Credit Apps/Contracts
What you don't know can hurt you. Learn how to play it safe with credit applications and contracts.
Payment Card ABC's for Auto Dealers
Most dealers accept payment cards (debit and credit cards) for purchases in sales, service, and parts. You pay a price (called the "merchant discount") for accepting cards but do so as... Read More
Unearned Insurance Premium Rebates Class Action ShowsDanger of Ambiguous Writing In The Passive Voice
It is generally understood that when a consumer pays off vehicle financing prior to the end of the scheduled term, the consumer has overpaid for credit insurance because the initial charge assumed ins... Read More
New Federal Bailout Program Offers Hope
I don't need to tell you that credit markets critical to auto dealers have been seemingly stalled for months despite the distribution of over $350 billion to banks under the federal Troubled Asse... Read More
When Dealers Have Permissible Purpose to Pull a Credit Report
Re: Section 604 of the Fair Credit Reporting Act Dear Ms. Coffey: This responds to your letter dated August 29, 1997, asking the views of the Commission staff on a number of issues co... Read More
Deceptive Trade Practices Case Study: Hidden Fees
Recently, plaintiffs' lawyers have brought deceptive trade practices suits in several states against dealers for allegedly overcharging consumers on "doc fees," or fees itemized on retai... Read More
Back to the Future: Credit Sales vs. Loans and Why the Difference Is Important to You
You probably know that most American consumer auto finance is done as "three party financing" (customer, dealer, financial institution) and not "two party financing" (customer and... Read More
Myths and Realities of Credit Reports and Adverse Action Notices
In this video, Randy Henrick, Associate General Counsel at DealerTrack, explores common auto dealer myths related to pulling credit reports and sending adverse action notices. ...
The Do’s and Don’ts of Spot Deliveries
In this video, Randy Henrick, Associate General Counsel at DealerTrack, explains the do's and don'ts of the one aspect of auto finance that probably generates more litigation than any other: ...
Myths and Realities of Credit Reports and Adverse Action Notices
In this audio podcast, Randy Henrick, Associate General Counsel at DealerTrack, explores common auto dealer myths related to pulling credit reports and sending adverse action notices....
The Do's and Don'ts of Spot Deliveries
In this audio podcast, Randy Henrick, Associate General Counsel at DealerTrack, explains the do's and don'ts of the one aspect of auto finance that probably generates more litigation than any ...
The Right Way to Use Menus
Sometimes when I am just pondering the universe, I wonder who the first person to eat certain foods was. Why, for example, would someone think that digging a root out of the ground and baking or fryi... Read More
Spot Deliveries: A Refresher on Pitfalls and Practices
Spot deliveries refer to the practice of a dealer placing a consumer in a car "on the spot" to make a sale. However, the sale is made contingent (condition precedent or condition subsequent... Read More
Soothsaying Like the Frenchmen
Up until a year ago, the only French things I liked were fries, toast, kisses and that funny man on Family Affair. Then I spent some time in Paris and gained a new perspective, using my actual experi... Read More
Doc Fees: The Next Attack Against Auto Dealers?
Plaintiffs' lawyers are always looking for new ways to attack auto dealers. Their creativity is limited only by their imagination and once a bad decision comes down against a dealer, the vultures... Read More
Schedule Recurring Compliance Tasks
I take a little bit of pride in being a relatively organized person. My wife laughs at my closet, with suits and shirts arranged in the order I intend to wear them. It takes me four hours to cut the ... Read More
Using a Checklist Can Promote Compliance
"A dream goes on forever." ~ Todd Rundgren I know more guys who dream about owning a private pilot's license than guys who fulfilled their dream of owning one. I still dream. So I s... Read More
E-Contracting is Not a Turkey
Back when I worked for others for a living, I toiled on the next iteration of the proprietary credit system that linked dealers to the sales finance company. This was back when Shaq recently graduat... Read More
Update on Dealer Adverse Action Cases
A year ago, in our August 2005 Compliance Corner column, we reported on an adverse action case where the court held that an auto dealer's marking up a "buy rate" on financing offered to... Read More
The Risks of Spot Delivery
I am sitting in Germany getting ready to head to France and am reminded of a childhood story. Dad was in the Air Force. While in the upper stages of elementary school, we lived in Okinawa. One of my... Read More
What Should Your Product Penetration Tell You?
We all live by the numbers. You could reach Jenny at 867-5309. 14 - 0 represents the pinnacle of single season victories posted by a college football team (OSU, 2002). The steroids-free home run king... Read More
The Poetry of Creating Payments
I admit I'm not a Renaissance man. I hate cats, so I know I ain't that sensitive. My manicure frequency does not qualify me for metro sexual of the month. I don't get poetry. Why try to... Read More
The California Car Buyer's Bill of Rights
On July 1, an important new law will take effect in California. Called the Car Buyer's Bill of Rights, the law imposes new duties on California dealers, principally in connection with used car sa... Read More
Can You be Subject to a RICO Claim?
A recent class action lawsuit filed against a dealer group in the Eastern Time Zone alleges many of the same issues that car dealers have seen before: deceptive trade practices, falsifying income, fa... Read More
When Dealers Go Bad: How One Dealer's Compliance Failures Led to a Bitter Fall
Compliance mavens often use scare stories to convince auto dealers that the legal risks of shady F&I practices don’t justify taking the chance for a quick buck. Sometimes you wonder if it c... Read More
The Seven Year Itch (Negative Equity)
I have always been intrigued by The Seven Year Itch. Not the movie, the title. The movie was released before I was released from my mom's womb. The title, however, has frequently made me think ab... Read More