Anyone have experience with them? I recently totaled my car, and my insurance just paid off my loan, so now I need a new car, but am completely inexperienced at doing anything but going to the various local lots and financing through them when I find a car I like.
I’ve already applied for pre-approval through my bank, but I’ve read that it’s best to get multiple offers. Anyone have any recommendations?
If you aren’t planning to buy a house anytime soon get several quotes in a small period of time. Capital One, Chase, Up2Drive and a host of others are out there, as well as Lending Tree to aggregate. You should end up with Rate/Term/Amount Financed after the application process. After you find the combination and vendor you like they will send you the check.
The dealer will treat it like a cashier’s check, except that if they think they can beat the rate they will tell you that, quote a rate, and offer to let you finance through them.
We did it on one of our cars. It was about as pain free as I could have hoped.
I have used Capital One twice - once on a new car, and once on a used car. I’ve been very pleased with them both times, and wouldn’t hesitate to use them again.
Got a loan through RoadLoans.com back in 2003. They sent a check. I tried to buy a car at one dealership, negotiated everything, and then when they asked me about financing, I let them know I already had a check in hand. It turned into a nightmare. They wouldn’t take the check from that company. They made up a story (I no longer remember how I found out this was a lie) about having had some problems with RoadLoans in the past. Then they said they’d check the check, but they’d have to hold the car for 10 days. When I told them I wasn’t about to start paying on a loan for a car that wasn’t in my possession, they tried to steer me towards a lease, instead. I walked away.
When I found my same car at another dealership, I had lengthy email correspondence beforehand with the fleet manager. I explained to him that I had the money, I told him where it had come from, and what had happened to me at the previous dealership. We had no problem taking my check. We negotiated everything over email so I had it in writing. The car was prepped before I left my house. We were in and out of the dealership in 45 minutes with a new car.
Never had any problems from then until the car was paid off.
I bought my next to last car using an online car loan. Worked as smooth as silk.
I bought two cars with Capital One blank check finance. Worked perfectly. I bought one, totaled it within 2 months and then paid it off with the insurance settlement. I then bought another with a new Capital One check.
I got the same bullshit from the dealer that I bought my most recent car from. But, I was a beggar and was lucky enough to find anyone to finance me during the worst part of the credit crunch in Feb 2009.
I’ll use Capital One or any similar service the next time.
I tried getting quotes from the other agencies listed, but after Bank of America and Chase both denied me, I’ve stopped. I can’t figure out why I got turned down, though. I have a 747 credit score and not that much debt. Would my bank approving me have somehow affected my debt balance even though I’ve not signed for the loan? That is the only thing that makes any kind of sense to me, but even that doesn’t make much. I’m suddenly pretty anxious about this.
They are obligated to provide you with reasons why they denied you. They should come in a couple of days and are usually pretty straightforward. Ideally it will be something you can address.
A 747 is usually an auto approve, but there are rules that supersede it. These are things like projected debt to income being out of whack, fraud triggers, outstanding balance with the institution, too much recent credit activity, etc.
ETA: If your bank did a hard pull on your credit it may negatively affect your score for a period of time. But not the 150 points or so that would drop you into bad credit risk.
It means that credit is still super tight. I’d just start applying everywhere. That’s what I had to do last year.