The long wait for delivery at least provides adequate time for doing any "homework" (shopping for the best achievable interest rate on my loan). So, tonight, I plugged in name, rank 'n serial number (actually it wasn't so painful, in hindsight) at Lendingtree.com, logged out, and waited...

Within 2 hours of hitting the "Submit" button I had 4 proposals in hand (well, on screen). As I kind of expected, the rates were all over the place, from the 4's to nearly 7...

Strangeness... (incorrect loan amounts shown (not what I "put in")):
The actual "Loan Amount" was shown correctly for only ONE of the 4 competitive bids (yep Capital One, who also happened to have the lowest rate :smile: ). The other 3 offers showed an INCORRECT loan amount, ALL were higher than the correct amount, some by as much as $7,300. The LOWEST incorrect loan amount shown was off (over) by $5,000 (what is UP here??).

The other weird thing I found... (same loan amt + same length of term + DIFFERENT rates = SAME PMT???)

The "best" rate from Lendingtree.com, was sigNIFIcantly lower than my previous best. Remembering that both my previous best and the best from Lendingtree are for the same amount borrowed, And for the same term, WHY are the monthly payments (for the same amount of money, but at DIFFERENT rates), exactly the SAME!?

I have lost me marbles, and I can't count these dang beans!

Tatt

edit: I can see ya lookin' but I'm not getting the hoped-for "Yeah, that happened to me too... ".

 

I never really like lendingtree.com I had my share of problems in the past.

 

KC,
That's cool, I sincerely appreciate the feedback. That's what I get for following the advice of the Loan Lackey, at the bank. Lendingtree DID connect me with Capital One, who (so far) has provided the best rate yet.

By the way, my bank did beat BMW's first "offer" by 1/2 percent. Honestly with my good "score" i was a bit taken aback by BMW offering 5.9%.

It was AFter the banker told me about 5.5 (which betters MINI's 5.9), that he provided me with the "anecdotal" recommendation to check out LendingTree. If you have a spare second or 2, I wouldn't mind a PM where you could be more specific about your problems. I don't want to talk "numbers", just any discrepancies or weird junk you might have seen. The usefulness of the LT website went wayyyy down when I saw the screwy numbers!

Did you know, you can adversely affect your credit, simply by having a lot of inquiries against it (like when you're shopping for car financing)? Maybe I need a new bank!

Having mucho time before delivery, I'm going to run all the strange numbers down (even for the other offers which had the beginning balance wrong)... In between cleaning the garage for pending delivery, and putting together my box of "MINI Care" chemicals, I shall try and keep the thread updated. MORE feedback would still be appreciated of course.

Thanks again neighbor, seriously,
Tatt

 

my experience with lending tree involved getting only ONE quote back.When I questioned them about it ,they said that no one else was interested in me because of my credit history.Ok , now what you need to know is that my credit history is AAA!(have done the whole deal about getting reports free from the various reporting agencies,equifax etc.)I wrote them back and told them that getting only one offer back from them reeked of fraud,and that they were off their rocker if they thought I'd take them up on just one reply.They wrote me back and said that they took such charges very seriously and were going to look into it......................nothing back.I'll not even give them another oportunity to show how biased and crooked they really are

 

That's very true. Even credit card places deny applications if they
see too much traffic in your credit reports within a certain time period.


>Did you know, you can adversely affect your credit, simply by having a lot of inquiries against it (like when you're shopping for car financing)? Maybe I need a new bank!

 

And herein lies the stupid mystery of credit scoring. I wish someone would outlaw credit scoring. It makes zero sense. I hate being a number, and the credit scoring companies don't say what really affects your score. Credit inquiries for non-secured loans affect the most, with credit inquiries for secure loans affect slightly less. Credit inquiries for mortgages, don't affect the score. Putting a number to someone is ridiculous, and money lending is becoming less and less personal and just some computer looking at a number and accepting or rejecting it. I had a Capitalone loan for three years with their best rate. I never missed a payment and have never missed a payment on any loan ever. My credit is 100% clean. I have since paid off that loan, and three months later applied for another loan with Capital One for about the same amount. It came back and said I could have one for 12%. I was blown away. I said forget about it and checked my credit. My score dropped a bunch of points, because I charged my credit card up to pay for some medical bills and a vacation trip and the my credit ratios changed. I make a lot of money, and the charges were nothing I couldn't easily handle, but since I don't carry a lot of cards and the value was high, it dropped my score. Since I needed the loan quickly and didn't have enough time to clean it up I went somewhere else. I even argued with the Capitalone guy but he just said sorry can't help you. My personal bank, had no problem giving me a 4.99%. Just doesn't make sense that you can only be ruled by a number and no amount of explanation can bend the decision making with some of these companies. Really crazy, I tell you.

