How many times as a manager have you looked through a deal that one of your salespeople just dropped on your desk and you asked yourself. "Who filled out this credit application? Or who filled in the blanks? Why are there crossouts? It sure looks like my salesperson did this. I have a complete deal in front of me. Ok let's call it in. " That's the norme in most dealerships. We wag the dog, push the paper, let's spot the car. This is a major problem. Dealers we have got to get out of this old habbit!
For years I have been telling my salespeople. "The customer fills out the whole credit application! Not half, not some, but the whole thing! ' Would you let a mortgage broker fill out your mortgage application? So why would it be acceptable for are salespeople to fill out a customers 2nd biggest purchase application in their lifetime?

My article below is enough to scare anyone out of the bad habits of allowing a salesperson or any level of management to be filling out a credit application in there own handwriting for the dealer to save time.By having the customer
complete his or her application own reduces the chances of your sales staff from giving customers unnecessary pay raises, fake jobs, or even inflated investment income for a senior citizen so that they will qualify for a loan or lease with their high credit score. All of these scenario's are BANK FRAUD! Let's face it times are tough, and without proper process in set in place, as dealers we are wide open to lawsuits!

Automotive News reported on an informal online survey of F&I managers last month in which 29% responded that salespeople or sales managers fill in credit applications for customers at their stores. "Oh well they’re just trying to move the deal along quicker and help the customers fill them out the right way. What could go wrong?"

What happens if a customer claims that the income or time on the job shown on the application does not reflect the truth? How can that come up, you ask? How about a customer’s lawsuit over a deal that was rescinded when the customer’s financing was denied because his income could not be verified randomly by a Prime bank two weeks after being funded? Look at your dealer agreements with these banks. They can contact the customer the moment you send them a deal and request just about whatever they want to support the application that was submitted to them. Just because your funded, doesn't mean you won't get charged back!

What if the customer was at another dealership and the income you stated doesn't match the application that another dealer sent in the week prior? Red Flag. Now you need POI, that's if your lucky enough that the annalist or banks computer doesn't turn it down because they see it as a flam. In the world of computers banks are sharing more and more information to protect themselves by leaning on each other. In the end ultimately they are the ones who will get the car back when the customer stops making the payments. As dealers most of the banks that we use have zero recourse unless it is a sub prime bank that is for extreme risk. In cases of contracts with recoarse smart dealer makes sure the customer makes the first few payments right at the dealership. Or until the recourse period is over. Until then the car has a tracking unit in it, and the dealer has a spare key for easy recovery, and we have no worries. This is quite common in the Gulf Coast Region being that it is such a transient marketplace.

Or how about a claim against the dealership arising from a repossession where the customer claims that he could not afford the vehicle because his income on the credit application was falsified by the salesperson? To make matters worse the equipment that was stated on the book out sheet was also falsified. Now the dealer has REAL trouble. When matters like this become issues in litigation, it is easy for the customer to claim that he knows nothing about what was entered on the credit application if it is not in his handwriting. He will claim that the amount of income, the time on the job, and any of several other important facts were made up by the salesperson. Sure, he signed the application, but it was just another in an endless line of documents he was told to sign as part of his deal.

So where does your dealership stand if this happens? Where it leaves the dealer is basically in a position that he has to write a check and buy this vehicle back from the lender + any fee's the lender has incurred along the collections, and repossession process. Now you have an angry customer, without a car and destroyed credit. In light of the situation you as the Dealer have been deemed WRONG. Hopefully the customer doesn't look for a payday and proceed with a civial lawsuit. Unfortunately in this situation almost every dealer who has been forced to buy the vehicle back from the lender due to fraud, by a dealership employee a settlement has been rewarded. Oh and let's not forget what will happen if the State Attorney General decides to get involved. Whoever filled out that application may be paying fines, or even worse spending some time in prison. I don't know about you folks, but I'm way to cute for prisson

Not that it makes any sense? We get sued, or prosecuted for selling a car.The customer came to us. They begged and pleaded to get approved, and asked for our help. We did our job and sold them a car. But were the bad guys in the systems eyes to begin with. We are car dealers! "Us the big dealer vs the poor trusting customer." Who does the arbitrator or Judge rule in favor of? The little guy... Everybody's had a bad car deal including the arbitrator.

Certainly, dealers want credit applications to be legible and complete.They want salespeople to work with customers so that all of the required information is filled in. But a salesperson who is filling in the credit application for the customer makes it easy for the customer to claim that the salesperson made up the information. Here is the answer. Using blue ink pen. (Black ink can be accused as copy) Have all information on the credit application filled in by the customer. Have a seasoned salesperson, sales manager, or an F&I person work with the customer to develop all the pertinent information. Then have the customer sign the application, and initial the income and time on the job. The information on the credit application will be transferred into an electronic screen anyway "Dealer track, your DMS, etc." Even when the application is not legible, it should be handwritten again by the customer in the most legible form they can and signed again by the customer,. Along with the customer’s original handwritten application attached to the legible application, along with the printed copy of the application from the DMS system your dealership uses. Make sure you retain all original copies in the deal jacket with the orginal signatures. Doing otherwise is just being lazy, and you are not protecting the Dealership and it's Principal's best interest.

Being a thorough sales consultant or manager will only get you positive results, and enhance your chances of promotion because of leading by proper example.Regardless of all our efforts a customer can always claim that he wrote what he was told to write by a salesperson. But if it is the customer’s handwriting that is 100% throughout the application, and we have matching typed and written applications with original signatures on each. It will be a tough sale to a jury, or arbitrator that we as the dealer did anything wrong. Happy Selling! And remember compliance matters;)

By: Carter R. Nies