Car Lease gone wrong (payment, financing, credit report, checking account)

[Steve92]

Hello everyone!

Long time spectator here, but first time poster.

My wife leased her first car roughly a month ago from Mazda Puente Hills. She is a first time buyer. We downed initially $500 and we would give them the rest 15 days after the initial signing.

Payment didn't process on X day. So we called in and asked what the issue was and were told nothings wrong and it should show most likely when the clock hits midnight well it never popped up. Less than 7 days ago we get a call from the dealership telling us she would need to come in and get a co-signer. Well we told them no we did not want too since she was hardened on being able to do this on her own. Few days pass they contact us again and tell us everything is A-OK! but we would need to now come in and sign a new contract with a "Lower Monthly" not sure how that even happened if she needed a cosigner to begin with?! anyways we're supposed to come in this saturday to do a new contract and finish everything up, but I check my checking account today and I was charged for the rest of the down. I don't have a problem with this, but I was given no notification and I usually don't keep that large of an amount in my checking. We were hit with an overdraft I was under the impression if we were going to do a new contract shouldn't they do this after signing?

I gave them a call and they're telling me the financing manager who handled our account is out for today. How convenient..Explained to them the issue and was told only he can help us.

We we're going to attempt to get a lower down payment since apparently they're able to give us a "lower monthly" with this new contract..

Shouldn't they have notified us before a charge?
If there's a new contract why would they be charging us when nothings been put on paper as of yet?

Your input is much appreciated.

[Slytrix]

Regulations will vary by state so may want to post up your location.

They were probably going to give you a longer lease, thus a lower payment or they ripped your head off (auto dealership lingo for you could have done better) and were rewriting the contract somehow to make it work.

[Steve92]

I apologize I am in California!

[rjm1cc]

Did you read the new agreements? You probably gave then permission to take the payments out of your account as they come due.

[cb73]

First, dealerships (speaking of those in California) routinely don't pull actual credit reports, instead they "score" the purchaser based on the application. Then they sell them the car and shop the loan/lease on the theory that most lenders are more willing to take the loan on a "done deal" than if the person is still sitting there.

It sounds like she scored ok, but then they couldn't get the lender to go along, so they re-wrote it on their own.

I don't know the legality of that--your wife signed the first loan agreement, not the second--but I know it happens. They can also sell the car, cash the down, and come back 3 weeks later and repo because the financing fell through.

Unless you and your wife can find your own financing--credit union?--you're going to need to work with what the car dealership can find.

[Steve92]

There's no new agreement until this weekend when we come in to do the new contract.

Originally Posted by rjm1cc

Did you read the new agreements? You probably gave then permission to take the payments out of your account as they come due.