 

You might want to check this out with someone else....but.....my daughter has/had a credit card with Capital One. She was late on a couple of payments for what ever reason....SO...Capital One changed her credit limit to ZERO after the fact and then charged her a over limit fee each month (she did not know this at first as she was out of the country) and her payment was just covering the interest and the over limit fee and her balance was not going down at all.

It's Cr.. that they give you $1,000.00 limit, your'e late once, and they change it to a zero limit and charge you a over limit charge.

Earl

 

AMEN @ Earl, and THANKS to DG, Holdin, and Ken, for taking time to reply!
edit: THANKS too, 10815CS, i nearly missed ya.
The system is rigged, we've known that all along... It's just that when things are going well, it's far too easy to forget that the CC company will present you with a low Amount Due, to preserve their ability to hit you with a LATE or Over The Limit (steep) charge, month after month! (repeat ).

Interestingly, my "Working Assets" (long distance co. with its heart in the right place), VISA card rep. was very informative today, as to what can adversely affect my "score". Imagine that - actual INFORMATION from a credit card co.! I guess I'm recommending WA, both as a phone co. AND a credit card "sponsor", (and, when you sign up, if they give you those "free pints of Ben & Jerry's for a year, of course i want my cut).

Thanks again all, my query about LendingTree is answered - by the way, so far the lowest rate I've found (I'm tempted to quit searching now) is in the 4.5% neighborhood, down from the "original" 5.9% offered by dealer. Now all I need to do is show my MA the 4.5% so he has an opportunity to do even better.

Gratefully,
Tatt

additional edit: your points about de-personalization are very well taken. I once made a payment on the same Working Assets VISA which I touted up there ^^ online, and called Customer Service to be SURE they "saw" my payment, and the computer told me my account was CLOSED! Guess they didn't WANT my $2k so much (lol, actually i panicked and made a couple more phone calls - all was "well" but dayum why did they put me (AND my spouse the treasurer, THROUGH that!?!?)

 

Like you I'm still waiting for my '05 MC to arrive, so I've been checking out various financing options.

I sent a request to Lending Tree and only got one reply. Hey Lending Tree, what about all those bids you promised me? I have a good credit rating, never missed a payment in 20 years on any car loan. Who do you want to do business with? Donald Trump exclusively?

The one reply I did get, from a big east coast bank, was wrong on every parameter of my request. It had me borrowing more money than I asked for ($19k instead of $16k), and for a longer loan term than I asked (6 years instead of 4). They even had me down as buying a used car instead of a the new MINI, LOL. I had clearly stated all of this in my application! May be they are probably jut trying to bait people into borrowing more money than they need, for longer terms than they asked, so they can collect more interest over the life of the loan.

I did get a phone call the next morning from a very polite loan officer, but one who didn't have a clue about my original request.

Me: What would be the monthly payment for the smaller loan at the shorter term?
HIm: Sorry sir I don't know that.
Me: Well, don't you have a loan calculator handy?
Him: No sir, you would have to resubmit your request to us.

Lending Tree and their affiliates obviously don't care to listen to their customers. I'll never waste my time with them again.

 

CHECK CREDIT UNIONS! Fairly recent federal laws allow anybody to join most credit unions now. I have a 3.75% fixed rate on my MINI with my credit union. I have been with WESCOM for two decades and they are absolutely the best people I have ever dealt with. They are offering a 4.49% rate right now but I believe you get an additional .25% off if you have an account there and have automatic deductions (California only) www.wescom.org