How To Sell a Car You Still Owe Something On
- 1). The very first thing you should do if you want to sell a car that you owe money on is to contact the lending institution to find out what your pay off amount is. You will need this information when you sell your car, because the lender will need to be paid in full before they will release the title.
- 2). Determine the value of the car. You can do this by checking the Kelley Blue Book, which will give you a pretty good idea of what you car is worth. If you owe less than what the car is worth, you are in good shape. If you still owe more than the car is worth, you are going to have to come up with the difference in order to pay off the lender and get the title.
- 3). If you would like to buy a new car while selling the car that you still owe money on, you can go to the car dealership and choose the new car that you would like to purchase. As long as you qualify for a loan amount that totals the value of the new car and any money owed on the old car that you are trading in, the car dealership will take care of all the paperwork for you. Just remember, that you will be "rolling over" any amount you still owed on the old car into your new car loan.
- 4). You can also see if a car dealership will purchase your car from you, even if you are not buying a new car. In this case, they will also take care of the paperwork. You will still need to pay the difference between what is owed and what the dealership is willing to pay for your car, but again, they will take care of paying the bank and the transfer of the title.
- 5). You may be selling your car to another private owner. This gets a little bit tricky. A private owner will probably want the title to the car before they give you the money...but you need the money in order to pay the lender to get the title. In a situation like that, there are a couple of options available to you. If you have your loan through a local lender, you can go with the buyer to the bank or credit union and pay off the loan. They will then take care of the title for you.
- 6). If your lender does not have local offices, you'll actually have to send the payment in to them and then wait for the title to arrive in the mail. If the buyer of your car want to make sure that they get the title, you can use an escrow company that will hold the money and manage the transfer of the title.
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