Do I Need a Down Payment | Jason Lewis Automotive

One of the most common questions we often get asked at the Jason Lewis Automotive is can I buy a car with nothing down? The short, honest answer is "YES"! If you have a Super Preferred Credit Rating, which is typically a Credit Score, on Equifax, of 740 or higher. If you have a credit score of 740 or better, that puts you among maybe the top 10% of the buying public in East Tennessee. So how do you determine what you will need for a down payment? Here are a few factors:

• Your Credit Score
• Gross Salary, All Sources
• Current Debt to Income Ratio
• Equity in Your Trade In, or Lack Of
• What Is Bank Loan Amount On The Car Selected
• Time at Your Job
• Length of Time at Your Current Residence

 

At Jason Lewis Automotive we staff our Auto Finance Center with car loan professionals. We need to look at your credit application for an honest answer. It all starts with you completing our simple Auto Loan Application before you come to the Dealership. Why? Because we can pull your credit, evaluate your credit score, income and the other factors listed above. If you know you have credit issues, know your credit score is 650 or below, you may think about obtaining the following items, "Stips", put them together to bring to our CDJR Dealership:

• Driver's License (Buyer and Significant Other)
• Proof of Insurance
• Last Two Paycheck Stubs
• Utility Bill That Comes to Your Home Address. Water, Electric or Gas
• Six References, Name, Address, City, State, and Phone Number

 

Of course you can wait to put all of this together, but doing that will lengthen the amount of time you have to spend at our dealership. Our Auto Finance Staff want you to have a great experience and not have to spend a whole day, if we can prevent it. By having all of the "Stips" available when you arrive, it will allow us to identify which lender to submit your credit to, the one most likely to approve a loan. It will give the lender we submit the credit to the complete picture, and should speed the process up.

One great way to not have cash out of pocket to buy a car is to trade in a car you have a significant amount of equity in. Significant equity is usually about 10% of the price of the car, depending on your credit. Credit scores below 650, or a large amount of negative equity on your trade in may require a bigger down payment.

At Jason Lewis Automotive we want to make buying a car a fun and rewarding experience. If you can qualify for a no down payment car loan, we are happy to let you buy the car that way. Best way to find out is to submit that Auto Loan Application today!