I’m looking to buy a car, and I can't find any lenders or car companies that will offer a lease or lending program to Thailand Elite members who do not have a work permit. I’m willing to do a 50% down payment or a very short (1-2 year) loan if necessary, but every place I go to says I need a work permit. I should mention I still have about 19 and a half years on my Thailand Elite membership, but the lenders I’ve spoken to don’t seem to care. Are there any lenders that might work with me?

2 minutes ago, Thinkingofachange said:

but the lenders I’ve spoken to don’t seem to care. Are there any lenders that might work with me?

Anyone willing to lend you money legitimately wants proof of a source of income to pay back that loan. In Thailand, that proof would be both work permit and salary / check stub documents. Without that you will not likely find any legal lenders willing to risk giving you cash.

3 minutes ago, tonray said:

Anyone willing to lend you money legitimately wants proof of a source of income to pay back that loan. In Thailand, that proof would be both work permit and salary / check stub documents. Without that you will not likely find any legal lenders willing to risk giving you cash.

I do have an income stream coming from abroad and am happy to provide proof of that income.

6 minutes ago, Thinkingofachange said:

I do have an income stream coming from abroad and am happy to provide proof of that income.

Then take a personal loan from overseas bank...Thai lenders have no interest in foreign income

Slightly connected - My wife would like to buy a pickup, she had a decent enough “pocket money” business before Covid. She didn’t really have a need for a pickup, she would use our old sidecar to move stock around. We put everything on hold for a couple of years with Covid and a cross country move.

She has sales and banking records, stock receipts to demonstrate. She saved every baht profit. I will put down a worthwhile percentage for her and she can easily pay off the loan with cash generated by the pickup. 
 

Although the pickup will be her purchase, does a finance company take into consideration that she basically has no monthly outgoings?

 

5 minutes ago, recom273 said:

Slightly connected - My wife would like to buy a pickup, she had a decent enough “pocket money” business before Covid. She didn’t really have a need for a pickup, she would use our old sidecar to move stock around. We put everything on hold for a couple of years with Covid and a cross country move.

She has sales and banking records, stock receipts to demonstrate. She saved every baht profit. I will put down a worthwhile percentage for her and she can easily pay off the loan with cash generated by the pickup. 
 

Although the pickup will be her purchase, does a finance company take into consideration that she basically has no monthly outgoings?

 

A quick trip to any dealer (or her bank) will answer that. My guess is since the loan is secured by the vehicle, she should be able to get one easily. 

5 minutes ago, tonray said:

A quick trip to any dealer (or her bank) will answer that. My guess is since the loan is secured by the vehicle, she should be able to get one easily. 

Thanks, yes, you are right, we will do the rounds next week. Buying anything on credit is something alien to us. I just didn’t want to be laughed off by some dealer in the first.

20 Year Thai Elite Membership but no money to buy a car?

 

 

1 minute ago, Isaanlife said:

20 Year Thai Elite Membership but no money to buy a car?

 

 

spent all on Visa...not unheard of

OP, maybe think about this in terms of your home country, would a bank in your home country lend to a non-citizen/resident, with no local income ?

3 hours ago, Isaanlife said:

You have income but not enough to buy a car?

 

That says it all.

I'd rather not spend 4m thb on a car all at once.

Replying to my own thread: while I haven't gotten anywhere with a bank, Mercedes Benz, who apparently does their own financing, has said they will lend to someone without a WP, but there is an extra level of documentation needed. I'm currently going through the process; if there's interest, I'll update this thread when I've either succeeded or failed.

3 hours ago, Isaanlife said:

20 Year Thai Elite Membership but no money to buy a car?

 

 

Not everyone borrows money because they don't have any...

 

There are financial reasons where it's wise to take on long term debt at a fixed rate like they do with car loans here (e.g. expecting high inflation and increasing interest rates).

 

34 minutes ago, Isaanlife said:

I cannot count how many times my side mirrors have been broken off by motorocyclists.

Why don't you just leave them off? It sounds like you're not using them anyway. ????

On 2/11/2022 at 7:24 AM, Thinkingofachange said:

I do have an income stream coming from abroad and am happy to provide proof of that income.

Maybe you should get a loan in the country that you have an income in?  From a lender's viewpoint, an income source from overseas can stop anytime and that borrower carries a much higher delinquency risk than a person officially employed in Thailand. 

 

Your alternative is to get a Thai guarantor to cover the loan with you.

On 2/11/2022 at 8:03 AM, recom273 said:

She has sales and banking records, stock receipts to demonstrate. She saved every baht profit. I will put down a worthwhile percentage for her and she can easily pay off the loan with cash generated by the pickup. 
 

Although the pickup will be her purchase, does a finance company take into consideration that she basically has no monthly outgoings?

Lenders take the evidence of her ability to repay the loan into consideration and, if that income depends on getting the loan for the pickup, she's in a not-very-strong catch 22 situation..."I can repay the loan for the car as long as  you give me the loan"!  She "basically" will have monthly outgoings, the loan repayments.

MG doing it. Done it for friend some weeks ago. 50% cash 50% finance for 3 years.

Try Toyota Leasing, they financed both my vehicles and all my income comes here from abroad into a Thai bank.

They do come to your house and conduct a lengthy interview. They were satisfied with my P60 and pension statements.

As long as you meet the payments they don't give a rats..., 

No payment, no car. 

A Danish colleague of mine kept sending money to wife here for his car and when he came for a visit.

No car on the drive, she had spent the money on something else.......

