Can an immigrant with a modest credit history buy a new car in the USA: personal experience
'08.01.2021'
Source: Yandex Zen
The author of the blog "Kuzminatravel" shares his first experience of buying and all the "pitfalls" on Yandex Zen.
Further from the first person.
Hello everyone! My name is Olga, and I have lived in the USA for 3 years.
When I first arrived in the States, there was a need to urgently buy a car, since it is almost impossible to move there without it (the public transport system is poorly developed even in large cities).
Then I did not plan to stay in America for permanent residence and chose the car on emotions - so that it would be a pleasure to drive for six months and then sell it. In general, I took an old mini-cooper. I liked everything about this car, except that it constantly broke down. Therefore, a year later, I thought that it was time to change my favorite car.
By that time, my husband and I decided to stay to live in the United States, received the first American documents: driver's licenses, SSN (something like our TIN) and work permits. They also started building their own credit history.
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By the way, in order for a foreigner to have a credit history and to be able to buy a car or a house on credit, you first need to do a very strange manipulation: open a credit card using your own funds.
For a certain amount (at least $ 300), the bank issues you a credit card, and you give the bank a security deposit for the amount of the loan granted. Further, within 6 months, the card must be actively used and payments made on time. Basically, you pay the bank interest for using your own money.
After 6 months, the deposit is returned and conclusions are drawn about whether you are a responsible borrower or not.
In general, as soon as the deposit was returned to me and the credit history was formed, I decided to go to a car dealership and inquire about the conditions of a car loan.
We turned to the first salon we came across. There was a Nissan car dealership not far from the house, and we decided to ask the price for an inexpensive Nissan Sentra.
It was already evening, literally an hour before the car dealership closed, and, of course, we weren't counting on anything. We only wanted to know what the first installment was needed, what documents were needed, what interest rate, etc. And in general, I did not really believe that we would be given a loan: we are foreigners, without citizenship and a residence permit, we live in a rented their name is housing, and for their own business with a small turnover, they have never filed even tax returns. In short, by Russian standards - an absolutely disastrous option (I know this as a former employee of a car dealership).
The seller immediately explained to us that the conditions for the loan are different for everyone and depend on the credit history. To find out ours, you need to choose a car. Without delving into the details, my husband and I chose a car in an average configuration for $ 16. The manager asked us for a driver's license, SSN, information about our place of work and went to count the loan.
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By the way, the loan was handled by the same person who sold the cars.
After 10 minutes, he came out with a Hollywood smile, saying that the loan was approved for us. I was, to put it mildly, surprised by this, but on reflection, my husband and I decided that we would not be able to handle more than 600 dollars a month. Now I don't remember the initial interest rate and loan term, but having said that it was expensive for us, we were going to leave. We decided that we had to sell our car first so that there was money for a good down payment.
But the manager wasn't going to give up so easily. He asked to wait a little longer. As a result, he left 3 more times. I would never have thought that you can bargain for a loan ... The last conditions for us were: $ 2000 - the first installment, 4,25% interest rate on the loan and $ 375 - monthly payment. This was fine for us, but we had to think about this idea better, and we didn't have $ 2000 with us, and the salon officially closed half an hour ago.
“Everything is fine, take the car, bring the first installment tomorrow, let's go sign the documents,” sounded like a strange scam at the vegetable market.
Nevertheless, having phoned local friends, we decided to pick up the car and, spending another 20 minutes on registration, left the salon in a new car.
Until now, I remember this purchase as some kind of fiction, absolutely incredible for Russia, but normal for the USA. Although now I understand that then we overpaid and the interest rate was high.
But the car made us happy for almost 2 years, we traveled almost all over America on it.
Original column published on the blog. "Kuzminatravel" on Yandex Zen.
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