Selling car - still owe on the loan

[ggnl]

I'm going back to school soon and I anticipate being pretty broke, so I'm trying to get out from under my car loan. Luckily I'm not under water (not very deeply anyways), the car is worth about 18-20k and I currently owe 18k. I also have about 8k in savings.

Anyways, I don't know how to go about with the title transfer. The loan is through Capital One Auto, which is NOT affilated with Capital One banks, which means I can't go to a local branch and have the buyer pay the bank directly.

So my options seem to be:

1. Get a personal loan and pay off the auto loan, then sell. I have some money in savings, so I would only need an additional 10k to pay off the loan. My credit and income are pretty good, but I'm not confident I could get an unsecured loan for that much because of the economy.

2. Use an escrow service. I'm not sure how common this is, or if it would even work in this situation. I'm scared of scaring off potential buyers if the transaction seems too complex or out of the ordinary.

3. Find a very trusting buyer who willing to wait 5-7 days for the title. Very unlikely.

What would you guys do? Am I forgetting any options?

Cliffs:

1. Want to sell car.
2. Still owe 18k on the loan.
3. Don't want to scare off potential buyers.

 

[MixMasterTang]

I think your situation is probably more common than you think with people selling cars who still have a lien on the title. I would be more worried about finding a buyer period.

 

[ElFenix]

call up capital one and ask them. they handle this sort of thing all the time.

 

[ggnl]

Originally posted by: ElFenix
call up capital one and ask them. they handle this sort of thing all the time.

I did and they weren't helpful at all. They said I couldn't do the transaction in a local Capital One bank branch because Capital One Auto is its own entity. They basically told me there way no way to transfer the title short of paying off the loan.

 

[waffleironhead]

What you need from your lender is a document showing what is owed on the car. When I was selling my car a few years back my lender gave me a document showing what was owed on the car(PAYOUT AMOUNT) on a daily basis. When you make contact and agree on a price with a buyer, fully disclose the lien and hand them such a document. They will then forward that document to their lender. It should be all they need. Their lender will in turn write up a check for your lender, before that happens you will most likely need to go to their lender to sign away your rights to the car pending payment.

HTH

 

[Bignate603]

Originally posted by: waffleironhead
What you need from your lender is a document showing what is owed on the car. When I was selling my car a few years back my lender gave me a document showing what was owed on the car(PAYOUT AMOUNT) on a daily basis. When you make contact and agree on a price with a buyer, fully disclose the lien and hand them such a document. They will then forward that document to their lender. It should be all they need. Their lender will in turn write up a check for your lender, before that happens you will most likely need to go to their lender to sign away your rights to the car pending payment.

HTH

This. They'll pay off the balance of the loan and you'll get whatever the agree upon price is, minus the payoff amount.