Leasing a car in the USA

[markjbankover 1]

Hi,

I've been here in Boston for 6 months now. I have a good job i am established and earning decent money.

I am trying to lease a car, i negotiated a fantastic deal. I was told i needed a cosigner, this would be my wife, this was rejected due to her having a car lease under 1 year. In steps her father, he is willing to be a cosigner, this again rejected. They explained that i am not allowed to open a car lease in my name until i have my green card. I have a EAD and AP with expiry date of Feb 2014, by then i assume my green card would have come through. They explained only way i could get car is if my wife opens up the lease, no point as the whole point of this lease is for me to establish credit in this country.

Any advice, similar stories, seems frustrating as i have a job income, doing everything by the book, yet i cant even get a car lease until i have a green card!!!

Advice would be great

Mark

[English Muffin 59]

** Moving from UK Regional forum to Moving Here And Your New Life In America forum **

[The Mean Lady 604]

Even after you get a green card you may not be able to lease if you have established no credit yet.

[BaBamSam 239]

I just leased a car for the first time about 3 weeks ago, and one of my good friends who is a UK citizen on her temporary green card is doing the same this week.

Here's what I've learned: there are no strict rules about who can take out a lease. As in, it depends on the city, dealership, time of year, etc. My suggestion would be to contact dealerships in the area and explain, upfront, that you are foreign and recently moved to the US and are becoming a permanent resident.

While getting a lease on a car is a great way to establish credit, it is probably not the best route for someone in your position. I would advise looking at credit cards, like the Capital One program, that are designed for immigrants to build history. Also, talk to your bank or credit union about ways to build your credit as they often have schemes that allow you to take a loan out against yourself to establish credit.

My lease story was highly unusual: I have very little credit, but it is extremely good. I have no full time job (I freelance) and could not provide proof of income. I was given a 3 year lease for a low monthly payment and $0 down. The only concern was that I had only resided at my current address for about 7 months. After a friendly chat, they decided they didn't care. This is probably because I live in Los Angeles where half of the population lacks a full time job because of the main industry being driven by freelance and gig work.

[Boiler 45,727]

Leases are usually bad news.

[david'sgirl 134]

Hi,

I've been here in Boston for 6 months now. I have a good job i am established and earning decent money.

I am trying to lease a car, i negotiated a fantastic deal. I was told i needed a cosigner, this would be my wife, this was rejected due to her having a car lease under 1 year. In steps her father, he is willing to be a cosigner, this again rejected. They explained that i am not allowed to open a car lease in my name until i have my green card. I have a EAD and AP with expiry date of Feb 2014, by then i assume my green card would have come through. They explained only way i could get car is if my wife opens up the lease, no point as the whole point of this lease is for me to establish credit in this country.

Any advice, similar stories, seems frustrating as i have a job income, doing everything by the book, yet i cant even get a car lease until i have a green card!!!

Advice would be great

Mark

Hi Mark,

Welcome to the Boston area! It took my husband a few months to even show up on the credit bureaus. Do a query on VJ for how to establish credit as it's been discussed to death.

I would recommend having your wife add you to her accounts. I did that with Sears card and it now shows him as having an account there for years in good standing. He also got the capital one credit card quite easily. Get one and use it for groceries, gas etc but pay it off every time you use it. Once you build credit you can reapply for a loan.

David bought a used car with cash. It makes more sense to do that than to lease a new car which you will never own. We had good luck at IRA motors group.

If you really want to get a new car, go to a credit union and become a member (by opening an account) and then apply for a loan with them. They often are much more accomodating than a regular bank.

Edited June 29, 2013 by david'sgirl

[markjbankover 1]

You quoted ?

[david'sgirl 134]

I have no idea what happened. My reply is in the quote box. I miss the old system.

Edited June 29, 2013 by david'sgirl

[VanessaTony 3,567]

You quoted ?

