...not financing the car. Several different dealers made reference that they needed it to confirm my identity. I've read in a few places that this is a scam and that the dealer only wants that info to run my credit report so they can run it at several different lenders and make kickbacks from them as aresult for initaiting financing....or soemthing like that??
http://www.carbuyingtips.com/scams.htm
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Abuse of the Patriot Act?
We are getting complaints from car buyers who have their own car financing from a credit union or an online lender, and the car dealer forces them to sign a credit application anyway, falsely claiming "it's required by the Patriot Act". There is no verse in the Patriot Act that I can find requiring you fill out a credit application, or allowing dealers to run credit checks on you when you bring your own car financing. Their bogus claim sounds believable, but armed with verbiage of the law, you can stop them. Here's a link to the Patriot Act: http://www.lifeandliberty.gov/highlights.htm. Ask the car dealer to tell you which exact section of the Patriot Act requires them to make you fill out a credit application when you have your own financing, and collect your Social Security number, and run your credit report. Since they claim it's required, they should be able to show you the verbiage (HINT: They can't). The Patriot Act (H.R. 3162), Section 326 "Verification of identification" requires banks and financial institutions to verify your ID before you open an account. Since you are not opening an account with the dealer and they are not a bank, they don't need you to fill out a credit application or a Patriot Act form. The Patriot Act form I filled out for my mortgage only asks for your loan number and driver's license number, not your SS#, and it does not say "Credit Application" on it. The Patriot Act specifically calls out driver's licenses or passports for ID verification. Nothing more. Dealers fool you into filling out the credit app, so then can run your credit through a half dozen local banks in an attempt to lead you into the dealer's financing so they can get more commission. But why all the lies?
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Anybody got any ideas here? I'm tempted to put up a fight about it when I go to buy tomorrow?