Bought a car without a title

How To Sell A Vehicle If It Has A Title Loan On It

Are you looking to sell your car but haven’t fully paid it off yet? Or maybe you need to borrow more money using your vehicle as collateral and need to transfer the car’s title to someone else? You might be asking if this is possible and how to sell a vehicle with a title loan on it.

Selling a car is possible if you have a title loan, but the loan must be fully paid off before you can transfer the title to a new owner. This doesn’t mean that you can’t sell a car with a title loan, though, only that you need to take a few extra steps to do so.

 

Is It Illegal to Sell a Car with a Title Loan?

You can sell any car you own at any time. However, only the legal title holder can transfer the title to someone else. With increasing oversight from the different state DMVs, there’s really no way to sell a vehicle without a legitimate title transfer in place. For instance, the California DMV now offers title transfers online, but you still need to send in the VIN, license plate number, purchase date, and price of the vehicle.

If you have a title loan on your car, you’re not the legal owner of the title—the entity that extended you that loan is. For instance, when you purchase a new vehicle from a dealership, the finance company that gave you the loan for the vehicle is the owner of the title.

Even if you purchased and didn’t lease the vehicle, you do not become the primary lienholder until you fully pay off the loan. This means it’s illegal to sell a car with a title loan still on it until that loan is completely paid off. Even if someone happens to purchase the vehicle itself, your state’s DMV won’t list them as the main lienholder and that’s all that matters in the court of law.

 

How to Sell a Car with a Title Loan

If you’re interested in learning how to sell a car with a title loan, you may have several options.

The most straightforward way to give yourself the most options is to pay off the title loan. Once you do that, you will be the legal title holder, and you can sell the car to whomever you want. Find a way to payoff your existing loan with our title loan calculator. It only takes a few minutes to plug in your loan details, and there’s a chance Premier Title Loans can offer a lower monthly payment or quicker payoff term!

This might not be possible, though, depending on how much money is still left on the loan and your financial situation.

That’s why one of the most common options for selling a car with a title loan on it is to use it as a trade-in at a dealership when you purchase or lease a new vehicle. In this case, the dealership where you obtain the new car will use the trade-in value of your current vehicle to pay off the title loan, which in turn gives them ownership of the title and allows you to transfer it to them.

The obvious upside is that it’s an easy way to figure out how to sell a car with a title loan. The downside is that most dealerships will require you to purchase a new vehicle to do this, and you will likely get a lower sales price (or trade-in value) for your car than if you sold it to a private party.

 

Bought a car without a title

 

Who Buys Cars with Title Loans On Them?

If neither of the above options suits you well, you may have other ways to sell your vehicle.

So, the answer to the question of whether I can sell my car with a title loan elsewhere is … maybe.

If you prefer to sell it to a private party and don’t have the money to pay off the title loan first, you could use the funds you receive from the buyer to pay off the loan. However, you would need to receive all or a portion of those funds from the buyer before transferring the car to them.

This often makes it challenging to find a private party to buy a car with a title loan on it because they’d have to pay upfront before they receive the vehicle. This would take a lot of trust and/or an official contract to be drawn.

If this doesn’t work, do you have any other options?

You might be able to find a dealer who buys cars with title loans without forcing you to purchase or lease another vehicle from them.

These dealers would find out the payoff amount for your title loan from the current lender and then send them the money to satisfy the loan. They would then become the primary lienholder, allowing you to transfer the car to them.

In this case, if your vehicle is worth more than what you owed on the title loan, you could walk away with some money in your pocket. If it’s not, you may need to pay the dealer the difference between the title loan amount and what they were willing to pay you for the car.

 

Scrap a Car That Has An Existing Title Loan

Can you scrap a car with a title loan? The answer is similar to the other examples above—yes, you can, as long as you pay off the title loan first.

Once the loan has been satisfied, you will become the title owner of the vehicle. At this point, you can do whatever you want with it, including scrapping it and collecting the value of the materials.

If you wish to do this, contact your lienholder first to determine the payoff amount and the process for doing so. Once you receive the vehicle’s title, you can scrap it.

 

Final Thoughts on How to Sell a Car with a Title Loan

If you’re wondering, “Can I sell my car with a title loan on it?” The answer is yes, with certain conditions.

Only the legal owner can transfer the title to a vehicle; that legal owner is the lender if you have a title loan. This means you’ll have to pay off a title loan before selling your car.

That being said, there are some options for doing so. These options include working with your first lender to see if they’re open to a title loan buyout, or perhaps they will allow you to refinance an existing car title loan with a new lender. If you are exploring ways to sell your car with a title loan on it or are looking for a new title loan, contact Premier Title Loans today online or by calling 800-250-6729.