This is what they wrote:

Welcome to the Boston area! It took my husband a few months to even show up on the credit bureaus. Do a query on VJ for how to establish credit as it's been discussed to death.

I would recommend having your wife add you to her accounts. I did that with Sears card and it now shows him as having an account there for years in good standing. He also got the capital one credit card quite easily. Get one and use it for groceries, gas etc but pay it off every time you use it. Once you build credit you can reapply for a loan.

David bought a used car with cash. It makes more sense to do that than to lease a new car which you will never own. We had good luck at IRA motors group.

If you really want to get a new car, go to a credit union and become a member (by opening an account) and then apply for a loan with them. They often are much more accomodating than a regular bank.

[david'sgirl 134]

Thanks Vanessa & Tony! I thought maybe no one could see it.

[orangedesk 27]

Hi,

I've been here in Boston for 6 months now. I have a good job i am established and earning decent money.

I am trying to lease a car, i negotiated a fantastic deal. I was told i needed a cosigner, this would be my wife, this was rejected due to her having a car lease under 1 year. In steps her father, he is willing to be a cosigner, this again rejected. They explained that i am not allowed to open a car lease in my name until i have my green card. I have a EAD and AP with expiry date of Feb 2014, by then i assume my green card would have come through. They explained only way i could get car is if my wife opens up the lease, no point as the whole point of this lease is for me to establish credit in this country.

Any advice, similar stories, seems frustrating as i have a job income, doing everything by the book, yet i cant even get a car lease until i have a green card!!!

Advice would be great

Mark

Hi Mark - we had somewhat of a similar situation when me and my guy bought a car in both of our names in January. The good news is that I'm sure you'll be able to find something since I don't think the green card requirement is a widespread policy across all banks/lenders.

Here's our story: I'm the US citizen. I have a car just in my name that I leased in November 2012. We did it this way because we only had one car, my old car died out of nowhere and

just needed to get something ASAP. Anyway, in January, I started a new job and our financial situation greatly improved. So, we decided this time to buy a car and then put it in both me and my guy's name so he could build credit. We made a pretty decent downpayment and then took out a loan for the rest of it. At the time, he had a SS#, bank account, EAD but no job and no green card yet. His green card was actually just approved a few days ago.

But, when we went to buy the car, two banks rejected us when it came to the financing portion. The reason they gave us wasn't because he didn't have a green card or because he didn't have a job, it was because he didn't have "sufficient credit history." The fact that I had a lease within the past year didn't matter at all. It actually increased my credit rating. The finance director assured us that he could find something and said that each financial institution will have their own policy. We ultimately ended up getting the loan through a credit union in the next state over. For them to approve us though, they wanted the dealership to fax them a copy of my guy's social security card and provide a copy of the letter we received from the social security administration when we originally applied.

So, a few thoughts... I'm not sure about lease terms, but it might have to go through the particular car company's finance division so you might be out of luck there. I think our car loan is set up with me as primary and my guy also on the lease. Everything would affect both of our credit, so is there a way that your wife could approach the dealership and then say that she wants you on the lease as well? Maybe buying a car would be a better option since you would be able to go through different finance companies? If you find something with something like 0.9% financing and no money down, you might be able to get a 60 month loan for not much more than a lease.

Hope this helps

[manchu7 0]

I just leased a car for the first time about 3 weeks ago, and one of my good friends who is a UK citizen on her temporary green card is doing the same this week.

I was given a 3 year lease for a low monthly payment and $0 down. The only concern was that I had only resided at my current address for about 7 months. After a friendly chat, they decided they didn't care.

I live in New Hampshire and trying to get a auto lease. I have a temporary green card and was told that lenders will not finance me because they cannot guarantee that I will stay in US for the term of lease. I wonder if it is true... My husband's credit is really bad because of a systematic identity theft and we might have to do a voluntary repossess our current car. Luckily my TransUnion score is good even though it is a thin file. Do you think if I will have any chance to get a lease?