I purchased my car a few weeks ago, an 06 GT that was ordered in June. When I talked to the Ford finance manager, he said my only options for financing was through Bank of America or Suntrust (both at 8.5+%). I asked if these were my only options if I financed through Ford and he said yes. Why wasn't financing through Ford Credit an option? My credit score is over 800 btw so this should not have been an issue. Need less to say I didn't finance through Ford and went to my credit union for financing.

 

One possibility (I hope that I am wrong) is the dealer was brazenly padding the APR in order to make more money.

He may have limited your options to the ones mentioned because he stood to make more even more money working the deal with them. Dealers do a lot of financing, obviously, and may often receive "Sweetheart" deals from some lending institutions as an incentive to steer more loans to them.

Some folks say you need to be able to figure your own payment based on price and APR to make sure the dealer does not pad their profits in the F&I office. A lot of dealers REALLY make their money in that room.

If your Beacon is 800+, it would appear at first glance as though an unscrupulous dealer was looking to take very rude advantage of you.

I say this with the caveat that I am not aware of everything in your deal, and something else might be the reason.

Glad you got a better rate! Credit Unions and folks like E-Loan are often a better deal anyway.