Leadpile’s Blog

We all know that there are great deals to be had in automotive market right now. Many car dealers are willing to cut their prices and haggle much more than in the past. So buying a new car as a steal should be simple, right? Car dealers may be willing to work with you on price, but when it comes to giving you a loan, not so much.
Unless you are very money savvy or have a great job, buying a car with cash is not always possible. This day in age it is very common for the majority of people to take out a car loan and finance their car. With the market how it is, getting a car loan can be easier said than done. Its not that lenders do not want to give out loans, they are just being much more picky on who they will approve. Also, interest rates are very high at the moment and your credit can make a difference on if you are approved and what interest rate you receive. According to U.S.News, when trying to finance or get a loan for your new car there are a few key facts you should know.
1. Basics of Car Loans – know that you will have to pay an interest rate which includes principal and interest.
2. Car Loan Term – This is the amount of time that you have agreed on to pay the lender back. The car is not yours until you pay back the WHOLE loan and interest.
3. Credit Score – As stated above, interest rate is normally based on an individuals credit score. Usually, the lower the credit score the higher the interest rate.
4. Apply Several Times – Consumers normally apply to several different companies to get their loans. This will give you a better chance to get a loan that suits your exact needs.
At the end of the day it is by no means impossible to get a auto finance loans. LeadPile is also here to help. We match up consumers and lenders who meet each others needs. Hopefully, this helped you realize that with the right knowledge and steps, buying a new car with great financing is not as far out of reach as you may think.

There seems to be some momentum brewing in the auto industry. We all saw some positive response to the Cash For Clunkers program, and it appears there might be some light at the end of the tunnel with the auto finance industry. Leadpile has written about the increase in bankruptcies and the housing market still struggling, however there seems to be some little signs that people might be starting to look again for cars. This could be great news for consumers, dealerships, and and the lead generation industry who has seen some stagnant volume of leads coming in.

Recent conversations that I have been having with affiliates, indicates that there might be that demand again for the auto finance leads. This is potentially exciting news for Leadpile because now we can reach out to our publishers to bring in this lead type. Leadpile publishers can drive traffic to our auto finance offers, place a Microclick form on their website(s), use banners or do a host and post.
Let’s all cross our fingers that this is the beginning of the end of our struggling auto finance industry. If it is any indication by all the Ford commercials that are playing on our televisions, this industry it coming back!

Sad news in the auto finance industry today….. Cash For Clunkers will end today. This program has fueled great success in our nation’s dealerships, however that is ending today. I am curious to see the reported end results of this short lived program and see if this is something that be continued on in the future. Ask the dealerships and they say that this brought people into their dealerships that would never have come. Ask consumers and they say this was great because they earned more money for their cars, than they ever would without the program. Ask the government and they say???????
This program we know has brought more traffic to the online auto finance industry, and Leadpile loves the idea of this. Can we all say “let’s keep Cash for Clunkers” going?

In an effort to boost some new car sales, GM has teamed up with the online shopping marketplace eBay. Previously, eBay was a place you could purchase a car, however purchasing a brand new car was not necessarily available. The NY Times is reporting, “The venture will involve about 225 dealerships in California at first, but G.M. hopes to expand it nationally as soon as September.” Hopefully, in combination with the Cash For Clunkers program and this sort of exposure, GM will see some positive things happening. Many reports are showing that the Cash For Clunkers program has allowed more auto finance traffic to start coming in to lead generators. If that is the case, hopefully we will see a high acceptance of this lead type by our buyers.

Just a few days I was referencing the new Cash For Clunkers campaign that the government had rolled out recently. However, it appears this seems to be too good to be true. The Associated Press is reporting today that the campaign is being haulted because there could be a lack of funds to support the popularity of this campaign. It does not seem anything is for sure regarding it being canceled, however I am sure we will all get some new news on this in the next couple of days. This campaign actually was lighting a fire in the auto finance industry like many I am sure hoped, but that didn’t last for long!

It’s been a really bad year for many industries, however the auto finance industry has got to be one of the worst hit. GM has been hit really hard this year with a bankruptcy, and was forced to become a recipient of government bailout money. However, this second half of the year might prove to be a little happier for GM with the roll out of the new Camaro. What little boy (or girl) did not have aspirations of having one of these cars, but never could?
NPR news is reporting that there has been 15,000 of these beauties already sold and 13,000 on back order, but is carefully manufacturing these cars in a timely manner so there does not become a higher supply than demand. So maybe all this buzz will ignite some other auto sales so we can get this auto finance industry going in the right direction! Good luck GM!

