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submitted 22 hours ago* (last edited 22 hours ago) by Camzing@lemmy.world to c/personalfinance@lemmy.ml

Just went through a mess trying to finance a used car. I haven’t borrowed money since 2012, no debt, no credit cards, just living within my means. When I applied for a loan, I was told I was refused. Not because of bad credit, but because I hadn’t used credit recently enough.

The dealership advertises “no applications refused,” but apparently if you don’t have an active debt history, you’re too much of a mystery for the system.

Co-signer? Not allowed. Using my own bank account for payments? Denied. Their solution? Open a joint account with my dad just to satisfy a bank’s paperwork, pay hundreds in fees over 6 years just to make it work.

The credit system says you can't borrow money unless you've already been borrowing money, like somehow living within your means disqualifies you. It's not about good credit, it's about loyalty to the debt game. Screw you for standing on your own feet, I guess.

Just needed to get that off my chest. Anyone else run into this nonsense?

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[-] veganbtw@lemmy.ml 10 points 16 hours ago

I was always told that if you go to buy a car and offer cash that it is like a magic bullet that ends puts all the cards in your hands, I learned that they can refuse a cash offer and only finance cars because they make all their money on the financing.

[-] AlecSadler 2 points 14 hours ago

As a (brief) former car salesperson, this is 100% true. Cash offers are actually less profitable, well, assuming the buyer is also negotiating down to the wire on margins.

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this post was submitted on 19 Jun 2025
77 points (100.0% liked)

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