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When do you let the dealer run your credit?

Walter2

Ready to race!
It seems the first thing every dealer wants to do when they sit you down is run your credit. I have never walked into a dealership without checking my current score within a recent amount of time. Being that one can shop many dealers, this could lead to potential excess credit checking, which appears to actually hurt your score.

So, when do you sign the line? I usually want to have ball park numbers to look at such as final agreed price on the car etc.

Curious to see what others say.
 

Ramos

Passed Driver's Ed
Only when you have decided on the purchase/lease and agreed on price and all financing.. Only then you give them your social to run and verify that they can give you the financing term/lease terms you agreed to.
It helps to know your scores from a monitoring site and have a printout .. These do not count as an inquiry and do not affect your score.. I have identity monitor (citi) which is pretty good
 

iGTI1

Go Kart Champion
Yea I have never let them run my credit without knowing out the door price... End of story
 

walker

Go Kart Newbie
The dealer told me it takes 1 point off of your score each time somebody runs your credit. I would just tell them approximately what you know your score to be, and let them work with that. Like everyone else said, only once the deal actually needs to happen do they truly need to run it.
 

cacophony555

Ready to race!
Unless you're applying for an auto loan, a dealer credit check is a "soft" inquiry, which shouldn't affect your credit score.

http://www.bankrate.com/finance/credit-cards/how-long-does-credit-check-affect-score.aspx

"The FICO score only considers voluntary inquiries made when you apply for credit, such as credit cards, auto loans or mortgages. These are known as "hard" inquiries, and they can ding your score. The algorithm ignores every other type of credit check, including those for employment, existing account reviews or those "pre-approved" credit card solicitations. Checking your own credit report or score does not hurt your credit rating either. Lenders can't see these so-called "soft" inquiries when they review your credit report."

But you should still resist having your credit run if you're not about to actually purchase a car. Not because of impact to FICO score, but rather because it increases the likelihood that your SSN will fall into the wrong hands and somebody will steal your identity.
 

Ramos

Passed Driver's Ed
Not true.. Whether its soft or hard it's still an inquiry and 3 or more inquiries per year affect your score
 

Moxie1

Ready to race!
A soft inquiry NEVER affects your score. Otherwise all those "prequalifications" for credit cards you get in the mail would be affecting your credit score. Hard inquiries are given whenever you're ASKING for credit. When the dealer pulls your credit it is to qualify you for financing that YOU have requested. It's a hard inquiry. Hard inquiries hurt (especially more than three or four in your report at a time - otherwise it only drops you a few points).

All that said, if you're applying for the same type of loan (i.e., auto, mortgage, etc.) within a specified time period (two weeks if I recall correctly), it only shows up as one inquiry. The bureaus assume that you're "shopping" for a loan. For instance, when I got my Audi TT I applied for about five different loans inside of a week to get the best rate, and I only have one inquiry on my report.

So when should you let them run your credit? That depends. Most finance officers (and any good salesperson) should know what credit score you'd need to get any kind of deal on the table. If you know your score and want to keep shopping, I'd supply them with a print out of the score so they know you're serious and just wait until you've made a decision. If you know you're going to buy a new car within the next couple weeks, don't worry about it.

Personally, I waited until we had a deal on the table that was entirely dependent on having A1 credit. At that point, they insisted on running my credit to see if the deal could even be made. I agreed, and drove home in my new GTI.
 
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FNR32

Ready to race!
^^ I'm pretty sure neither of you are correct. A soft inquiry NEVER affects your score. Otherwise all those "prequalifications" for credit cards you get in the mail would be affecting your credit score. Hard inquiries are given whenever you're ASKING for credit. When the dealer pulls your credit it is to qualify you for financing that YOU have requested. It's a hard inquiry. Hard inquiries hurt (especially more than three or four in your report at a time - otherwise it only drops you a few points).

All that said, if you're applying for the same type of loan (i.e., auto, mortgage, etc.) within a specified time period (two weeks if I recall correctly), it only shows up as one inquiry. The bureaus assume that you're "shopping" for a loan. For instance, when I got my Audi TT I applied for about five different loans inside of a week to get the best rate, and I only have one inquiry on my report.

So when should you let them run your credit? That depends. Most finance officers (and any good salesperson) should know what credit score you'd need to get any kind of deal on the table. If you know your score and want to keep shopping, I'd supply them with a print out of the score so they know you're serious and just wait until you've made a decision. If you know you're going to buy a new car within the next couple weeks, don't worry about it.

Personally, I waited until we had a deal on the table that was entirely dependent on having A1 credit. At that point, they insisted on running my credit to see if the deal could even be made.

All of the above is correct. Everything posted in this tread is very, very wrong.
 

cacophony555

Ready to race!
When the dealer pulls your credit it is to qualify you for financing that YOU have requested.

Just to be clear, if you're paying with cash then the dealer still does a credit check to make sure the check is unlikely to bounce. But in this case it's a soft inquiry.
 

The Waxer

Go Kart Champion
Just to be clear, if you're paying with cash then the dealer still does a credit check to make sure the check is unlikely to bounce. But in this case it's a soft inquiry.

Don't know where you shopped but this never happened to me, I never even supplied my SSN for the 4 cars I paid cash for in the last few years. Only one even called the bank to verify funds, and it was for the cheapest car of them all. LOL
 

cacophony555

Ready to race!
Don't know where you shopped but this never happened to me, I never even supplied my SSN for the 4 cars I paid cash for in the last few years. Only one even called the bank to verify funds, and it was for the cheapest car of them all. LOL

The last 3 car purchases I've witnessed required this, all in the SF Bay Area.
Girlfriend's brother bought Prius with check at SF Toyota and credit was run. Girlfriend bought Altima with check at Steven's Creek Nissan and credit was run. I bought Golf at Stevens Creek VW with check and credit was run.
 

The Waxer

Go Kart Champion
The last 3 car purchases I've witnessed required this, all in the SF Bay Area.
Girlfriend's brother bought Prius with check at SF Toyota and credit was run. Girlfriend bought Altima with check at Steven's Creek Nissan and credit was run. I bought Golf at Stevens Creek VW with check and credit was run.

Weird. They asked me and I refused at Toyota. That was the end of it. Just to add, one of the checks was for more than what two base GTI's would cost.
 
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