SpringboardAuto.com will offer refinancing for existing auto loans, and fund private-party purchases in the first quarter of 2016, Founder and Chief Executive Jim Landy told AFN. Direct financing for purchasing from a dealer is expected to follow in the second quarter, he said.
Private-party transactions are a big market segment that has attracted several new platforms recently, Landy said, since technology is bringing together the process in a way that’s more comfortable for the buyer.
“I think fundamentally, the shift is viewing the transaction experience from the point of view of the customer,” Landy said. “Earlier this year we started laying out what we thought the user experience should be, and built the platform around that.”
Instead of what Landy calls a “more static” approval process, where borrowers are offered a fixed term or rate, consumers can adjust their own terms through Springboard’s digital application process. “If they move the down-payment slider up they can see, ‘The more money I put down, the lower my interest rate is,’ so they begin to get visibility to those relationships,” he said.
SpringboardAuto will target subprime to near-prime consumers, with Fico scores from 500 to 680, Landy said.