Lately it seems to be a dog-eat-dog world with all our search engines trying to get the biggest piece of the search engine “puzzle”. Yesterday I spoke about search engines and the need to bring new things to the table in order to stay competitive with other search engines. Ask.com is one of those search engines that is offering a unique service that other search engines are not offering. For instance, Ask.com is great for longer questions you want answered versus entering them in a standard Google search, and having to filter through all the results. Comscore reports that Ask.com’s ranking rose from 10th place to now 6th place, compared to other properties such as eBay and Facebook (in May based on unique users). This explains why a lot of Leadpile publishers are using this search engine to generate traffic to their payday loan, debt, auto finance, online education and other websites. Just like search engines trying to do something different to attract users, affiliate marketing and lead generators have to think of unique ways to generate traffic to their properties. Ask.com seems to be a good option to consider. It appears that others think so too, and that’s why their rankings seem to be headed in the right direction. Another GREAT alternative to the Google BEAST!

Is there really a good time to capture email addresses and other secure information from consumers that are visiting your website(s)? Bizreport.com thinks there is an optimal time to get the consumer to provide their email addresses, when doing their online shopping (or other online activities). So, when is an ideal time to capture this sort of information from the consumer?? The report says, “At the highest engagement level, and most times this is at the point of purchase or while consumers are beginning to shop your site. .” Why is this? Capturing this sort of information creates more customer loyalty. If you want the customers to come back to your site, or eventually react to future emails you send them, they have to trust you and the site. The report also found that since mobile marketing (SMS marketing)is so popular right now, capturing their email addresses to send them mobile updates is something a lot of consumers are open to.
These sort of rules also apply to other online experiences, such as lead generation. For instance, Leadpile captures email addresses on all it’s leads, however there are some lead types such as payday loan and auto finance where additional secure information is captured. Capturing this information at the right time is certainly key to the trust factor with the consumer submitting online requests for things such as loans.

Financial issues in the auto industry is not NEW news, however Chrysler looking at bankruptcy is news all of us are going to want to pay attention to.

It seems Chrysler headed back into court yesterday to try and sever partnerships it has with Chrysler dealerships nationwide. According to Time.com, “Auburn Hills, Mich.-based Chrysler maintains that it needs to reduce its dealer base by about 25 percent to a leaner network of about 2,400 dealers in order to emerge from Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection as a stronger company.” The unfortunate thing seems to be that these dealerships can’t understand this decision, and truly feel it is going to dramatically affect them. Many of the Chrysler dealerships also had not shown support for Chrysler to sell a majority of it’s assets to the Fiat Group, because this decision would also potentially close all their dealerships. Either way it sounds like a loose-loose situation for the dealerships, and all they are wanting to do is remain open to sell cars. Leadpile really is interested in how this all pans out, not only because we do lead generation in the auto finance industry, but as consumers we are potentially witnessing a mjor corporation file bankruptcy. This potential collapse of this many dealerships ultimately affects numerous industries, not just the auto industry. My question is, if all these dealerships shut down, where will all the inventory/cars be moved to? Would this mean potentially the “slashing” of prices on the Chrysler cars? Stay tuned!

We all now what the auto makers have been struggling with. Most recently Chrysler filed bankruptcy, and now it appears GM might be following suit. It seems GM is trying to do a quick sale of its “healthy” assets.
The remaining assets of GM would stay in bankruptcy protection to satisfy other outstanding claims. GM has about $6 billion in secured debt, including secured revolving credit and bank debt.
The ownership structure of the company is still being worked out. In addition, the government would extend a credit line to the new company, and potentially forgive a large amount of the $15.4 billion in emergency loans that GM already received. The government has given GM until June 1 to restructure it’s operations to lower it’s debt and employee costs.
Leadpile Lead Exchange is very much concerned about the future of the auto industry. We hope this struggling industry sees the light at the end of the tunnel!

We all know payday loans don’t exactly have the best image, however there are a need for them in certain situations. I came across this article on personalmoneystore.com, discussing a very interesting type of loan. This “automobile down payment loan” is said to be a loan that no credit check is performed, and there is no collateral securing this loan. However, after reading more about this, I thought this reminded me of a payday loan, but with a different name.

We all know lending requirements have gotten a lot more strict, however consumers still need to pay close attention to the specifics of any money they are getting. Don’t get me wrong, this is not necessarily a bad thing that consumers should not look at. However, maybe the key to getting a more positive image on the payday loan industry is to put different “names” on the loans. Leadpile will keep an eye out for any other names we identify as a payday loan.

Having so much negativeness about the auto finance industry, I thought I would shed some light on it.  In recent news, there was a car manufactured by Ratan Tata, which costs $2000!  Tata Motors is the largest automaker in India, and has finally rolled out the much anticipated Nano.
Business Week states that Tata Motors is going to be doing a lottery to determine who will be able to buy the first Nano cars. Experts are keeping an eye on Tata Motors (parent company is Tata Group) and if this is really going to be bringing in some additional revenue for the company. Because of the low low price, experts don’t plan on this initial roll out to produce high profits for the auto maker. Tata Motors recently payed just over $2.3 billion for Jaguar and Land Rover. Let’s see if this car price and size sparks an interest with the US auto makers, who seem to already have an eye on creating their own version.
The auto finance industry is an industry Leadpile Lead Exchange is always keeping an eye on, and possibly something like this can spark some interest in consumers going out to purchase cars again… that is if you think you can fit in a little car like this? ummmmmmmm?