Loan on app

[vishnumrao]

I was initially planning on cash, but over time I changed my mind to getting an auto loan. I have secured a loan from Bofa, but I wanted to explore if tesla would offer a lower rate. So in the app, I put in my info and then Tesla approved the loan. Now I can't find the option to change back to cash or 3rd party loan. It just says "Your loan offer has been confirmed".

Anyone know how to change the payment from Tesla loan to 3rd party loan or cash?

I haven't received VIN yet. I am also concerned it may push out my VIN and final delivery. Am I needlessly worrying?

 

[E90alex]

Message them

 

[vishnumrao]

Message whom? There is no contact us or any number to reach them on the app.

 

[E90alex]

Did you never get a text from someone at Tesla when you placed the order? Just reply to that.

Or google the general Tesla customer service number and call them.

 

[Teedub21]

Many of us didn’t get a text after ordering. I know I never did.

 

[vishnumrao]

Did you never get a text from someone at Tesla when you placed the order? Just reply to that.

Or google the general Tesla customer service number and call them.

Nope. Never received a text from anyone at Tesla.

 

[Tedsplace30]

If you have a delivery location specified when you ordered, you can email that store location by getting the contact info from this link Tesla find us the contact email will include "[email protected]" They'll be able to assist. You can also call that location and talk to somebody.

 

[vishnumrao]

Thanks. I am going to try emailing my local service location.

 

[HitchHiker71]

Did you never get a text from someone at Tesla when you placed the order? Just reply to that.

Or google the general Tesla customer service number and call them.

The fact that a multibillion dollar company selling high dollar products (EVs) doesn’t have a customer service phone number listed on their own website nor any email addresses for support is somewhat discouraging to me.

I am on day two of having placed an order with Tesla for a vehicle in existing inventory. I started the app process and applied for Tesla financing - which doesn’t have any support for pre-approval for loans. For high dollar items like cars and homes pre-approval is the gold standard - so this was surprising to me. I then got a financing approval text yesterday and entered the app and chose the “review” choice. I was reviewing the financing option when the app on my phone died (just closed out unexpectedly as apps sometimes do). I re-entered the app and the financing Review option disappeared and the only choice I had was to choose “Start” again.

Went looking for a Tesla phone number and it doesn’t exist on the website that I could find. I contacted the lender, US Bank, and validated that the application was still valid and they also gave me the Tesla financing phone number. I called twice today and sat on hold for a long time only to be told after a long wait that call volumes were too high and to call back later - and the system hung up. No offer to contact me back or anything. Not exactly a good customer experience.

I had already texted Tesla regarding my issue and eventually got a text back that they had restored my financing approval in the app. So now I see two choices. Review and Change. I went looking for documentation (I work in the software world) and found nothing. The app also has no context sensitive help to explain what the buttons in the app actually do. For example, if I choose Change instead of Review - will my prior approval no longer be available? The lack of any documented guidance or screenshots on how the app works and what to do when app users experience problems seems rather stunning to me as someone with 25 years of software development and support experience. This is 101 level stuff that a multi-billion dollar company shouldn’t be struggling with in my view. Am I alone in these types of concerns?

Can anyone tell me what the Change button will do if i select it? Will I lose my existing financing option? The app performs hard credit pulls when submitting loan requests, so I don’t want multiple hard credit pulls on my CR. I’ve asked this question three times via text to Tesla and still don’t have an answer. Hoping the good folks on this forum can steer me right here so I can figure out what to select and what the impacts of said selections are within the app.

 

[Tedsplace30]

@HitchHiker71 - I've never applied for Tesla financing and always used third party for finance. I believe the "change" button is if you want to do "cash" or "finance" if you choose finance then I believe the application process starts, not sure what happens if there is a pending application. If you have the "review" button then I believe that allows you to review the terms and conditions you're approved for and your acceptance of them. There are similar choices for trade-in "change" and "review" which allows you to change trade-in from "trade-in" to "no trade-in" and "review" if they've got all your trade-in information to review their offer and then select "accept" I also believe the tasks listed in the app can also be reviewed in your account on the website.

 

[HitchHiker71]

@HitchHiker71 - I've never applied for Tesla financing and always used third party for finance. I believe the "change" button is if you want to do "cash" or "finance" if you choose finance then I believe the application process starts, not sure what happens if there is a pending application. If you have the "review" button then I believe that allows you to review the terms and conditions you're approved for and your acceptance of them. There are similar choices for trade-in "change" and "review" which allows you to change trade-in from "trade-in" to "no trade-in" and "review" if they've got all your trade-in information to review their offer and then select "accept" I also believe the tasks listed in the app can also be reviewed in your account on the website.

Thanks for your reply. In my specific instance - the numbers that the app shows don't include TTL - which can be significant depending on where you live for example. So after manually calculating the TTL - I then wanted to slightly increase the loan amount to avoid additional out of pocket costs. Typically when I have purchased vehicles in the past - I simply get a blanket pre-approval up to certain dollar amount (which typically has been up to 100% of the cost of the vehicle since we have exceptional credit), and then I am free to play around with the numbers for the loan portion right up until delivery day (as Tesla phrases it). I realized that with an immediate hard credit pull that this flexibility is gone - which again is a bit surprising to me for a company selling a high dollar product in an increasingly competitive marketplace - I'd think Tesla would want to embrace pre-approvals as part of their process - but I take your point that most folks may simply choose a third party option instead - I likely should have simply made this choice myself in hindsight (always 20/20). However, in the Review section - you cannot increase the loan amount - you can decrease it up to certain threshold - but not increase it - and you can change the duration 48/60/72 months. What I want to do is slightly increase the loan amount to account for the TTL. I typically pay for TTL on a credit card historically (dealers will typically take up to $2500-5000 of a purchase price on a credit card) and then pay for the balance of the vehicle either in cash or a combination of cash and borrowed funds. Live and learn I suppose - but given Tesla is not playing by the historical industry best practices and standards - I would think they would do a better job of documenting the customer journey in their FAQs. What I really want to know is if I choose "Change" and then start a new app - will this result in another hard credit pull given I already had a prior approval? If so, I likely won't go that route - and I'll just eat the TTL and pay additional out of pocket. The other option I have is to choose Change and just go the third party route through our credit union.

 

[Tedsplace30]

I'd assume that if you select change then you'd have the option of going cash or finance. That's all the change function does. I don't think it starts a new application. You'd have to reach out to the txt number and ask them to shift things around if you wanted or start a new application. You can also talk to the delivery center and they may be able to assist.

I think in your situation a third party would have been a prefered method and on the Tesla side just put cash if you did third party.