Online motor finance providers who continue to damage potential customers' credit scores with hard searches which remain on their records are "bordering on unethical", according to iVendi.
IVendi’s chief executive, James Tew (pictured), explained that a trail of records left by hard serches online with no proceeding credit agreement can lead to lenders assuming that a potential customer has been identified as a bad risk.
He said: “Today, when customers expect to be able to shop around and make all kinds of applications and checks online while they identify the deal that is best for them, they are sometimes inadvertently damaging their credit record.”
Tew said it was unacceptable that some systems lacked the sophistication to enable customers to make “footprint free” checks, adding: “It is bordering on unethical to play a part in a customer’s credit score being downgraded just because they are going through a very ordinary process of searching for the right finance.
“The act of applying for motor finance should not make it more difficult and probably expensive to get motor finance in the future unless there is good evidence that the applicant is a poor risk.”
Tew said that iVendi systems such as Car Finance Checker were deliberately designed to make it easy for used car buyers to check out their finance eligibility as often as they liked with no impact on their credit score.
“This is how many, many people buy motor finance in 2017 and motor finance providers should be meeting that need by choosing the right technology.”
Gary - 30/09/2017 14:57
It is near impossible to give a customer a transparent quote working with just a soft search, It would be easier for dealers to have more information available to them when dealing with a decline rather than having a panel of lenders all with different scorecards using different systems for searches. What about the high street Banks working with 51% advertised rate's how close is their low rate underwrite to this figure. It doesn't require a n intermediary company matching the customers to lenders it just requires transparency from lenders and clear reasons for rejection we would all then be able to place accordingly with lenders there after! We as an interdependent dealer use my car credit score for soft search for customers visiting our website its useless we have had people with scores sub 400 go straight through with top 4 lenders then people with plus 800 scores decline across the board.