Perhaps the single biggest factor on whether a customer can successfully pay off his BHPH or LHPH account with your dealership is how you structure the deal. Poor deal structure will ensure you will have collection issues throughout the loan and will significantly increase your repossession and charge-off numbers. The wrong deal structure will set your customer up for failure. Many conventional Buy Here – Pay Here dealerships charge excessive
Collections are the most exciting activity at a Dealer Controlled Financing dealership. If your employees have properly worked the other processes at your dealership, then collections can be easy. The dealership can maintain a larger portfolio without increasing personnel expense. If your dealership is charging the highest interest rates allowed, extending contracts beyond the expected life of the vehicle, or treats customers like they are doing them a favor by
Determining who to make loans to is one of the critical factors in the success of a dealer controlled financing business. Making the wrong decisions can cause you considerable collection work and expense than making good lending decisions. Poor BHPH underwriting can increase your delinquency, stunt your cash flow and trigger excessive charge-offs. Good BHPH underwriting can help you avoid these mistakes, build your cash flow and minimize charge-offs. Effective
An article I wrote that appears in the November issue of Auto Dealer Monthly 2012 has been a pretty good year for BHPH dealers. Sales have been up for many dealers. Delinquencies have been below last year’s levels for most dealers. There are more sources of capital available almost every day and the future looks bright. Let’s take a look at 5 areas that give us a pretty good picture of
Collections during the upcoming holiday season always become just a little tougher. We know our Buy Here – Pay Here customers live paycheck to paycheck and, during this time of the year, there are more demands on those paychecks than ever. The cost of holiday meals at Thanksgiving and Christmas or Hanukkah plus Christmas presents and even preparations for New Year require extra money when our customers have very little
Charging late fees is a practice some Buy Here – Pay Here dealers choose to do but an approximately equal number consider to be a bad practice. Those who charge fees when their customers pay late typically look at it as another source of revenue. Those who believe that it is a poor practice will, more often than not, site one or more of the following reasons. 1. Your customers
I have just returned from the 1st Annual Mid-Atlantic Independent Auto Dealers Association Conference in Atlantic City. It was an excellent conference with 25 educational sessions to assist independent auto dealers. The conference was very well run and, based on everything I heard from dealers in attendance, will continue to grow every year. If you weren’t there, I’d put this one on your calendar as a must attend for next year.
The Buy Here Pay Here market continues to grow. According to studies done by Experian, 9.18% of all vehicles financing in 2010 and 14.38% of used vehicle financing were done by BHPH dealers. Last year those numbers grew to 9.8% of all vehicles and 16.62% of used vehicles financed. As the economy continues to struggle, it appears this growth trend will continue for 2012 and beyond. Growth in this market
You have to dig for diamonds; they don’t float to the top. It takes a little work to find the right people to staff your BHPH dealership. One of the keys to success at a DCF dealership rests on the ability of the dealership’s personnel to establish a friendly relationship with the customers. Much of that will depend on the attitude they have towards the customers. If you and your
This is part two of an article on what needs to be in your compliance binder. If you have not read part one, I strongly suggest you do so. Several federal laws and regulations enacted over the last 10 years have required all car dealerships to have written plans outlining your efforts to comply. Failure to do so can lead to some severe penalties. Let’s take a look at several
