Only About Half of New Car Buyers Know Their Credit Score
March 10, 2008
According to surveys conducted recently by Buyingadvice.com, a majority of Americans don’t know their credit score before trying to buy a new car. And if they do know what it is, most buyers do not try to fix it.
The results indicate 55% percent of potential new car buyers don’t know their credit score, 54% percent didn’t do anything to improve it if they did know the score, 64% didn’t even request a copy of their credit report from more than one credit reporting bureau before going to buy a new vehicle, and 61% haven’t even bothered to request a report in the last three months.
This lack of attention to credit scores is an alarming trend in tough economic times, and has forced finance managers at dealerships across the country to become very discriminating when qualifying customers for new car loans. Finance managers try to correctly filter out those who will not be able to maintain payments, while at the same time trying to move units off the lots.
While on one hand, being able to get buyers into vehicles that command a $500 or $600 monthly payment is good for the salesman and dealership, it can turn out to be a disaster if customers fall prey to repossession too quickly.
Tough times are calling for smarter decisions on the part of finance managers.
