Our Electronic Contracting Solution
September 2, 2009
Electronic contracting allows dealers for more accurate, efficient, and profitable contract origination and management.
The Whitebox provided signature pad easily installs into any available USB port on your computer. It is integrated with our Whiteform software to make signing and managing contracting electronically simple, fast, and secure.
Whitebox supports not only its own financing contracts electronically, but a variety of dealer product contracts that correspond to the financed contracts as well. Key Benefits of electronic contracting include:
- Increases efficacy – simple forms allow for easy and speed of F&I and staff.
- Minimizes errors, which insures data accuracy BEFORE the contract is signed. Whitebox electronic contracting allows us to include data error checking including verifying customer bank account accuracy, positive bank balance, and ACH acceptance before the contract is signed, assuring better credit decisions and increasing collections.
- Electronic contracting makes contract tracking, management, and administration simple for the dealership. Because the documents are electronic, they can be managed, administered, and remitted automatically in seconds.
These benefits result in faster, easier, and more profitable contracting and aftermarket financing and collections for the dealership.
What we do at Whitebox, a primer. . .
September 2, 2009
When we launched Whitebox last year we thought we knew what business we were going into. Quite a bit has happened over the last eighteen months. First, the economy has imploded, the credit market has disappeared and automobile sales have fallen through the floor. We spent a year creating the Whitebox system. Some of you may be wondering what it is. Let me try to explain:
Whitebox is a software platform that enables a) electronic contracting, b) ACH collections and c) ACH payments. Our users can easily create a customized contract on our web based software platform and their employees can use it worldwide to create contracts for their customers. With a USB powered signature pad, they can include real signatures in the contract. Most users have some sort of ‘rating’ system that dictates the sales price of their particular product. We integrate these ‘rules’ into Whitebox.
We then take the contract from there and begin to collect, via ACH from the consumer on a monthly basis. Our system is VERY flexible and allows for ‘workouts’ and ‘payment plans’ from consumers who would normally default on their contract. Instead of 35-40% collection rates, our system allows for 80%+ collection rates. Why? Because we can schedule lots of small payments. Can’t pay it all today? No problem, how about $10 on Wednesday, $20 next Tuesday, $32 the following Friday and so on. Whitebox allows our agents to be VERY flexible with consumers. This makes ALL of the difference.
Finally, we know that commissions and payouts are what sell products. Whitebox makes it very easy for an agent or a dealer to design a system that allows all parties to be paid upon collection. For example, Lets say we are collecting $100 per month from a consumer over 24 months. The first 12 months the F&I representative could be paid via ACH (directly or to a special account) $20 per month. The second 12 months the F&I representative could be paid via ACH $10 per month. The agent could be paid $5 per month. The master agent could be paid $2.50 per month. The dealer could be paid the balance. We can pay ten different parties every month or every other month – our system offers complete payment flexibility. This means you will be able to sell you product because you will be able to pay your sales people.
Our primary target today is the automotive industry. In the future we are considering taking our model to the spa and dental industry.
Service Contract Providers
September 10, 2008
Once you realize the extended vehicle service contact business is worth more than $10 billion it makes perfect sense why there are so many providers. Here are just a few:
- Resource Automotive
- Protective
- AUL AdministratorsThe StoneEagle Group
- StoneEagle
- Allstate Credit Division
- Zurich
- Old Republic Insured Automotive Services, Inc.
- CNA National Warranty Corp.
- Interstate National Dealer Services
- First Extended Service Corp.
- United Car Care, Inc.
- United States Warranty
- JM & A
- F & I By Design
- Reliant Automotive
- American Financial & Automotive Services, Inc.
- AAAAutowarranty.com
- Bryant Group
- DaimlerChrysler Service Contracts
- AutoSoft NET
The vehicle service contract opportunity
September 10, 2008
There are more than 21,500 auto dealers (new car) in the United States. More than 40% own and operate their own extended warranty company. There are several companies who help dealers setup and manage their warranty companies. We work exclusive with these vehicle service contract companies.
Our program allows dealers to sell extended warranties to consumers who are unable to finance their extended warranty contracts within their standard auto finance products. According to the National Automobiles Dealers Association consumers bought extended warranties on nearly 30% of all new vehicles and 40% of used vehicles sold last year. The total number of extended warranties sold in the United States was in excess of 8.7 million units resulting in a $10 billion dollar market.
Historically, the average dealer could sell 5-10% more warranties if they were able to offer their customer a separate finance option. More recently auto dealers have seen more and more finance companies refuse to finance amounts greater than the cost of the vehicle and as a result secondary finance offerings such as the ones offered by Whitebox will become more and more important to a dealers bottom line.
The Rule of 78s
December 19, 2007
Also known as the sum-of-the-digits method, the Rule of 78s
is a term used in lending that refers to a method of yearly interest calculation. The name comes from the total number of months’ interest that is being calculated in a year (the first month is 1 month’s interest, whereas the second month contains 2 months’ interest, etc.). This is an accurate
only based on the assumption that the lessee pays only the amount due each month. If the lessee pays off the loan early, this method maximizes the amount paid by applying funds to interest before principal.
A simple fraction (as with 12/78) consists of a numerator (the top number, 12 in the example) and a denominator (the bottom number, 78s in the example). The denominator of a Rule of 78s’ loan is the sum of the digits, the sum of the number of monthly payments in the loan. For a 12 month loan, the sum of numbers from 1 to 12 is 78 (1 + 2 + 3 + . . . +12 = 78). For a 24 month loan, the denominator is 300. The sum of the numbers from 1 to n is given by the equation n (n+1) / 2. If n were 24, the sum of the numbers from 1 to 24 is 24 (24+1) / 2 = 12 x 25 = 300, which is the loan’s denominator, D.
For a 12 month loan, 12/78s of the finance charge is assessed as the first month’s portion of the finance charge, 11/78s of the finance charge is assessed as the second month’s portion of the finance charge and so on until the 12th month at which time 1/78s of the finance charge is assessed as that month’s portion of the finance charge. Following the same pattern, 24/300 of the finance charge is assessed as the first month’s portion of a 24 month precomputed loan.
Formula for calculating the unearned interest:
u = f X k(k+1)/n(n+1) u = unearned interest; f = total agreed finance charges; k = number of months paying off early; n = total term of loan in months