Update

Yesterday (Friday) I received a letter from PenFed after I sent a request to reconsider my loan application and....


Declined again for the same reason as before even with a letter of explanation and photocopies sent of a satisfied car loan payment that was originally in question.Anyway I tried.

 

I'm sorry sir. You did what you could. And you did everything right. Sorry

 

So I've read quite a bit here about Penfed and just want to clarify a few things before I head to my Mini Dealership to order my Mini.

Basically my Mini Dealership requires a $1000 deposit to order the car (Mini of Orlando). From what I understand from there I just wait until the car comes in and then I go and down and finish the payment process. I would like to use penfed but to make sure I have no problems it would be best to...

1. Wait until I get the VIN number of the car
2. Join and fill out the loan application
3. Upon Acceptance I will receive the check (This is good for 90 days?)
4. Go to the Mini dealership with the check to pay for the car and have them send the title to PenFed
5. Ride away enjoying my Mini!

Also for Penfed you set up a way for them to deduct the payment each month from your account. So if I had a bank account through lets say Bank of America I would give them the bank information to do the payment, correct?

Basically want I plan on doing is paying the 1000 for the deposit and about 4000 to get the car down to 20,000. Then finance the remaining 20,000 through penfed. I just want to avoid any problems.

....Oh...one last thing. Say I order the car with the deposit and for some unfortunate chance I can't get financing anywhere would I be able to get all my deposit back.

Thanks much,

Mike

 

I applied with PenFed yesterday. Today I got an email saying, Comments: OTHER: TENTATIVE APPROVAL
EMPLOYMENT VERIFICATION

NEED INCOME VERIFICATION IN THE FORM OF 2 MONTHS OF PAYSTUBS OR MOST
CURRENT TAX RETURNS.
I will be faxing all that info tomorrow. My scores are in the mid 600's. What do you guys think? Good, Bad?

 

Does PENFED work with people with FICO's below 700 given their excellent APR?

 

I would think that since you have tentative approval, your credit is good with them, they just want to make sure you are employed and are getting a paycheck. You should be A. O . K!!!!! Good Luck, keep us posted. I am about to apply within the next ten days.

 

I financed with a leasing company I found online, which was wonderful (and cheaper than the initial quote the dealer gave me, although they weren't happy that I was leasing out of house.) The dealer, Keeler, was a pain in the butt...I think because they only have one guy on the floor for MINI, and he's just too busy to give everyone the attention they need. Everytime I made a phone call, it was like a black hole. I have no idea why the dealership doesn't give this kid a sales assistant, or have a manager return calls to people if the MA is too busy. Lousy customer service, and hey, I've never received a customer satisfaction survey from MINI...go figure! The day before I was to pick the car up, the MA informed me that they wouldn't let me finance through an outside source...however, I had a signed sales agreement, so they had to back down. Plus, I live 3 hours from the dealer, had also sold my last car the week before(yay, made $2400) and had been driving a work vehicle and had to rent a car to get down to the dealer to pick up my MINI. Jeez, it was REALLY stressful!
Alas, the whole experience was like childbirth, I guess I've forgotten the pain, as the car is worth it!

 

Wow, I've never heard of such a thing. Sounds unreasonable at best, and possibly illegal. I might have brought a lawyer into that conversation to loosen it up, if they continued to press.

 

Agreed, IANAL but that sounds illegal. If you finance with a 3rd party, the transaction with the dealer is like any other cash transaction. Now, they likely could have made it difficult for you by not accepting certified checks or some other ridiculous hurdle, but they'd have had to subject every Joe off the street who wants to pay in cash to the same treatment.

If my MA had threatened that and then backed down, I would have still probably reported them. It is likely it was just a scare tactic (and it probably works) but that is a horrible way to run a business and abusing consumer rights.

 

Hell Yes!!! I got approved. I thought with my mid 600 score there would have been no way. Credit history is positive but a few past blemishes. Better yet, I think they saw that I was financing for a MINI and approved me. lol. There is hope for people with credit scores below 700. Yes!!!! I love PenFed!!!

 

If you don't mind me asking, how much did you ask for to be financed?

 

I gave up with Penfed. I sent in my paycheck stubbs and have a great credit score and it still says pending. I just financed through BMW for not quite a percent more. Oh well, I tried.

 

Didnt even verify employment on me took about 2 hours. Qualified for $34000

No questions asked, here is your check have fun!

 

What are my chances here do you guys/gals think that have used penfed. My credit score is around 690 and I have had a credit history of about 3 years (21 years old). No late payments or blemishes on my credit report either. Any chance of getting approved?

 

I think you will be ok.

 

I love penfed, I'm on my third vehicle loan through them. Its never taken more than a few seconds online to be approved.

However I have a longer credit history and very good credit

 

Hrm, well with a co-signer then maybe for sure. My grandfather has agreed to help me out if I needed it. He never has a problem getting car loans

 

MIKE AND HIS MINI
I asked for $25,000 and they gave me $24,850. My MINI is $29,700 with taxes so I am putting close to $5,000 of my own money.

 

Your credit score is only part of the equation. If you make $40,000 a year and say you have monthly payments of $200-300 (i.e. credit card payment, school loans, etc.) you may have trouble securing a $30,000 car loan, even with exceptional credit.

You may want to just keep this mind. I was in a similar situation when I bought my first new car back in '02 when I was 21.

 

I'm just getting paranoid about my loan now. was rejected by pen fed.

Im getting ready to ask for a reconsideration to add a guarantor but she is retired ,but does have plenty of assets and money in the bank, think thats enough? or is the fact that she is retired gonna play against me?

 

bruleto,

Thanks for the info. Currently I have no payments atm and am living with the folks as I finish out school, I'm just gonna order the car and apply once it gets close to being here. If all else fails I'll get a co-signer.

 

I just reapplied earlier today and went to check the status tonight, I got freaked out b/c the first thing I saw was "denied" but luckily that was the old one.

Luckily for me I got approved this time around! I've very happy b/c knowing that they are pretty lenient, I'm not sure what direction I would go had I been denied.

 

Hey, did you reaaply with a co-signer this time or was it just yourself?

 

Thanks for your messages, I'm in the same situation as you. My credit is only 2 years old but pretty and I'm still looking for financing before I can order my car...
What do you think on getting??

 

Yes on the co signer. my credit was around 639 when I got denied. They cited , length of employment, was working at my job around 3-4 months, w/ a 5-6 month gap before that. They also cited past/present delinquent payments.

So for my resubmission, I said, that I am now a permanent employee having past the probationary period, my payments have been on time and that I am adding a co signer.

The cosigner was the biggest thing.