What to look for when Paying for a Vehicle Title

So what do you look for when you’re deciding to pay for a car title online? First thing is to recognize that a car title can only be issued by a DMV by a government agency. So if you’re paying somebody other than the DMV, find out who that is and why are they collecting your money.

DIY vs. Paid Assistance
Most cases if there’s a difficult title scenario you can do it yourself. You may not have the knowledge but a little bit of research. If you have more questions, you can reach us through our website at Consumers Title Work. You can ask questions, we can help you, but you can do this yourself. If you need assistance and you want to pay somebody, that’s fine, but don’t pay much more than 40 or 50 dollars for a company to help you with titling. It’s not that hard to do; it might be filling out some paperwork, maybe giving you some advice. But if you’re spending 2 or 3 or 4 or 500 or more, really you’re paying somebody for something you can do yourself in a half an hour, 45 minutes.

Regulatory Caps and Licensed Companies
In fact, some states have a cap on how much companies can charge because there’s online companies that are charging hundreds of dollars. In fact, Texas is passing a law that capped it at $10 because that’s how easy these processes are. Make sure that wherever you’re paying is a licensed company. It’s not just some fly-by-night firm. Remember they’re going to have your physical address, they’re going to have a copy of your driver’s license, they might have a power of attorney. You want to make sure it’s a legal licensed company.

Company Credibility and Payment Terms
Also, do they have a physical address? Can you walk into this company and meet them in person, or are they just online working from a house or somebody’s basement? You don’t want to deal with somebody like that. How about payment? Do you want to pay it all up front or maybe pay them when it’s done, or maybe half and half? You want to give somebody other than the government agency your money; you want to make sure you know what you’re getting. Who is the payment being made to? Is it a person? Is it a company? And do some research on that company.

Legal Compliance and Paperwork
Then take a look at what are you signing. In some cases, companies that assist or charge for car titles use illegal methods. You want to look at the paperwork you’re signing to make sure it matches the scenario of the car. You don’t want to be signing a mechanic’s lien if you never brought the car in for service. You don’t want to be signing an affidavit saying something happened that didn’t because if that is the case, you may find your title revoked at a later date because of fraud.

Risks of Power of Attorney and Scams
Also, if you’re signing a power of attorney, remember you’re giving that person or that company the right to do anything they want with that car. They could sell it; they can put it in their name, and that puts a lot of risk on you. Dozens of online title scam companies have already been shut down over the years, more in the works. This is an area where there’s a lot of fraud and a lot of kind of gray area operations, and you don’t want to be caught up in that. These illegal methods are costing people their vehicles and costing states a lot of tax money, so you don’t want to be unknowingly part of an illegal process.

Conclusion: Pay the DMV Directly
So make sure that first of all, if you’re paying to get a title, pay the DMV directly. They can issue a title. If they’re telling you they need more paperwork or the process is incomplete, look up online to see how you can do that yourself before you pay a lot of money to another company to do it.

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