The Customer Financing Offer SOP

Purpose

When a shop puts a lender's financing in front of a customer, it steps into a corner of credit law even though it never lends a cent. The lender owns the loan disclosures; the shop owns what its people said, what its flyers promised, who was offered the option and who was not, and the price it quoted. This SOP makes the offer the same for every customer, keeps every number about the loan coming from the lender, records what was handed over, and sends complaints to the right desk. The failure it prevents is quiet: a tech who offers financing to some customers and not others, or who says "you'll get approved, no problem," is creating exposure for the shop on a loan it does not control.

This is not legal advice.

Scope

Covers: offering a third-party lender's consumer financing for residential work, in person, by phone, on a quote or in an advertisement, from the first mention through the customer's complaint, if any.

Does not cover: when the shop itself extends credit by letting a customer pay over time (see related: In-House Payment Plans and When They Become Credit); what the Truth in Lending Act requires of the lender and of the shop's advertising (see related: Arranging Customer Financing and the Truth in Lending Act); and why the customer's workmanship claims can follow the loan (see related: The Holder Rule and Why Your Workmanship Follows the Loan).

Roles and responsibilities

The handoff that fails is the tech's judgment about who "is a financing customer." That judgment is the thing the procedure removes.

The procedure

1. Use lender materials and nothing else. Every brochure, rate card, quote insert and web page about financing is supplied or approved in writing by the lender, and carries the approval date. Acceptance: each item in the trucks and on the website matches the current approved list. What wrong looks like: a shop-made door hanger saying "as low as" a monthly payment. Under Regulation Z (12 CFR 1026.24), an advertisement that states a trigger term (a down payment, a number of payments or period of repayment, the amount of any payment, or a finance charge) must also state the down payment, the repayment terms and the APR; a shop flyer almost never does. Stop rule: any unapproved item found is pulled from every truck the same day and the ad is taken down. No physical hazard; the hazard is marketing that outruns the lender, so nobody edits an approved piece, even to fix a typo.

2. Offer it to every customer whose quote is eligible, at the same point, in the same words. Eligibility is one objective rule the owner sets, normally the lender's minimum loan amount, and nothing else: not age, not neighborhood, not how the house looks, not who answered the door. The offer is made when the price is presented: "If it helps, we work with a lender that offers financing on jobs this size. The terms come from them, and the application is yours to make if you want it." Acceptance: on every eligible quote, the offer field reads OFFERED with the time. What wrong looks like: a tech who skips it for a retiree because "she won't want debt." Under the Equal Credit Opportunity Act's Regulation B, a person who regularly refers applicants to a creditor is itself treated as a creditor for the ban on discriminating and on discouraging applicants on a prohibited basis (12 CFR 1002.2(l) and 1002.4), and age is one of those bases where the customer can legally contract. Stop rule: a missed offer found later is made by the office lead within 2 business days, by phone and in writing, in the same words.

3. Quote one price. The job price is the same whether the customer pays cash, card or the lender's plan. Acceptance: one price on the quote; no "financing price." What wrong looks like: a price raised for financed customers to cover the lender's fee to the shop. Charging financed customers more can turn the difference into a finance charge that the lender's disclosures do not show, which is a Truth in Lending problem and in many states a deceptive-practices one. Stop rule: if the owner wants to recover the lender fee, it goes into the price for everyone, or a cash discount offered to everyone, set and reviewed by the owner with counsel, never at the kitchen table.

4. Make no promises about approval or terms. The tech never predicts approval, never states a rate or payment the lender has not put in writing for this customer, and never calls a promotional plan "interest free" without the lender's own wording about what happens if the balance is not paid in time. When asked, the tech says: "I can't tell you whether you'll be approved or what the terms will be. The lender decides that and tells you directly." Acceptance: no approval, rate or payment statements in the tech's notes or texts. What wrong looks like: "with a house like this you're definitely approved." Stop rule: if a tech has said it, the office lead calls the customer the same day, corrects it in plain words, and notes the call.

5. Let the customer apply on their own device or the lender's link. The tech does not fill in the application, does not read out or type the customer's Social Security number or income, and does not photograph documents. Acceptance: application submitted by the customer through the lender's channel. What wrong looks like: the tech holding the customer's phone and typing for them. Stop rule: if the customer asks the tech to do it, the tech declines and offers to come back after the customer has applied. A shop tablet used for a lender's link is logged out and cleared before it leaves the house, because the customer's identity data on a truck device is the shop's breach to report.

