Sunbit Expands into F&I Products for Consumer Affordability
Auto Finance News
Consumers can nance up to $8K in F&I products
Buy-now, pay-later fintech Sunbit is expanding its dealer services to include finance and insurance products to assist consumers with affordability.
Los Angeles-based Sunbit, founded in 2016, offers consumers buy-now, pay-later plans on auto repairs, dental and eye care, and veterinary bills. The company has begun to expand its offering to F&I products at dealerships.
Sunbit started receiving requests in 2021 from dealership F&I managers for a service that would assist consumers in financing F&I products, Rob Bollinger, head of dealer groups at Sunbit, told Auto Finance News.
When a consumer wants to finance F&I products through Sunbit, the dealership scans the customer’s license and, if approved, provides the consumer with up to $8,000 in credit, Bollinger said. The consumer then picks the products they want to finance — such as extended warranties, tire and wheel protection, dent and ding protection — and sets up a payment plan through the dealer, he added.
The fintech’s F&I payment program offers consumers six-, 12- or 18-month terms with 0% interest and no late fees, Bollinger said.
Sunbit rolled out the payment product through an early access program to 100 dealerships in 2022, Bollinger said. In that phase, 90% of consumers were approved, he said. The company is now working to implement the product into its network of 6,400 dealerships.
Despite no late fees and 0% interest, consumers in the early access period made repayments at a high rate, Bollinger said.
“Consumers value the product they purchased to protect their vehicle, so they tend to pay these loans off, and the repayment rate is fantastic,” he said. F&I products “are important to the customer, so we usually get paid. If we don’t, it happens very infrequently, then we’ll call them and try to work it out.”
Sunbit already offers auto repair repayment services at 22 of the top 25 auto dealer groups in the United States, including Group 1 Automotive, Lithia Motors, Penske Automotive and Sonic Automotive, and is partnered with 14 OEMs, Bollinger said.
