Okay. So you have bad credit. You’ve come to us at Barrett Motors—maybe as a last chance—to see if we will take a chance to give you financing for a dependable used car.

Unlike banks and other traditional lenders, we try to ignore your credit score; we use other factors to determine your finance package. We look for ways to say, “Yes.”

Stability is the biggest thing with us. You could come in and have a horrible credit score—but we understand that things happen to people. Life changes. Job hiccups. Things like that. What we really look for is stability.

How much time have you had at your current job or previous job? How long have you lived at your residence or prior residence? References are a big thing with us, too. Can we talk to your family and friends and verify some of the information that you gave us? Putting a lot of the pieces of the puzzle together is what has helped us be successful in getting people like you the financing you need—without worrying about your credit score.

The process doesn’t have to take all day either, like it does at other lending places and dealerships. We gather up a few paycheck stubs, a tax return, a lease agreement or mortgage statement, and utility bill. What we need from you are things that show that you live where you said, work where you said and make the kind of money you said you do. We call to verify some of that information.

We probably ask for more paperwork than a traditional lender who is only relying upon a credit score—but it’s all to build a case to show our underwriting department that the stability is there in you that we look for.

Of course, you can apply online too so that when  you come in, we already have answers, know your budget and what you can afford, so the process of getting your new-to-you car and driving away is hastened.

When we consider your stability, we look at factors that tell us whether you can actually afford the vehicle you have your eye on, and whether or not you will choose to make payments.

As I mentioned, we consider job time and residence time largely because we want to be confident that you’re not going anywhere after we take a chance on you—and that you’re going to work at your job.

We also understand that you need a vehicle even if you’ve only been at your job and/or in your house one month. At that point, we will dig a little deeper to see how long you were at your prior job or residence, or find out what your story is. What happened that triggered your change in job, residence, livelihood, etc.? Then we verify all of that information. It’s putting pieces of your particular puzzle together.

We look at factors: having a job you just transferred from that you’ve had for seven years, or maybe you haven’t had the job as long but you’ve lived in the same spot for 10 years. One factor can compensate for another. We’re looking for stability. There’s no set guideline as to how long you have to be in your job or home.

We may finance you even though you just moved into your apartment—but you moved here for a job that is a big opportunity. Or maybe you moved because you just bought a home, or had to move to get closer to where your job is.

There are always pieces to that puzzle that we look for to make the entire picture, but it’s also all about you and what works for you, and what has worked for you.

Where have you been? What have you been doing? We look for people who have had credit problems but not necessarily those with continuing credit issues only. We want to help people get a dependable used vehicle who have had credit problems in the past and are looking for a way out.