6. Record exactly what was given. On the quote: OFFERED or NOT ELIGIBLE (with the quote amount), materials version handed over, time, and whether the customer said they would apply. Afterward, only what the lender shares: approved, declined, or not applied. Acceptance: all fields filled. What wrong looks like: a tech's note guessing why someone was declined. Stop rule: the shop never tells a declined customer why; the lender owes them an adverse action notice and that is where the reason comes from.

7. Check the contract before work starts. If the customer finances, the office lead confirms the lender's approval, that the consumer credit contract carries the FTC Holder Rule notice (16 CFR Part 433) where the shop arranged the loan, and that the home improvement contract states the financing and any cancellation right. Where the sale was made at the customer's home, the FTC's Cooling-Off Rule window (three business days, for sales above the rule's small minimum) is respected before non-emergency work starts. Acceptance: approval, Holder notice and contract terms checked and initialed. What wrong looks like: materials ordered on the tech's word that the customer "was approved on the spot." Stop rule: no start date is set until all three are checked.

8. Route complaints to the right desk. Questions about rate, payments, approval or statements go to the lender, with the office lead giving the customer the lender's contact and logging the referral. Complaints about the work stay with the shop and are handled as any other workmanship complaint, quickly, because under the Holder Rule the customer can raise them against the lender too. Acceptance: complaint logged and routed within 1 business day. What wrong looks like: "that's the bank's problem" said about a leaking fitting. Stop rule: any complaint alleging the shop misrepresented the loan goes to the owner the same day.

9. Review the offer rate weekly. The office lead counts eligible quotes and OFFERED fields, per tech. Acceptance: offers equal eligible quotes for every tech. What wrong looks like: a tech whose offers run consistently below his eligible quotes. Stop rule: any gap goes through step 2's correction, and a repeated gap is a coaching conversation before the tech's next sales call.

The record this produces

Each eligible quote carries: quote amount, eligibility result, OFFERED time, approved-materials version, customer's stated intent, lender-reported outcome, contract checks (approval, Holder notice, cancellation terms) with initials, and any complaint with its routing. The weekly review sheet carries eligible quotes and offers per tech, and every correction made. The owner reads it monthly; anyone answering a regulator or a customer's attorney reads the quote record, which is the only proof the shop treated this customer the same as the last one.

A worked pass

An HVAC shop works with one lender whose minimum loan amount is the shop's eligibility threshold. Week 14: 12 eligible system quotes across two comfort advisors.

• Step 1: materials version L-6 in both trucks, matching the approved list. Pass.
• Step 2: FAILED. Advisor A offered on all 7 of his eligible quotes. Advisor B offered on 4 of his 5. The fifth was an older customer on a fixed income; his note read "didn't offer, she'd never take on a loan." That is the exact pattern Regulation B's discouragement rule targets, and age is a prohibited basis. Stop rule taken: on Monday the office lead called the customer, made the offer in the step 2 words, and sent the approved materials by mail. She thanked the office, said she preferred to pay in two parts, and asked whether that was possible; that request went to the owner under the in-house payment plan rules, not to the advisor.
• Step 3 to 6, the 11 offered quotes: one price on each. Four customers said they would apply; the lender later reported 3 approved and 1 not applied. No tech note speculated about anyone's credit. Pass.
• Step 7: for the 3 approved, approval, Holder notice and contract terms initialed; the two in-home sales waited out the three business days before installation was scheduled. Pass.
• Step 9: week 14 shows 11 of 12 offered at the first count, 12 of 12 after correction. Advisor B was coached before his next call. Week 15: 9 of 9.

References

• Regulation Z, 12 CFR 1026.24 (advertising of credit terms)
• Regulation B, 12 CFR 1002.2(l) and 1002.4 (referrers as creditors; discrimination and discouragement)
• FTC Holder in Due Course Rule, 16 CFR Part 433; FTC Cooling-Off Rule, 16 CFR Part 429
• See related: Arranging Customer Financing and the Truth in Lending Act
• See related: Equal Credit and the Financing Conversation