It’s the detail that vehicle shoppers might want to know more than anything else when they’re searching online. When they find a vehicle they might like, that shopper immediately wants to know what their monthly payment might be.

To provide those details in an effort to make researching and purchasing a vehicle more interactive and seamless, TransUnion recently partnered with CarNow to better equip financial institutions with a digital solution called Auto Payment Shopper.

The companies highlighted that the result of their collaboration is that consumers will benefit from a more user-friendly and personalized vehicle-shopping experience that addresses current industry challenges such as auto affordability and availability.

TransUnion and CarNow explained that Auto Payment Shopper’s technology combines decisioning technology with real-time dealership inventory, providing a direct alignment between the finance company and preferred dealer networks. The tool is designed to empower consumers to filter available vehicles more efficiently by their desired monthly payment and know which vehicles they are prequalified to purchase — all in the comfort of their home.

The companies acknowledged that the tradition path had consumers who were in the market to buy a vehicle first navigating through the process of selecting a make and model through a dealership or manufacturer.

“Securing financing was typically a disjointed endeavor which often resulted in a lack of clarity from sticker price to determining the monthly payment amount or overall end cost,” TransUnion and CarNow said in a news release.

Auto Payment Shopper is designed to streamline the shopping process by providing financial institutions with a branded turnkey microsite that is directly integrated with their preferred dealer networks.

TransUnion and CarNow mentioned that finance companies also can take steps to simplify the application process to save significant time and expense by directly obtaining consumer documents and offering capabilities such as scheduling a test drive or to add protection products.

“This results in decreased application drop-off and generating more quality leads for dealers,” the companies said.

Furthermore, TransUnion and CarNow mentioned the interactive shopping tool also offers consumers more insight into the costs that come with a vehicle by enabling them to select various contract terms to personalize payments as well as additional options such as calculating trade-in value.

Additionally, users are able to look at immediately available vehicle inventory as well as the ability to filter for what they have prequalified for and the amount they can afford for a more interactive and seamless vehicle-shopping experience.

“Consumers have increasingly digitized the shopping aspect of their lives, including buying large ticket items such as cars, and many consumers continue to show a preference toward conducting as much of that process as possible online,” said Satyan Merchant, senior vice president and automotive business leader at TransUnion.

“The prequalification capabilities of Auto Payment Shopper afford consumers the flexibility of accurately comparing a variety of vehicles by monthly payment directly with the lender — which allows consumers to make a more informed choice as to what car is ultimately the best fit for their budget,” Merchant continued in the news release.

For more information, visit www.transunion.com/industry/auto-lending.