Tesla Direct Leases - NEW

[CTgigawatt]

I'm not sure what the details are on this so far or what is out there. But I'll share my experience, which will hopefully help some people.

I ordered on 11/8/16, and was told I was approved for a lease the next day. I received a letter on 11/22 from US Bank saying I was denied for a lease. I'm not entirely surprised by this as USB has pretty tight standards. I have a 783 equifax score, but have 4 auto leases already which is usually the issue, very low balance to availability credit ratio.

Anyways, I inquired as to what was going on, being told I was approved and receiving a denial letter. I was told, after a lot of investigation from my sales rep, that US Bank did in fact deny my application, but tesla went ahead and underwrote my loan off their own balance sheet.

So at any rate, Tesla had loser credit standards than USB, which will allow for more sales, however more balance sheet risk for TSLA the company.

I was told this is a brand new strategy.

 

[Dwdnjck]

I would suspect that Teslas are a little easier to locate and repo.

 

[brkaus]

I would suspect that Teslas are a little easier to locate and repo.

So true. They don't even need to add the gps / cellular box.

 

[ChadS]

US Bank turned me down too...I am retired so low income, and insufficient "recent" credit history (no debt since I paid off my mortgage 25 years ago...just one credit card I pay off every month).

Tesla picked up my lease too. That was about 3 months ago. The fact that they were doing leases was news to me too.

 

[bonaire]

A while back, I thought that Tesla might create "automotive bonds" similar to the ones they had on Solar PV projects at Solar City. Basically take pretty-good leases and wrap into a package and sell into the market. Perhaps Space/X will buy a set. Anyway - underwriting in-house allows them to be creative with whether they make them into financial instruments or keep them on the balance sheet. But I don't see why a well-kept car is any different than solar modules on a roof.

 

[Lbkmxp100d]

US Bank turned me down too...I am retired so low income, and insufficient "recent" credit history (no debt since I paid off my mortgage 25 years ago...just one credit card I pay off every month).

Tesla picked up my lease too. That was about 3 months ago. The fact that they were doing leases was news to me too.

Same thing happened to me. Was approved through Tesla lease but denied from U.S. Bank. Stated high debt to available credit although I had just paid down a large amount of my c.c debt. I suspect my credit report hadn't reflected the reduced debt when U.S. Bank denied me.