Founded in 1972, Credit Acceptance makes vehicle ownership possible by providing innovative financing solutions that enable automobile dealers to sell vehicles to consumers regardless of their credit history. Our financing programs are offered through a nationwide network of automobile dealers who benefit from sales of vehicles to consumers who otherwise could not obtain financing; from repeat and referral sales generated by these same customers; and from sales to customers responding to advertisements for our financing programs, but who end up qualifying for traditional financing.
Without our financing programs, consumers are often unable to purchase vehicles, or they purchase unreliable ones. Further, as we report to the three national credit reporting agencies, an important ancillary benefit of our programs is that we provide consumers with an opportunity to improve their lives by improving their credit score and move on to more traditional sources of financing.
Southfield, MI
Credit Acceptance believes in a “North Star” of creating intrinsic value and changing lives for its five constituents—dealers (its direct customers), team members, consumers, communities, and shareholders. Its path to success starts with clearly defined stretch goals. To accomplish those, Credit Acceptance focuses on three keys to success: a great product, a great environment, and great people. The leadership team firmly believes culture is a key part of Credit Acceptance’s success, and strives to create a workplace that team members come to with enthusiasm, relishing the opportunity to make a difference.
Credit Acceptance’s company values were created by its team members. In 2012, leadership asked all team members to share the qualities they most admired in their coworkers, then distilled those answers into the current PRIDE values: Positive, Respectful, Insightful, Direct, and Earnest. Today, PRIDE is deeply integrated into Credit Acceptance’s daily operations, organizational culture, and company identity. In 2024, we updated our PRIDE values to further ensure key business attributes—collaboration, customer obsession and owner’s mindset—were included. With commitment from leadership and support from team members, these values have created a collaborative environment that encourages difficult conversations and nurtures a listening culture.
CEO and president Ken Booth, who joined Credit Acceptance in 2004, embodies and promotes Credit Acceptance’s core purpose of changing lives. He does this through interactions with key stakeholders, including dealers, consumers, team members, and shareholders. His actions foster an environment where trust is built through open and honest two-way conversations—a direct reflection of Credit Acceptance’s PRIDE values. His transparent communication and work to cultivate a listening culture demonstrates his commitment to inclusion, fairness, and equality, aligning with the company’s overarching mission and values.
Credit Acceptance leans into its PRIDE values—being Positive, Respectful, Insightful, Direct, and Earnest—throughout the team member journey, from hiring and onboarding, to training and development, to performance management and recognition. Leaders leverage our listening culture by collecting feedback via quarterly surveys, as well as offering Q&As with the senior leadership team. Employees also benefit from the “Red Tape Remover,” an internal feature that allows team members to send questions and concerns directly to the CEO. Credit Acceptance's Diversity and Inclusion Committee recently launched team member resource groups to support Black/African American team members, women, veterans and parents/caregivers. These groups share knowledge and raise awareness, helping ensure widespread value and respect for diverse perspectives.
Credit Acceptance culture emphasizes activities that combine teamwork with meaningful initiatives. With the shift to remote work that happened with the pandemic, leadership created new ways to help everyone stay connected. These include hybrid Monthly Management Team Meetings and in-person Regional Roundtable events in hub cities across the country. The roundtables feature a “company business” segment delivered by a senior leader, which is designed to ensure alignment with purpose and strategy, as well as a camaraderie-building segment. Another prime example of culture-defining activities was the annual Thankful Harvest event during which team members working in groups assembled over 106,000 packaged meals for Meals of Hope.
Benefits are centered around a proactive approach to assisting team members and their families. Beginning in March 2020, Credit Acceptance transitioned to a remote-first working model, and now 95% of its team members work from home daily. This unique benefit defines the future of work, improving job satisfaction and giving team members the flexibility to be their best at work and home. Our compensation plans have multiple components designed to attract, retain and motive exceptional people while ensuring fairness and rewarding top performers: base compensation is set at or above market; variable incentive compensation targets above market pay for each position (significantly so for top performers) and allows all team members to earn through their individual performers; and quarterly profit sharing allows all team members to earn—our 15-year annual average is nearly $3,000! Other unique benefits include PTO accrual on day one, Military Pay to offset any differential between Credit Acceptance earnings and military pay; Survivor Benefits including up to 3 months COBRA premiums for a deceased team member’s eligible dependents; 2nd.MD, a second opinion tool designed to support team members with critical care concerns such as a chronic illness or a recent diagnosis of a serious condition; our new Childbirth Supplemental Benefit, which gives birthing mothers a total of nine weeks of full pay; and a Kids Scholarship Fund which issues five $2,000 awards annually.
Working at Credit Acceptance provides team members the opportunity to serve a noble purpose—to change lives. With a focus on development, team members can “steer their own career” through individual contributor and leadership roles. And the Listening Culture offers the ability to provide feedback and contribute ideas that shape the future of the Company. Overall, we offer strong work-life balance, diversity of thought, a culture of inclusivity and passionate team members all changing lives each day!
