Used Car Dealer
Risk Management Education
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Reduce uncertainty, protect your portfolio, and grow with confidence. Our Used Car Dealer Risk Management Education page brings together practical frameworks that help independent dealers and buy here pay here operators identify, measure, and mitigate risk across the entire operation. From credit policy and underwriting to collections, inventory selection, pricing, and compliance, you will find plain language guidance you can put to work quickly. Explore related training in Used Car Dealer Education, improve day to day execution with Used Car Dealer Operations Training, and strengthen oversight through Used Car Dealer Compliance Education and Dealer Risk Management Training. For workshops and peer learning, review upcoming Education and Events. Every resource is built by dealer operators and educators to help you raise profitability while keeping losses and legal exposure in check.

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Whether you operate traditional retail, buy here pay here, or a blended model, strong risk practices are your edge in a changing market. Use this page as a roadmap to sharpen credit policy, collections, inventory controls, and compliance. Stay current with articles on our Blog, learn about our mission on About Us, and connect anytime through Contact Us. Your team can learn together and apply what matters most to your store.

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Sales Techniques
Advanced Marketing Strategies
Underwriting Best Practices
Collections Management
Smart Inventory Control
Service & Reconditioning
Human Resources
AI Dealership Integration
... and much, much more!

What Risk Management Means for Used Car Dealers

Dealer risk management is a coordinated set of policies, controls, and training that protects cash flow, capital, customer relationships, and your brand. It spans underwriting, inventory decisions, pricing discipline, payment performance, collections, recovery, service readiness, data security, and regulatory compliance. When these functions work together, you lower charge offs, accelerate turns, improve net yield, and avoid regulatory penalties.

If you are building or refreshing your program, start with proven operating playbooks and peer insights. Our operator built resources in Used Car Dealer Operations Best Practices and Used Car Dealer Growth Strategy Education connect daily actions to clear risk and profit outcomes.

Core Pillars of a Dealer Risk Program

A complete program balances customer experience with disciplined controls across these pillars.

1. Credit Policy and Underwriting Discipline

Define who you will approve, at what structure, and why. Calibrate maximum advance, deal caps, collateral standards, proof requirements, and stipulations by risk tier. Align scorecards or manual tiers to payment performance data, not assumptions. Refresh policy quarterly as the market shifts.

2. Portfolio and Payment Performance

Track roll rates, extension usage, right party contacts, promise kept, and days past due to surface early problems. Use segmented tactics by risk band and loan age. Standardize extensions and deferrals, and document exceptions. Build loss forecasting and cash flow stress tests.

3. Operational and Inventory Risk

Inventory selection, recon standards, and service readiness drive payment performance as much as credit. Choose units with proven demand, predictable reconditioning, and total cost to serve that fits your payment-to-income strategy. Tighten ACV, recon, and days in recon to protect turns and gross to cost ratios.

4. Compliance and Regulatory Risk

Compliance failure is an enterprise risk. Standardize document retention, adverse action, OFAC screening, privacy, credit reporting accuracy, and collections communication. Train new hires and refresh annually. Validate with periodic audits and remediate fast.

5. Fraud and Cyber Risk

Adopt identity verification, document forgery checks, and dual control for cash and refunds. Map data flows, enforce least privilege, patch systems, and train staff on phishing. Prepare an incident response plan with vendor contacts, customer notification steps, and regulator requirements.

6. Capital and Liquidity Management

Align advance rates, cost of capital, line covenants, and cash cycles with portfolio risk. Build dashboards that project cash needs under delinquency stress. Plan for tax, chargeback, and repossession expense timing so operations never outrun cash.

A Step by Step Framework to Build or Upgrade Your Risk Program

Use this sequence to create consistency without slowing sales velocity.

  • Baseline assessment: map current policies, controls, metrics, and loss drivers. Compare against peer benchmarks and regulatory expectations.
  • Policy refresh: write clear credit, collections, extensions, repossession, and complaint handling policies. Train to the document, not tribal knowledge.
  • Process control: add checklists and system validation to eliminate rework and exceptions. Establish maker checker for high risk steps.
  • Metrics and cadence: define KPIs, owners, and meeting rhythm. Use daily huddles and weekly portfolio reviews to coach and correct early.
  • Audit and remediation: schedule quarterly self audits and annual external reviews. Track findings to closure with target dates and owners.

To accelerate adoption, pair the framework with targeted learning in Dealer Operations Management Training, Dealer Compliance Best Practices, and hands on Dealer Workshops and Training.

Key Metrics and Early Warning Indicators

Leading indicators allow action before losses harden. Monitor by product, store, salesperson, and underwriter.

  • First pay default and 0 to 29 day delinquency trend
  • Payment to income and payment to take home thresholds by tier
  • Extension volume, repeat extensions, and impact on roll rates
  • Promise to pay kept, RPC rate, and right time of day contact windows
  • Average days in recon and service comeback rate

Build dashboards that show trend, variance to goal, and root cause. For advanced insights and coaching structures, see Dealer Performance Optimization Education and Buy Here Pay Here Portfolio Performance Training.

Collections and Recovery With Customer Focus

Collections protect cash and relationships. Standardize customer contact rules, tone, and scripts. Use data to call at the right time with the right offer. Reserve hardship tools for temporary setbacks and document relief. When recovery is necessary, follow a fair and consistent process that meets state laws and contract terms.

Compliance Essentials for Used Car Dealers

Document and test these areas to reduce legal and reputational risk:

  • Advertising and credit disclosures, adverse action, and co signer rules
  • Privacy, data security, and records retention standards
  • Credit reporting accuracy and dispute handling
  • Collections communications, repossession notices, and SCRA rules where applicable
  • Vendor oversight and fair lending monitoring

Explore deeper guidance in Independent Dealer Compliance Education and our Blog for regulatory updates you can share in team meetings.

Training Paths and Resources for Teams

Role based learning plans accelerate adoption and keep skills fresh. Pair self paced modules with workshops and peer learning cohorts.

Keep teams aligned with quick reference guides, policy quizzes, and calibration sessions. Capture questions in a running log, then update training to address patterns.

Regional and Format Options

Risk challenges vary by market and customer mix. If your portfolio leans BHPH or subprime, regional sessions help tailor tactics to your laws and demographics. Explore offerings for the Southeast and Mid Atlantic to combine market insights with hands on practice.

Helpful Links

Frequently Asked Questions

Training covers credit policy, underwriting, payment performance, collections, inventory controls, pricing, compliance, fraud prevention, and capital planning. It blends process, metrics, and checklists so teams can apply concepts immediately.

BHPH portfolios rely on disciplined underwriting, clear extensions policy, and daily collections cadence. Resources like Buy Here Pay Here Risk Management Training and Buy Here Pay Here Collections Training address those specifics in detail.

Focus on first pay defaults, 0 to 29 day delinquency, RPC rate, promise kept, extension usage, and inventory days in recon. Segment by store and salesperson. For deeper dashboards, see Dealer Performance Optimization Education.

Review quarterly for market shifts and annually for comprehensive updates. Tie changes to performance data and regulatory updates. Reinforce with refresher training and quick reference guides to ensure consistent adoption.

Prioritize advertising and disclosure accuracy, adverse action, credit reporting, privacy and data security, collections communications, and state repossession rules. Explore Used Car Dealer Regulatory Compliance Training for checklists and audit prep.
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