shutgun" a deal, sending the deal off to a whole bunch of lenders, to see who gives them (not you, of course, them) the best deal. That's useful if you're a sub-prime or other marginal credit risk, they might find a better deal. It's annoying if you're not. If the inquries are properly coded, they will be scored as a single inquiry (because that makes it reasonable to search for the best rate) for scoring purposes. Unless there was a manufacturer subsidized financing offer on the table, I'd never let a car dealer try to arrange financing. I can get as good a deal elewhere, and the people involved in the transaction are working in my interests. (my scores are 800+, and I have low DTI, and am not going to buy a car I cannot afford.)

Anonymous · ‎12-30-2018

Thanks. After some unforeseen circumstances we had to run up our two cards and rob Peter to pay Paul but we are getting through it. I just find it odd that yesterday capital one pulled my credit and then again today along with another lender I never heard of. Maybe they are tweaking the numbers to benefit them like you say. I did notice 4 lenders are coming up as either finance or bank and not auto. It just makes me nervous about the inquiries cause other than high credit usage and half dozen 30+ on my report everything is on time and good.

trusty · ‎12-30-2018

@Anonymous wrote:
Yesterday I went in to buy a new truck. The salesman got the deal I was comfortable with then I went to see the money man. He gave me options and we went back and forth on the extras. I get home and find 4 emails from credit karma and two from capital one saying changes have been made. I figured they were inquiries. Funny thing is he said my loan was thru FCA but FCA was not on the list. This morning I get more emails and FCA is on that list and this afternoon Capital One is on the list for the second time in two days. What gives? I feel I’m about to get that call cause I looked through the paperwork and a bailment agreement was one thing I signed. I emailed the finance mgr and he assured me twice with a promise that all is good. Anyone have any insight to what is going on. That’s 7 inquiries since yesterday.

The key is to make sure that they don't change your APR, or your payment. If they come back with a higher APR, and higher payment than you agreed to at time of sale, than you should take the car back, and unwind the deal.

At this point, they've probably pulled enough credit to get you the deal that you agreed to. So, I would recommend signing up for the Credit Lock with each credit bureau, and locking your credit. It's free with Equifax and Transunion. With Experian, you can just go online and freeze it. Or, just call in on Monday and freeze your reports.

Anonymous · ‎12-30-2018

Gotcha. Thanks, I’ll look into the freeze. That needs to be done anyway.

Anonymous · ‎01-05-2019

I have seen this before and the only thing I can think of is it’s automated. What I am referring to is the same lender repeatedly pulling your credit when you apply for an auto loan. I’m not talking about shoot gunning....that has been covered. I’m talking about during the shot gunning you get 5-6 inquiries from the same lender. I had CO pulling my credit daily for 5 days straight after I left the dealer.