F&I Fact vs. Fiction

It’s not uncommon for me to be asked to weigh in on the occasional compliance conundrum posed on some social media forum. Many such inquiries involve disagreements about long-held beliefs in F&I and whether or not they’re legally valid. 

So I’ve decided to take a crack at clarifying some of the issues surrounding these pervasive compliance myths. Now, there’s no legal advice here — just my thoughts based on a bit of common sense and my years of being a compliance car guy. Ultimately, it’s up to you to decide what works best for you, your customers and your dealership.

Myth No. 1: The 300% rule is a compliance tool

Many F&I processes that started out as solid sales techniques have somehow morphed into compliance requirements. The 300% rule is a great example of this phenomenon. I wholeheartedly agree with this rule from a sales perspective. As they say, you’ll miss 100% of the shots you don’t take. But as a compliance requirement, I’m not so sure.

First, let’s look at why failing to adhere to the 300% rule is considered a compliance blunder. A common rationale is that if you don’t offer protection products to your customers that they end up needing, you can be sued. I have, in fact, heard of lawsuits where a customer wasn’t offered credit life insurance, subsequently died and the spouse sued the dealership.

However, this scenario seems far less likely when it comes to other products. For instance, credit life insurance is only available from the dealer at the time of sale, so there may indeed be an obligation to inform eligible customers of its availability. On the other hand, many other products sold in the F&I office are available elsewhere. I recently purchased a new car, and within days my inbox was full of offers from independent service-contract providers. I’m not sure even the most desperate attorney would want to file a lawsuit against a dealer for not offering products that are readily available on the open market.

But some F&I pros insist on practicing the 300% rule without exception and having a signed declination sheet in every deal jacket to avoid claims of discriminatory treatment. Discrimination is defined as treatment of an individual or group based on their actual or perceived membership in a certain group or social category, “in a way that is worse than the way people are usually treated.”

In my view, if you fail to offer all of your customers all of your products all of the time, it would be a big hill to climb to prove that you’re being discriminatory. On the other hand, if you adhere to the 300% rule but offer your products at different prices,  that discrimination claim may very well be low-hanging legal fruit. But there are other potential issues that subscribing to the 300% rule could raise.

Let’s say, for example, you present your customer with 100% of your products and she says, “I’ll take it all.” So far, so good, right? But you then discover your lender won’t allow you to finance it all. Besides the obvious customer satisfaction issues, you’ve made an offer on which you can’t deliver. Is it conceivable that a lawyer may try to make a contractual legal issue out of that? It certainly wouldn’t surprise me. The same applies with max loan-to-value (LTV) or amount-financed callbacks. If you present 100% of your products in these scenarios, I suggest you let the customer know up front how much more money he or she will need to come up with. 

There are also situations where the customer shouldn’t be offered all of your products. For instance, you wouldn’t sell GAP protection on a cash or low LTV deal (especially when the LTV falls below state or lender limitations), or a service contract on a car that’s exceeded your program’s mileage limit. Offering such products in these situations could result in deceptive practices or fraud claims.

The same principle applies to declination sheets. They certainly come in handy when a customer complains that he wasn’t offered a product that turned out to be needed. But the significance of declination sheets as a compliance tool has been somewhat overstated, in my opinion. From a sales standpoint, declination sheets can provide you with one additional chance to sell products, but they should be used accurately. Products that aren’t available to particular customers shouldn’t show up on their declination sheets. If they do, they should be marked “N/A” or “Unavailable.”

Myth No. 2: It’s illegal to give a customer a copy of their credit report

This myth has no basis in law, as far as I am aware. In fact, the Fair Credit Reporting Act specifically states that a credit bureau provider cannot prohibit a user (the dealer) from disclosing the contents of the credit report to the consumer. However, contracts with some credit bureau providers may prohibit the dealer from giving the consumer a copy of his or her credit report.

Telling customers it’s illegal to give them a copy of their credit report when that information is inaccurate is not a good idea, at least in my opinion. On the other hand, telling the customer you can’t hand over a copy of his or her credit report because your company’s contract with the credit reporting agency prohibits it is accurate and true. There’s never a downside to telling the truth.

