eCarCredit provides loan options for consumers with weak credit ratings

WESTMINSTER – If you want to buy a new car but can’t find a bank that will give you a loan, you might want to visit eCarCredit.com.

Located in the Westmoor Technology Park in Westminster, eCarCredit is a 6-month-old portfolio company of iBelay, a Boulder venture capital firm and parent to the FastIdeas Internet accelerator.

According to Jerry Salyers, the company’s vice president of sales and dealer development, there is a vast market of viable “sub-prime” new car loan business to be tapped in the Denver metro area and throughout the state of Colorado.

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“We deal with people who have had some difficulties and are in the rebuilding stage,” Salyers says. “They may have discharged bankruptcies that resulted from unforeseen medical expenses or other minor blemishes on their credit record, but they have good jobs and good incomes, and they just need our experience to help them get back on track.”

Through direct mail and advertising in the mainstream media and on the Internet, eCarCredit seeks new customers and invites them to fill out a loan application just like a typical loan officer would. If the person meets some minimal qualifications, he can tell the people at eCarCredit just what kind of new or used car he desires. The majority of eCarCredit’s business is in the new car market, but the company deals in used cars occasionally, as well.

Once the applicant chooses a vehicle, eCarCredit starts looking for a bank and a dealership that will work with him. Salyers says the company is listed with some 6,000 new car dealers nationwide, and he is still adding to that list.

Recently, eCarCredit also announced that it is inviting traditional auto dealers to offer financing to their customers with less-than-perfect credit by going online to www.dealer.eCarCredit.com. eCarCredit said this service eventually would be available in 46 states.

“All our dealers need to do to access an experienced sub-prime lending team is to log onto their computer and enter their customer’s data,” eCarCredit Chief Executive Officer and founder Steve Maxey said in a media release. “We take care of everything else.”

According to eCarCredit, other online auto services such as CarsDirect, Greenlight, DriveOff and Autoweb are not focusing on the sub-prime credit market.

eCarCredit also is a licensed new car dealer in the state of Colorado and the only company of its kind, according to Salyers.

In addition to numerous car dealers, eCarCredit currently is working with BankOne and other specialists that review sub-prime loans. He says the combined dealership experience of eCarCredit’s 18 employees puts customers in a better negotiating position than they might otherwise expect if they had approached the lender on their own.

“We know more about what these lenders are looking for and how best to meet those requirements,” he says. “We’ve all worked at dealerships and been through the loan application process many times.

“Once we secure the loan, we search our dealers’ list. When we find a match, we buy it and mark it up.”

Salyers says eCarCredit has a low markup. “Typically it’s less than you would find at a dealership.” Nonetheless, he says the business-to-business aspect of the new venture has gone smoothly so far. “Because we competitively bid our purchases, we buy them right,” he says. “We get competitive prices from our dealers because they know we have so many sources, and they’re all competing for our business.”

Salyers declined to reveal how many cars eCarCredit has sold so far or what the company expects to earn in its first year, but he says there is good cause for optimism. “We’ve had a very good response so far. We are very optimistic.”