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Pete Radike
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COVID-19 Drives A Digital Lending Revolution: Is Your Auto Lending Business Ready?
SOUTH BEND, INDIANA, May 26, 2020 – Since the COVID-19 pandemic began, consumers have been required to adapt to new social distancing and corresponding changes in their business activities. This has certainly included the purchase of cars, trucks, and other vehicles.
Across the country, many car dealerships have been forced to close their showrooms, with some retaining personnel for only their service department. But others rapidly pivoted to adopt new ways to sell vehicles.
While in recent years the online-buying process has been growing, the impact of COVID-19 has significantly accelerated the need to adopt alternative solutions to traditional “on the lot” car purchasing practices. New demographics that are traditionally averse to online shopping are now forced to utilize whatever digital solution is available to them.
Furthermore, partnering vehicle delivery companies that work with dealerships to shop, select, finance, and deliver cars to consumer driveways without any personal contact have seen a surge in demand in recent months. The “dealer to driveway” concept is here to stay and forecasted for continued growth, even after COVID-19 stabilizes and departs from our normal everyday lives.
As the leading provider of accurate and compliant retail and lease payment computations and document delivery software in the auto finance industry, Carleton has seen firsthand the increased demand for “complete detail data” digital retailing solutions.
“COVID-19 has challenged the automotive industry in many ways, but none more than the new expectation consumers will have with the vehicle purchasing experience. Consumers were already looking for more streamlined processes featuring transparent payment computations consistent through the lifecycle of the vehicle purchasing experience,” said Matt Ruszkowski President and Chief Operating Officer of Carleton. “Auto lenders, OEM's, and car dealerships have been looking to adopt and leverage Digital Retailing platforms, but requirements have expanded, demanding platforms to be much more than just lead generators. The expectation is to complete the vehicle purchasing process by providing accurate and compliant disclosure values from the start. Platforms need to include complete deal data that feeds the document delivery process and all necessary disclosures for the retail / lease package.”
When the vehicle purchase process begins and ends online, consumers expect the first payment quoted will match what they eSign at the end of their digital retailing experience. Further evidence is demonstrated within mainstream dealer & lender expectations, featuring consistent state specific title/registration fees, sales tax, and dealer fees throughout the entire financing process.
Marcus Alley, Vice President of Strategic Initiatives for Automotive Titling Corporation (ATC), a data partner and leading source for providing automotive sales tax and registration fees in all 50 states, provided this observation about the current state of the digital car buying landscape: ”Gone are the days when “close enough is good enough” for online payment quotes or interest information presented to consumers in the front portion of the traditional vehicle buying process. Consumers expect accurate loan and lease information at the very start, down to the city level sales tax, vehicle title and registration details.”
The industry has lacked a complete, end to end customer experience featuring full and transparent disclosure data. Consumers have embraced online car buying/financing services and there remains a critical void between consumer expectations and existing digital finance solutions.
Carleton has recently released CarCalcs™ a comprehensive solution to address this critical need. CarCalcs™ is an add-on component to the tried and true CarletonCalcs® product. CarCalcs™ bridges the gap between traditional Installment Contract disclosure calculations by returning complex and valuable additional deal data, including Sales Tax & Registration Fee data sourced by Automotive Titling Corporation. The end result is complete and accurate calculations returned via a single API including all payment, Federal Truth in Lending information, credit insurance, sales tax, and state specific registration & dealer fees at the very beginning of the borrower engagement. Contact us today to integrate complete deal data into your digital lending platform.
About Automotive Titling Corporation (ATC)
50 states. Over 10,000 taxing jurisdictions. Nine million different combinations of vehicle ownership rules, laws, requirements and forms, all driven by the vehicle, location, type of transaction, etc. ATC covers them all. Integrating the ATC API into your online application will allow you to instantly calculate taxes and registration more accurately for anywhere in the country. To learn more about ATC go to https://atc-api.com or contact Marcus Alley, Vice President of Strategic Initiatives at (720)200-8834 or marcus@autotitling.com.
About Carleton, Inc.
Carleton is the country's leading provider of financial calculation software, loan origination compliance support, and document generation software. Based in South Bend, Indiana, Carleton possesses over 50 years of leadership in this rapidly changing regulatory industry. Carleton guarantees accuracy in all their calculations and disclosures, enabling their partners to fulfill compliance requirements today and into the future. To learn more about Carleton Lending Solutions, go to www.carletoninc.com or contact Pete Radike, Director of Client & Channel Engagement at 800-433-0090 Ext. 245 or PRadike@carletoninc.com.