Loan Pre-Approvals without Judgment — Car Loans Canada Helps Consumers Get the Vehicles They Need to Move Forward

In a Nutshell: In most parts of the world, cars are crucial for achieving and maintaining financial well-being, and this is never more apparent than when you need a car to get to work but can’t find a loan to finance one. For Canadians experiencing financial and automotive troubles, Car Loans Canada offers a solution: fast, reliable pre-approval online and over the phone that can get them back on the road quickly. Taking a cue from the US, Car Loans Canada’s parent company, CoverageCorp, helps Canadian dealerships establish subprime lending programs to create an easier path to car ownership for buyers with credit issues. Moreover, Car Loans Canada provides free instructional resources on its website to help consumers manage and improve their credit so they can achieve better overall financial health and stability.

If your financial situation is less than ideal, you’re far from alone in your efforts to get back on track.

Sure, your credit score and savings are low, but you just landed a decent-paying job that should go a long way toward improving both those fronts. Unfortunately, it’s in Vancouver, where rent is far outside your price range. Instead, you live in the suburbs outside the urban center, where the cost of living is much more affordable. Every day, you’ll commute to work in your car, and you’ll bring home a nice paycheck.

You’ll finally be able to save some money. You can begin paying down your credit card debt. Your student loans will suddenly seem much more manageable, and there’s finally some light at the end of that financial tunnel.

And then, one day, your trusty car gives up the ghost. Your credit score is better now than it was, certainly, but securing financing on a new vehicle will still prove to be tricky. And there’s no convenient mass transit system to get you to and from work each day.

This isn’t an isolated example. Many Canadians rely on their vehicles to get to work, get paid, and improve their financial situations. But, when that vehicle bites the dust, their prospects can suddenly seem grim.

“They absolutely need a vehicle to earn a living. It’s critical,” said Andrew Lemoine, CEO of Car Loans Canada. But if you have bad credit, obtaining financing can be difficult, and that inability to access funding likewise prevents you from improving your credit score by successfully keeping up with a loan.

Car Loans Canada is a long-standing site that provides credit-challenged Canadians with fast, easy approval for auto loans, and thanks to its recent acquisition by new parent company CoverageCorp, an even better customer experience is on the way.

“We’re going to make it the easiest site in Canada for Canadians to obtain pre-approval,” Lemoine said. Applicants need only log on, provide their information, get matched with an approval center, and get pre-approved over the phone.

“Within 12 to 24 months, we want to be the largest approval center for Canadians online looking for a vehicle,” Lemoine said.

“We’ve got a super-friendly application process,” Lemoine said. “You get to start the process from the comfort of your own home.”

On your computer, tablet, or phone, just select the type of vehicle you’re shopping for, then enter the necessary financial information and your geographic area. Car Loans Canada will then quickly and automatically match you to a local, certified approval center.

“We don’t just sign up anybody as partners. It’s got to be a team with the skills, the lenders, and the credit knowledge to actually help people,” Lemoine said of Car Loans Canada-affiliated approval centers. “We only work with dealers who are qualified to actually convert and have the knowledge and skill set in the credit space.”

Applicants get pre-approved over the phone, typically within 24 hours; they don’t have to waste time going to the dealership, waiting around, and facing the disappointment of not being approved.

“If our customers are en route to the approval center, they already have a pre-approval in place, and they’re probably just going down to select between a few different vehicles that fit,” Lemoine said. “Just getting that big unknown factor out of the way, it’s much easier and more comfortable for consumers to do that over the phone or online.”

Taking its cue from the US method of subprime auto financing, Car Loans Canada seeks to overhaul the Canadian auto lending process to better meet the needs of consumers. This is due, in no small part, to the credit issues experienced by many Canadians.

“A lot of consumers already have self-doubt as it is,” Lemoine said. This often stems from the social stigma of having poor credit and the fear of being denied financial opportunities because of their low scores. “Nobody likes to walk into a business with people they don’t know, knowing there’s a good chance they’re going to be told ‘Sorry, you’re denied,’ due to credit.”

These subprime borrowers represent a third of the market for auto loans in Canada.

“There’s a massive opportunity for Canadian dealers to take some notice of their American neighbors and how they do it,” Lemoine said. “In the US, it’s extremely common for most dealerships to have a non-prime division or department built right into their dealership, and that’s a model that we highly recommend.”

CoverageCorp specializes in training Canadian dealerships to establish this sort of service structure. “I feel that every single dealership should have somebody dedicated to special finance,” Lemoine said.

Lemoine told us many consumers don’t fully understand their credit scores and may think they will have trouble getting loans when that’s not necessarily the case. In other words, the problem isn’t exclusively bad credit; it’s a lack of financial education.

“Something like 84% of Canadians don’t actually know what their credit score is or have never obtained or pulled their credit report,” Lemoine said.

To counter this problem, Car Loans Canada provides free financial resources on its website. These include financial calculators, education about auto financing, and blog posts discussing specific topics and concerns borrowers may experience. Through these resources, Canadians can educate themselves and begin reclaiming control of their financial lives.

But understanding credit is only the first step; the harder part is fixing it. Recognizing this, Car Loans Canada helps consumers gain access to financial products that, if used responsibly, can help them demonstrate a better track record of on-time payments that can boost their scores over time.

Car Loans Canada also has another division that offers reverse loans, helping consumers save money and build credit at the same time.

“It’s great for anybody who’s been denied an auto loan or somebody who got approved for an auto loan, but a deep subprime auto loan, and they want to get to a different tier as quickly as they can to get away from the high interest,” Lemoine said.

Car Loans Canada’s application process starts with deciding what type of vehicle you’re looking for.

Car Loans Canada is also planning major partnerships that will likewise help consumers improve their financial health. “Right now, we’ve got some things in the works with some pretty large credit unions and bureau companies that are really going to help educate Canadians on credit and actually monitor it. It’s one thing to obtain an approval, but it’s another thing to actually get back on track and monitor your progress,” Lemoine said.

Car Loans Canada helps consumers improve their financial well-being in two major ways: by pairing them with their best option for financing a vehicle and providing financial planning assistance to get them and their credit back on the road to success as quickly as possible.

“You can make a world of difference within 12 to 24 months,” Lemoine said.