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Can you sell a car with a loan on it?

Can you sell a car with an outstanding loan? My girlfriend and I are behind on our rent, and our landlord isn’t willing to give us more time to come up with the money. I want to sell my car to help cover the cost of our apartment, but I am still paying off the loan I took out to buy the car.

avatar
Phoebe Mah · Updated on
Reviewed by Shannon Martin, Licensed Insurance Agent.
I’m sorry to hear you are having a difficult time right now! Luckily, you can sell a car even if you have yet to pay off the associated car loan.
To sell a car with a loan on it, here’s what you’ll need to do.
Step 1: Figure out the loan payoff amount. If you pay your bill online, you may be able to locate this information by logging in to your online account. Otherwise, you can simply contact your lender and ask.
Step 2: Research the value of your vehicle. You can use free resources like
Kelley Blue Book
or Edmunds.
Step 3:​​ Determine your equity. To calculate this, subtract the payoff amount from the estimated current value of your car. If this number is positive, you can sell the car, pay off the loan balance, and keep the remaining amount. If this number is negative, you will need to sell the car, pass the proceeds along to your lender, and pay the remaining balance of your loan out of pocket.
Step 4: Transfer the
title
to the buyer. You may want to provide a bill of sale, as well. This will finalize the sale of the vehicle!
If you’d rather keep your vehicle and find another way to cut back on car expenses, check out the
Jerry
app. Jerry can collect competitive quotes from 50+ top car insurance companies, like Travelers, Nationwide, and Progressive, in seconds. They even help cancel your old policy once you’ve made your pick. And the average Jerry user saves $879 a year on car insurance.
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