Verify Contracts to Avoid the Mailman's Surprise

Regardless of the reason, it is never a good situation when the mailman delivers a returned contract from a finance company, in lieu of the expected ACH deposit. This means you have a vehicle driving around for which you are currently holding an un-fundable contract.

Often, dealers complain that finance companies are changing the calls after they have delivered the vehicle, or that something has changed in the customer’s life which the dealership can not control.

However, more often than not, it is due to someone in the dealership not doing their job.

The elite Special Finance departments avoid the mailman’s surprise, by verifying the contract before sending it off for funding. Every contract should have the employment verified, including start dates and income; along with residence (length and status), and insurance before it’s ever forwarded to the finance company. In fact, it is good practice to do it before the vehicle is ever delivered, when possible.

Whether it becomes the job of the SF manager, a funding or title clerk, or some other employee - someone needs to take the lead to find out what the finance company will discover when they do their own verifications.

If there is a job gap, and the finance company that the deal is contracted through won’t accept it, you are much better off to discover it now rather than later. If the income won’t verify, if the insurance isn’t current or if the deductible is too high, waiting a week for the finance company to alert you won’t help your situation.

Take the bull by the horns and look at the deal through the finance company’s eyes. Additionally, it takes three times as long to fix a deal than has been sent off for funding once it has left the dealership, than it does to do it correctly the first time. It may take you a little extra time to get the contract out of the store, but this is one of those times where you have to slow-down to speed-up the funding. You’ll be happy you did.

 Vol. 1, Issue 4