On 2/11/2022 at 8:03 AM, recom273 said:

I will put down a worthwhile percentage for her and she can easily pay off the loan with cash generated by the pickup. 
 

Although the pickup will be her purchase, does a finance company take into consideration that she basically has no monthly outgoings?

Mmm. I've enjoyed telling this story a number of times. Here it is again.

 

Wife and I have had our new car about a year now. She has no credit nor income. I wanted to do the loan.

 

I'm a teacher with a decent income from the local school plus online work. They said no. They'd do the paperwork for her. As we're out in Issan, they asked if we're in a family of farmers. Of course we are. So they asked to see her dad's farm papers. Not as collateral, but to represent theoretical income as if she were working his amount of land, though they knew it'd be farang money making the payments.

 

They sent a guy from the bank over. They told her to dress in farming clothes. They took pictures of her standing next to the land, the proud farmer, backbone of the country. I was like, is this a joke? I didn't think it'd go through. Yet it did. Only 20k down, about 7k a month. It's a new car. I heard of farangs renting old cars for like 10k.

 

In the past year I've seen red plates everywhere, then many new cars without plates as they ran out of them. Hah. The economy's down and they're doing whatever they can to get cars out the door. Go for it.

1 hour ago, CrunchWrapSupreme said:

Mmm. I've enjoyed telling this story a number of times. Here it is again.

 

Wife and I have had our new car about a year now. She has no credit nor income. I wanted to do the loan.

 

I'm a teacher with a decent income from the local school plus online work. They said no. They'd do the paperwork for her. As we're out in Issan, they asked if we're in a family of farmers. Of course we are. So they asked to see her dad's farm papers. Not as collateral, but to represent theoretical income as if she were working his amount of land, though they knew it'd be farang money making the payments.

 

They sent a guy from the bank over. They told her to dress in farming clothes. They took pictures of her standing next to the land, the proud farmer, backbone of the country. I was like, is this a joke? I didn't think it'd go through. Yet it did. Only 20k down, about 7k a month. It's a new car. I heard of farangs renting old cars for like 10k.

 

In the past year I've seen red plates everywhere, then many new cars without plates as they ran out of them. Hah. The economy's down and they're doing whatever they can to get cars out the door. Go for it.

Yes, I recall from a previous thread. Thanks for reminding me.

 

So you dont have any financial records, just a photo - lol

 

I have given here some funds to create some additional fictitious sales and she can always purchase more stock to suggest turnover, the receipts from the wholesaler aren't anything you couldn't find in a stationary store anyway - it will be interesting to see the reaction in the week.

3 hours ago, recom273 said:

Yes, I recall from a previous thread. Thanks for reminding me.

 

So you dont have any financial records, just a photo - lol

 

I have given here some funds to create some additional fictitious sales and she can always purchase more stock to suggest turnover, the receipts from the wholesaler aren't anything you couldn't find in a stationary store anyway - it will be interesting to see the reaction in the week.

Likely a government loan inceptive/guaranty for farmers. 

On 2/11/2022 at 11:49 AM, Isaanlife said:

Buy a cheaper car. Pretty simple.

 

The way they drive in Thailand and the very poor conditions of the roads, you don't need to expensive car.

 

I cannot count how many times my side mirrors have been broken off by motorocyclists.

Total myth.

 

Enjoy your car.

 

I just drove from home close to Lat Krabang to Sukhumvit 33 for lunch.

 

Saw loads of BMWs, Benz, Porsche on the way. Didnt notice a dent in any of them.

 

In my 23 or so years here, my earnings have always been offshore. Never had an issue getting loans. 

 

Have you been turned down?

Bought a car for several million THB 4 years ago using hire purchase without a work permit. Procedure and documents were the same as when I bought a similarly priced car from the same dealer a few years earlier, when I had a work permit, except documents related to income. Latter time I submitted a letter from overseas Employer stating salary is xxx and maybe bank statements. Credit history in Thailand was checked - 20 years or so. 

16 hours ago, pedro01 said:

In my 23 or so years here, my earnings have always been offshore. Never had an issue getting loans. 

In fairness, they changed lending criteria about ~2 years ago, making it much harder to get that first loan. Once you have a credit history here as a farang it gets much easier, as you mention. 

18 hours ago, pedro01 said:

In my 23 or so years here, my earnings have always been offshore. Never had an issue getting loans. 

Interesting, I've been asking about getting a mortgage but some say I can't with overseas income, and I'm Thai! 

On 2/12/2022 at 8:58 AM, Liverpool Lou said:

Maybe you should get a loan in the country that you have an income in?  From a lender's viewpoint, an income source from overseas can stop anytime and that borrower carries a much higher delinquency risk than a person officially employed in Thailand. 

 

Your alternative is to get a Thai guarantor to cover the loan with you.

That's what i did as i couldn't get a loan here. Borrowed from my bank in the UK, transferred the money here, and paid for the car in cash. Cheaper rates as well.

Off topic and responses removed.

On 2/11/2022 at 4:29 PM, wprime said:

Why don't you just leave them off? It sounds like you're not using them anyway. ????

This (re: quote) coming from a "2 tonne SUV" aggressive moron driver who thinks he owns the road.

34 minutes ago, Wagga said:

This (re: quote) coming from a "2 tonne SUV" aggressive moron driver who thinks he owns the road.

I don't care what anyone says, this was funny...

 

I would like to buy a car but require finance. I don't have a work permit but I do have a income. Surely there should be a guarantor that would be able to assist me. I do have monthly payslips and proof of income. If there are guarantors out there or a registered dealership that can assist me, please advise