Throwaway because this has a lot of details I don't want on my main account.
I'm going through the process to buy a new vehicle. I did all the things recommended - negotiated the price down (checked with a few dealerships to do this), negotiated my trade-in value up. Got pre-approved through my credit union for more than the price I'd need. Got all the way through to the financing part of buying the vehicle and then I run into all of the issues.
I'm told that they've never heard of my credit union before (it's a federal credit union), it's not one of their partners, it's not in their system, and they'd have to pay a bunch of fees for me to use my credit union for my loan. They said that the interest rate offered by my credit union (2.99%) was too low and because of this, I needed to sign the contract with dealer financing at 4.99% "just for a few days until the credit union loan comes through".
I called my credit union and they said that this type of thing is pretty normal, but that sometimes it can get worked out on weekdays when the loan officers are in. My credit union said that usually when something like this happens, they just fill out paperwork to refinance with the credit union and then I'd get the original approved rate, unless something goes wrong and then they would guarantee the rate quoted by the dealer.
I told the dealership I'm not signing anything, I'll talk to my credit union tomorrow. They wanted me to give them my down payment today to "hold the car". I told them no. They asked if my credit union says it's okay will I sign for the 4.99%. They told me that they do this whenever they deal with credit unions.
My gut tells me this whole thing is shady but I don't know what to think since my credit union seems to think this happens often. Is this normal? How can I get through this with just my credit union loan?
Just for context: credit rating in the low 800s. income well into the 6-figures. spouse has comparable stats but is not co-signing. Location: CA
Submitted April 28, 2019 at 10:09PM by buyingacar_pf http://bit.ly/2ZGIbdr
