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Sell a Car You Still Owe Money On

Quicklyft Auto buys cars directly from owners across the United States, including in exactly this situation. Free pickup, no obligation, and a straight answer about what is and is not possible.

Get your instant cash offer → Takes about two minutes. No obligation, and we do not need your Social Security number to quote.

The short version

Most people assume an open auto loan means they cannot sell the car, because they do not hold the title — the lender does. It does not. Cars with outstanding finance change hands constantly; the transaction just runs through the lender instead of around it.

What actually happens

Here is the mechanics of it. We contact your lender for a ten-day payoff quote, which is the exact amount required to clear the loan and release the title. If our offer is higher than the payoff, we settle the loan and pay you the difference — that difference is your equity and it is yours. If the payoff is higher than the offer, you are in negative equity, and you cover the shortfall to complete the sale. Either way you find out the number before you commit to anything. What you should not do is keep making payments on a car you have stopped driving; negative equity gets worse every month, not better.

How it works

  1. Tell us about the car. Year, make, model, mileage and condition — or just the VIN, which fills in most of it. About two minutes.
  2. Get a real number. Not a range and not a "starting from" figure. If anything about the car would change it, we would rather ask you now than at your door.
  3. We come to you and you get paid. Free pickup, paperwork done on the spot, payment on collection. If the car does not run, we tow it at no charge.

Paperwork, and why it depends where you are

Two things vary more between states than people expect, and they are the two that hold up a sale: what happens to your plates, and what has to be signed on the title.

In most states the plates belong to you rather than to the car, so they come off before it leaves and get transferred or surrendered — and the receipt for that is what proves your registration ended before your insurance did. A few states move plates with the vehicle instead. Titles are mostly a signature and an odometer reading, but Pennsylvania requires the assignment be signed in front of a notary, and several states want the seller to file a separate notice of sale.

We deal with this daily in every state we buy in and prepare the transfer paperwork with you at pickup, so you do not have to work out which rules apply to you. Confirm anything you want to be certain of with your own state's motor vehicle agency — requirements change, and this is general orientation rather than legal advice.

Get your instant cash offer → Takes about two minutes. No obligation, and we do not need your Social Security number to quote.

Quicklyft Auto · 2119 East 15th Street, Brooklyn, NY 11229 · (917) 487-8198 · New York Dealer Lic. #7135238