KIA Financial Services thinks my bank bought my car

[Leftos]

I got a certified check from my credit union because for some reason I had to mail in the payoff amount, since paying over the internet was not an option. The check was for almost 30k so I was stressed enough that money that had already been withdrawn from my account would reach KIA safely. The certified check was clearly in my name, payable to KIA, and yet whoever handled it must've thought I took a loan or something and that the bank paid it off, because I just got a new registration card from the DMV that lists my credit union as the legal owner. What. The. Hell.

Of course KIAFS doesn't even have Saturday hours, so I'll have to wait until Monday to figure out what the hell happened, unless my credit union understands the situation and agrees to just release the title to me somehow.

I have no idea what the process is from here on out or how much trouble I'll have to go through to get the title. This is just infuriating.

 

[Waynerm002]

Talk to the credit union, they will assist you on it. KMF might also need to be involved, I think they will need to provide you with documentation that you paid it off. I don’t understand why you needed a certified check from the bank, you should have been able to send one from your account to do it.

 

[MerlintheMad]

I got a certified check from my credit union because for some reason I had to mail in the payoff amount, since paying over the internet was not an option. The check was for almost 30k so I was stressed enough that money that had already been withdrawn from my account would reach KIA safely. The certified check was clearly in my name, payable to KIA, and yet whoever handled it must've thought I took a loan or something and that the bank paid it off, because I just got a new registration card from the DMV that lists my credit union as the legal owner. What. The. Hell.

Of course KIAFS doesn't even have Saturday hours, so I'll have to wait until Monday to figure out what the hell happened, unless my credit union understands the situation and agrees to just release the title to me somehow.

I have no idea what the process is from here on out or how much trouble I'll have to go through to get the title. This is just infuriating.

These things always happen on a weekend!

It'll all be fine. Nobody wants hassles. And if your situation ends up being somebody's hassle, they'll do their best to resolve it. Meanwhile, have fun with the car.

 

[Leftos]

Yeah, I wrote this thing in a bout of frustration but a good night's sleep helped me calm down.

The certified check wasn't necessary, Waynerm002, but KMF states that the title gets released faster if you send one, versus a personal check. So I did that. Through personal mail. With my name as the sender, and a printout from the website of the payoff quote. If a bank was refinancing a loan or taking ownership of a loaned vehicle, why would they ask their customer to personally send the check with the customer's return address? And certified checks could be using bank funds, or like in my case, could be funds withdrawn from a customer's account that the bank certifies will be available. Why couldn't KMF verify which was the case?

I did call my credit union, whose customer service, to their credit, was really great. The person I talked to was very understanding, answered my questions, and reassured me that if KMF can't fix this themselves faster, they'll take all the steps necessary to deal with the DMV and get me the title, but "it could take up to a month to get you the title".

I asked how is it possible that KMF could've made the credit union the legal owner without someone on the credit union's side signing off on the transfer? From everything on the DMV's website that I read up on, it takes both parties to sign off on the transfer for it to happen, which makes sense. You can't have a seller just offloading ownership of a vehicle to a different person/entity without the purported buyer signing off. Well, apparently, in the case of a lienholder changing, that can be done automatically, without the receiving lienholder having any part of the process, at least according to the CS rep I talked to (after he consulted with the loan department, since he didn't have the answer on hand). So... yeah. My credit union never took an action to accept the car, and yet they're the legal owner now, but they "would have rejected the paperwork, since we never took action to buy the car". So, what happens then, when KMF says the lienholder changed but the new lienholder goes "I have no idea what you're talking about"?

My credit union's CS rep added that in all cases where the bank refinances a car loan they would send a bunch of paperwork to KMF (or any lienholder), showing information about the new account, etc. They would never send "just a check", never mind ask the customer to personally mail it.

So, I find it baffling how this happened, given all this. I'll call KMF tomorrow and see if they can cancel the transfer and just release the title directly to me, otherwise I'll have to instruct my credit union to take the necessary actions themselves. That said, I appreciate the willingness to help on the latter's part, since they had no part in this error, and they shouldn't be obligated to help if KMF says it's out of their hands.

So yeah, either way this will get resolved. It's just frustrating that it happened in the first place.