Auto Club Trust, the banking unit of the American Automobile Association, is aiming to have the full suite of online offerings available to members by July, Jeff Vander Linden, chief lending officer, told AFN.
The bank is aiming to add refinancing to the consumer portal, which currently offers pre-approval and co-borrower approval — where two people can apply for financing together. The existing product offerings were launched in January 2016 and April of this year, respectively.
“We’re actively working to add a refi component,” Vander Linden said. “So, we’ll have auto finance, refinance, and auto buying all in one seamless transaction.”
Currently, the bank’s members can apply for financing online or on a smartphone and get pre-approved at a guaranteed interest rate and up to a fixed dollar amount, he said. Consumers can then take that approval to any state-licensed dealer, and the bank will fund the loan the same day.
“All we really need from them, after they’ve prequalified, is the VIN, the dealership, and the mileage on the vehicle that they’re buying,” Vander Linden said. “We have a process now that we designed, called Click To Sign. So, when a member is at the dealership, we basically allow them to sign their loan docs via their smartphone.”
The bank funds, on average, 200 auto loans a month through the portal, Vander Linden said, up from 50 when the portal was launched. The AAA company, overall, currently has more than 56 million members in the United States and Canada.
