Bank of America added 15,000 vehicles to its digital car shopping and financing platform through an expanded partnership with Carvana, the companies announced last week.
The partnership comes on the heels of a limited pilot with Carvana. In 2018, Carvana was added to Bank of America’s direct-to-consumer mobile car shopping service “in a couple of cities,” Christina Keiser, Carvana’s senior director of strategic partnerships, told Auto Finance News.
“We undertook a pilot of our participation on [Bank of America’s] direct platform and expanded it to many new cities,” Keiser said. “It’s a product of our relationship maturing with [Bank of America] and Bank of America maturing its digital platform.”
Bank of America began its digital car buying service with Dealertrack in 2017. “We launched Bank of America digital car shopping to offer our clients a more convenient and transparent experience — from searching vehicles and dealerships to qualifying for financing all from a desktop or mobile device,” David Hollodick, senior vice president of consumer vehicle lending at Bank of America, said in a press release.
Though Carvana has its own financing company, the online dealership has leveraged partnerships with banks and credit unions to acquire more customers and expand financing options. “We put a lot of effort into acquiring customers directly to Carvana.com, and we have our own finance company,” Keiser said. “It’s a huge part of our business.”
Carvana’s lender partners include Ally Financial and regional credit unions including Live Oak, Texas-based Randolph Brooks Federal Credit Union and Orlando, Fla.-based Fairwinds Credit Union.
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