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A couple of years ago I walked into a car dealership feeling confident I was about to walk away with a brand new car.  Reality check. I was turned down and fast. The finance manager took one look at my credit and almost laughed out loud. How humiliating. Then they invited me to look into their second chance program. That involved waiting in the nasty waiting room at the dealership until the special financing manager was available to see me. I’ve heard they do this kind of stuff on purpose to get break people before they hit them over the head with huge interest fees.

When I finally got to see this mysterious manager, I was happily surprised to find a woman sitting behind a neatly organized desk (unlike the other manager’s office which was nasty). I thought hmmm.. this ought to be easy. She should me more empathetic and be willing to give me a second chance.  After all, they did call it the second chance car program right? Wrong.

Not only did she drill me having me go over every negative item on my credit report (including a full explanation of WHY I didn’t pay this or that on time) but she took FOREVER to do so. By this time, I had already been at this dealer’s for 3 hours and it was getting cold and dark outside. I just wanted to go home and get this over with.

Finally after they had told me there was no way I would ever get approved without a cosigner or a huge down payment, they said we may be able to help you out after all. Go figure. All that waiting so they could offer me a shitty deal. Bastards.  Well, i fell for it. I am ashamed to admit that I fell for it. Yes, its true. I was young, ignorant and naive and didn’t see how they played me. It really is an awful game they run on people.

So next time you decide to go shopping for a car when you have bad credit be prepared to turn the tables on them. Walk in telling them you already got approved at a dealer down the street but you just wanted to see if they could beat the offer you already got. Tell em you only have a limited amount of time. This will help you negotiate a FAR better deal especially if your credit is an issue.

Good luck to you!