Myth No. 3: It’s illegal to highlight a contract

Many automotive professionals believe that this is a no-no because you can be accused of “leading” the customer to sign the highlighted areas without reading the rest of the contract. In reality, you can lead a customer by pointing your finger to the signature sections and saying, “Sign here.” It appears this folklore originated with a case where a creditor utilizing a motor vehicle pawn contract was sued for failure to disclose the APR as conspicuously as other disclosures on the contract.

The court ruled that the creditor violated the Truth in Lending Act (TILA) because it put dashes and arrows pointing to the due date, thereby making the due date disclosure more conspicuous than the APR and finance charge. So there was far more going on than highlighting. In fact, according to the court’s decision, there was handwriting and other markings on the contract, and the annual percentage rate on the contract was 304.24%. No surprise there.

So while highlighting customer signature areas probably isn’t a big issue, make sure certain TILA disclosures aren’t more prominent than others. Of course, if you work with a lender that won’t accept a contract with highlighted signatures, you’ll probably want to avoid the practice altogether.

Myth No. 4: A contract is valid once signed by both parties, even if the customer hasn’t taken physical delivery

The validity of this statement depends on where you conduct business. Some states specifically define when a contract is considered valid. For instance, California law states that “a sale is deemed completed and consummated when the purchaser of the vehicle has paid the purchase price, or, in lieu thereof, has signed a purchase contract or security agreement and has taken physical possession or delivery of the vehicle.”

So before you attempt to hold a customer’s feet to the fire prior to the delivery of the vehicle, you may want to check the laws in your state.

Myth No. 5: Menus are required to disclose the base payment

This has been the subject of much spirited debate in F&I circles. First, menus are not required by law at all. In fact, contrary to popular opinion, even California doesn’t require the use of a menu. All that is required is a “pre-contract disclosure” that shows the monthly installment payment with and without the optional products or services.

So, really, there is no such thing as a legally compliant menu as some vendors claim. But it’s not a bad idea to include the base payment in your menu presentation (and in your write-up as well).

Myth No. 6: Everyone must be charged the same doc fee

This notion again stems from worries about discrimination claims. The thought is that if a dealership charges one customer a fee, it has to charge everyone the same fee to avoid potential litigation.

So, could charging varying doc fees attract the attention of regulators? Well, we’ve certainly heard enough about alleged discrimination in rate markups over the last few years. And as recent actions by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) and Department of Justice (DOJ) show, even if there’s no intent to discriminate, you can still face fines if protected classes pay more than non-protected classes.

So the easy answer is to just charge everyone the same doc fee, right? Perhaps. But here’s the rub: Doc fees are dealer-imposed charges and therefore not mandatory;  only government fees are compulsory. So it is improper to tell a customer that you must charge them the fee, as you could be setting yourself up for a deceptive practices claim. Some states, like Washington, require you to inform the customer that the doc fee is negotiable.

So to avoid potential discrimination claims, be sure you can show proof that any downward deviations in fees are for valid business reasons, such as needing to match the doc fee offered by a competitive dealer in order to close the deal. Remember, documentation is key.

Myth No. 7: Payment ranges up to $XX are allowed

To many regulators and plaintiffs’ attorneys, using a payment range in certain circumstances could be a sign of payment packing. While it’s generally acceptable to quote a range of payments using an average APR before the customer’s credit report is pulled, once a credit profile is accessed, a best practice is to quote an exact payment.

Let’s say you’ve pulled the customer’s credit but aren’t sure what her rate is because you’re waiting for a callback from the bank. If you pencil the deal back with a payment range, it’s a good idea to include an APR range as well. Once you determine the actual terms of the deal, a final base payment should be disclosed. Also, if you’re using a payment range to account for variations in days to first payment, you should disclose the exact payment at each level. In other words, never give any impression that would allow a regulator or court to infer that the payments quoted are in any way misleading.

So there you have it: my take on some of F&I’s most common compliance myths. Again, how you handle these issues may depend on the laws in your state and your individual processes and philosophies. You may agree or disagree with my analysis and that’s OK. My goal here is not to steer you in any particular direction, but to simply give you something to think about beyond the status quo.