The United States bankruptcy court system discharged nearly 206,000 personal bankruptcies during the first quarter, and more than 266,000 additional households filed for a new bankruptcy during this time.
Bk’s have always been a part of any special finance department. Going after these customers before they are discharged will give you a big heads start on [...]

TORRANCE, Calif. — Trainer, consultant and Special Finance contributor Rob Hagen will present the first-ever Special Finance Institute training seminar on May 7 at the Hilton Garden Inn in Philadelphia.
The subject matter will cover the following areas:
1. Lenders
• Analysis of active lenders and what they’re looking for in a dealer, a customer, and a vehicle
• [...]

PLEASANTON, Calif. — Unitrin Inc. has announced plans to shelve Fireside Bank, the company’s subprime auto finance unit. Fireside will cease originations immediately and collect and service its existing portfolio in-house.
“The turmoil in the economy, coupled with changes in the used-car marketplace and increased capital requirements has led to this decision,” Don Southwell, Unitrin’s CEO, said [...]

Wow, the last 16 months have stunk in special finance!!!!!!!
Okay, that’s the end of the media sky is falling type reporting that you are going to get in this article.
On March 3rd, the Department of the Treasury and the Federal Reserve Board announced the launch of the Term Asset-Backed Securities Loan Facility (TALF), a component [...]

Welcome to our lender profiles. I will be writing these profiles with the goal of trying to help you guys hang more paper.
Briefly about me, I have spent 17 years in retail automotive sales with 15 of those being in special finance. I have a wealth of knowledge from “behind the desk”. I by no [...]

http://www.special-finance.com/t_inside.cfm?action=article_pick&storyID=1636

Financing Customers with Pre-Discharge Bankruptcies
By Rob Hagen

For special finance managers who are willing to listen and learn, pre-discharge BKs can be a source of growth and profit for any dealership.

Dealers are looking everywhere they can to find profits to boost their bottom lines and return to profitability, and special finance is going to play [...]

I think it is very important to understand why sub prime customers do some of the things they do. Why are tools like 800 credit hot lines and internet leads so popular? It is because the customers are embarrassed because they have been turned down some place else or they know how rough their credit [...]

Wow, another one bites the dust. GMAC has decided to close this portion of their business due to a lack of money to fund contracts. Even though GMAC received $6 billion dollars, there were stipulations that this money only be lend to customers with 621 or higher credit scores. This eliminated the need for a [...]

I am sure I am not saying anything that you guys don’t already know when I say that I am happy 2008 is in the rear view mirror. Having been in the special finance business for 15 years, 2008 was by far the hardest year of my career.
So how do we make that a thing [...]