The best Photoshop can provide. Posting anonymous information is silly. Only those who need credit due lack of financial resources really care about or need a good "credit score" and the credit scores are highly dubious in that if you have no debt you have a lower score and they have no income component. Bill Gates disputing a bill with Comcast will have a "low credit score", no debt and an unpaid bill for collections, Leasing is most prevalent in high price cars for high income demographic where it is a waste of money to tie up large sums in future resale value of a highly depreciating item. Pay the smallest amount possible, conserve the cash for appreciating assets, avoid maintenance and repair costs, get the frequent, high end products. Sorry you don't like leasing but for many people it is a money saver allowing for frequent cycling of high end toys.
Years ago there was a Ford commercial in which the salesman was explaining leasing to a customer. He asked the guy, "If you wanted a piece of pie at the diner across the street, would you buy the whole pie?" Guy says, "No, of course not." Salesperson says, "Well, leasing a car lets you pay for just the slice of the pie you're gonna' use." As any competent salesperson or finance manager will tell you, a high credit score is necessary to get the best interest rate, whether buying or leasing. As I said earlier, it is simply another way to finance. Businesses use it all the time, for all kinds of equipment. I didn't see anything in Judgeless' credit report to indicate whether he is "living paycheck to paycheck" or not. As long as you pay on time, and have a low debt to available credit ratio, you will have a good score. "Judge not......."
What if you need a slice of pie every day of the week? Are you going to go to a diner and buying a slice every day or do you go to Costco buy an entire pie and bring it home.
Well you are driving a dumpy 11 year old car with old tech, lower mileage...guess you get what you pay for. I'm thinking along the lines of the poster, bailing out on my 2012 lease to get a C-MAX Energi with 20 mile EV range and 47 mpg...stylish, bump my mileage to close to 100 mpg combined and promote US tech and jobs.
Following the salesman's analogy, you would then lease seven cars, hopefully spread out over the years, based on the length of each lease. The salesman would be very happy with you as a repeat customer. I, OTOH, would prefer to buy the whole car and the whole pie. I prefer to pay cash, and keep my cars for several years. If that is automatically judged to be financially irresponsible by others, without any knowledge of my personal situation, so be it. I guess the point I was trying to make earlier is that leasing can work for anything from a low-end Yaris to a Lexus LS 600h L to stay in the Toyota family. To the OP, sorry this thread ran so far afield. I still say in answer to your question, contact the leasing folks at Toyota Finance, in the unlikely event that they don't contact you first, probably about 3 months before your lease is up. Good luck!
You know I share many of your opinions wrt to personal finance, but this statement is wrong. You may have meant to say that *as a group*, people who live paycheck to paycheck will have a lower average credit score than the group with savings. E.g., I was a poor student for years, and lived on a part-time salary of about $100 a week. Definitely paycheck to paycheck. My debt was always the same: zero. So while I eschewed credit on principle, my credit rating was fine based on obligations met on things like utility bills. I agree that leases are rarely a money saver compared to buying outright, but oddities happen, particularly in cars. I have never leased anything, but I consider it a smart move these days for instance with *EVs. Nissan and GM are trying to move stale inventory, and EV tech can be expected to improve and change quickly. OP was not thinking along your lines at all. He hopes to buy his lease car for less than residual. As for tricks, I'm pretty sure TFS learned them all a long time ago
Actually exact same thing, making deal with car dealer to buy out lease and roll into new one. As the thread author asked, which was the best way to do it, going to direct to Toyota Financial or via a dealer. The best way is via the dealer who will have more leverage with Toyota financial since it involves more business for Toyota Financial, more business for Toyota and the dealer which is the purpose of Toyota Financial existence and deals. The Ford dealer (in my case) will have similar leverage and opportunities using the high resale of the Prius.
I predict you have a horrible score. Your finical views are wrong at many levels. You just do not get it. Here are pics that I used to sell my last car. 4Runner Pictures taken 09-30-09 It was 10 years old and hand 305,000 miles. I got $5,000 for it. It was not so dumpy when I sold it. I could have leased 4 cars over that 10 year period. Instead I saved a boat load of money. I probably saved more then you make in a year. Buying/Leasing a new car every 3 years is foolish at many levels. Leasing forces people to get a new car every 3 years. That 4Runner had less than $1,000 dollars in repairs over 10 years. Toyotas are the most reliable cars in the world.
Well done. $150 a month capitalization costs seem like a fair low target to shoot for, you came pretty close. Leasing tends to be double that amount even before you consider the added insurance costs.
This thread author doing exact same thing, negotiating early buyout of lease to upgrade car, will have a more,timely answer for you. The Ford Energi plug in won't be out for several months. You really don't understand the "credit" rating business run at all. You get a high score for taking out and paying debts. it has nothing to do with income. The "credit score" business is run by lenders to encourage and maximize borrowing and debt. Someone living paycheck to paycheck could have a high "credit" score if they pay their bills on time and borrow. If they don't borrow and save money they will have a lower "credit score". As for leasing its roots and the majority of its business are in high end cars with high income people who smartly do not tie up money in depreciating cost centers like cars, pay as little as possible, avoid all maintenance costs and drive nice new cars and enjoy latest tech and design. Driving your 10 year old jalopy, you sound terribly jealous.
I never said your credit score is based on how much you make. Someone living paycheck to paycheck might have an emergency like a large medical bill, a new A/C unit for the house or many of the other things that can happen. When this happens they miss payments or our late on payments. That will directly affect their credit score. Lenders will be leery of people that cannot manage their money. This if far from a Jalopy.
Actually you did with your wacky bias against lower income people "living paycheck to paycheck" a term you use constantly and derisively. And total misuse in terms of leasing since most leasing is for high end cars and high income people. Your worship of the banking industry's debt encouragement system called "credit scores" is laughable. A high score requires high debt...they don't care about income...they reward you for taking out lot of debt. Ironically many of us who use low cost, cash conserving, low debt options like leasing get rewarded by the "credit/debt" industry with a high "score" for simply making the lease payments similar to utility payments, gas, electric, satellite and cell. And of course, the main reason for doing it, driving cool cars with latest tech and upgrading frequently. The only disadvantage is the lease/new tech sequence can get out of sequence. My game plan is double gas mileage every three years until I get to zero oil use. My Ford Escape at 30mpg was up and I had to choose. I went with the Prius at 50 mpg because I couldn't go Volt due to charger install issues. Electrician told me I could rig up a charger so I might move on the lease early (the issue the thread author brings up) to upgrade early to a Ford Energi which would get me to 95 mpg if it has a true 20 miles on electric...plus it has more style and features than Prius.