How Do Bad Credit Car Dealerships Make Money on Car Loan Rates?

Many people are under the assumption that caryour loan at an interest rate of 10%. That is a
dealers only make money on the sale price of areasonable auto loan rate for someone that has had
vehicle. If this were true, it would make buying a carsome bumps in the road on their credit report. If the
much simpler and getting a better auto loan rate a lotapproval comes back allowing the dealer a dealer
easier. It's not the case however, and very few peopleadd-on rate, of 3%, then the dealer can add 1%, 2% or
that are outside of the car business or have never3% to your auto loan rate. The difference between
worked in that industry are aware of exactly how itpaying 10% or 13% on your car loan, can make a
works. The fact is that the sale price of the vehiclesubstantial difference in the amount of your car
only amounts to a small part of the total picture.payment. In many cases, this can add $100 or more to
When you go into a bad credit car dealership to buy ayour monthly car payment. The additional amount that
car, the sale price primarily covers the cost of the car,you pay each month because of the dealer add-on
the cost of dealership overhead and the salespersonsrate, is divided between the car dealership and the
commission. That is called front end profit. Where thefinance company.
real money is made, is in what is called back end profit.So what happens if you trade your car before your
When a dealership takes your credit application andcar is paid off? Generally a dealership is only charged
sends it to a few lenders, the lenders send a responseback if you trade your vehicle within the first year.
that either approves or denies your application. If yourThat is why the dealership is not advanced the full
application is denied there is generally a good clearamount of the extra profit that is made on the dealer
answer as to why, which helps the dealer to know inadd-on rate.
the future what to look for prior to submittingHow can you avoid this?
applications to that particular company. If yourWith the veil of secrecy being held closed so tight in
application is approved, there is a few different factorscar dealerships, regarding this issue, the public really
that are involved. There is be amount allowed forhas no way of even knowing what their true interest
financing, a percentage of that amount that therate is when they are approved. The only way to
creditor will allow for an extended warranty, and theavoid this is to seek financing outside of a car
number of percentage points that the dealer can adddealership and even then similar principles operate with
to the loan. These percentage points, otherwise knownbank loan officers. One of the best ways of avoiding
as dealer add-on rate, are where a lot of hiddenthis is comparing auto loan rate quotes from multiple
money is made in car dealerships. To elaborate on this,companies, or using a service that uses the best rate
let's have a simple example.for you.
Let's say that the creditor or loan company, approves