If you’ve ever applied for a car lease or simply wondered about leasing a car, you’ve probably heard of the term ‘well-qualified lessee’. It means that the potential lessee (you) has to meet strict credit requirements to be able to apply for a car lease.
There is no precise answer who is well-qualified for a car lease because it depends on your lessor (the financial institution which grants a lease). The lessor is free to decide who is well-qualified and who is not. Generally, ‘well-qualified’ implies that the potential lessee must have an excellent credit score and a neat credit history.
Credit Score. Example from Nissan
Let’s look at the example from Nissan. Pretend that you want a Nissan Rogue, for instance. After you have ‘built’ your Rogue on the Nissan USA official site, you can choose a lease option and configure the leasing terms by pressing the ‘Modify Terms & View Disclaimer’ button that activates Nissan’s payment estimator for a lease.
Once the payment estimator is loaded, you can specify your credit score as follows: Excellent (740+), Great (700-739), Good (660-699), Fair (620-659), and Poor (600-619). As you see, the ‘good credit score’ is only third by Nissan credit standards. Depending on your credit score, the monthly payment for the Nissan Roque can be different. It is $374 per month without a down payment (for 24 months and 12,000 miles per year mileage) for those who have an Excellent and Great credit scores, $404 per month – for those who have a Good credit score, $445 per month – for those who have a Fair credit score, and $562 per month – for those who have a Poor credit score.
If your credit score is lower than 600, you can’t apply for a lease of the Nissan Rogue at all. You can check your credit score with Equifax or other services online.
Other automakers have similar methods of estimating the terms of their lease. The higher the price of your desired vehicle, the more strict credit requirements you have to meet.