FYI dealers do this because they want to be able to offer you financing if your check bounces. It's also a way to ensure that you go through with the transaction because now your credit is worse and going somewhere else would lead to worse financing. Put a freeze on your accounts with the credit bureaus before you get serious about buying a car with cash. Tell them that they may not do a "hard pull" against your credit. If they try, complain to the appropriate government officials (not sure who this would be, some consumer protection agency) and take your cash elsewhere. It's a scam to lock you in to buying from them. I brought my own financing to a dealership and they wanted me to sign a thing which among other things authorized a credit check. I crossed that part out and signed it. This caused some back and forth with someone who was not in the room (basically my salesman had to go "get it approved") but they really wanted the sale because I drove a rental car down from 6 hours away just to buy this specific car (I had set the sale up ahead of time over email). I was very close to walking out and they probably knew it, and figured that they'd rather make the sale vs trying to sell me on their financing vs mine (I happened to get an extremely low rate from a credit union).