I'm planning to fly down to Texas on Monday to purchase a car from a private party. He still owes $42k on the car and I'm going to pay $20k directly from my account and $44k from a DCU auto loan.
The lienholder is a local credit union (in Texas) and has the title on hand at their main branch (where we will be doing the transaction) available to sign over. I spoke with the seller's credit union and they said if I paid off the lien by cashier's check, they would hold the title for 2 weeks while the check clears. They also said if I wire the money, they would be able to sign off and release the title the second the payment hits their account.
Do you think I can get DCU to wire the ~$42k directly to the lienholder to pay off the loan and the rest out to the seller? I've been getting conflicting information when I called DCU. The first agent told me that's they could do that, but the second agent told me that the check will only be made out to the seller and that he has to first pay off the lien, obtain a clear title in his name (thus adding another 2 weeks to the transaction), before they will cut out a check to him.
We would conduct the entire transaction at the seller's credit union so they can verify with DCU the payoff amount and all of the account information. I don't want to fly out 1800 miles just to find out DCU will not transfer the money. Would I be better off going in-branch to discuss with a loan officer?
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