Lower your car payment in Kansas

What’s different about refinancing a car loan in Kansas

Vehicle titles in Kansas are issued by the Kansas Department of Revenue, Division of Vehicles.

• When a Kansas vehicle loan is refinanced, the new lender files a refinance title application, which the Division of Vehicles uses when the existing title record shows a lienholder that is paid off and replaced by a new obligation. The refinancing lender is initially listed as the second lienholder on the vehicle record, and the prior lienholder's release must reach the Division of Vehicles within thirty days of the application date. If the release does not arrive in that window the application is incomplete, and the owner cannot renew the vehicle registration until the original lien is released.

  Source: Kansas Department of Revenue, Division of Vehicles — Frequently Asked Questions about Liens

• Kansas runs an E-lien system through which lenders, dealers and other authorized lienholders exchange vehicle, lien and title information electronically with the Division of Vehicles instead of mailing paper titles. Enrolled lenders may file security interest applications and cancellations, secured titles, refinanced secured titles, duplicate secured titles, and lien releases. The refinanced secured title transaction exists specifically for the situation where the new lender does not yet hold the prior lender's release. Vehicle owners themselves cannot participate in the system; it is limited to lending institutions and dealers.

  Source: Kansas Department of Revenue, Division of Vehicles — E-Lien

• Kansas statute sets firm deadlines for releasing a paid-off vehicle lien. Upon satisfaction of a lien or encumbrance on a vehicle, the lienholder must execute and deliver the release within three business days after receiving a payment made in cash, by intra-bank transfer, or by wired funds, and within ten business days after receiving a payment of any other type. The statute also provides civil penalties for a lienholder that fails to comply, together with a mechanism for resolving disputes over the release.

  Source: Kansas Revisor of Statutes — K.S.A. 8-1,157 (satisfaction of lien; release)

• Where a Kansas consumer's default consists only of failure to make a required installment payment, the creditor may neither accelerate the unpaid balance of the obligation nor take possession of the collateral until twenty days after a notice of the consumer's right to cure has been given. The consumer cures by tendering all unpaid sums due at the time of tender, without acceleration, plus any unpaid late fees. After a creditor has once given such a notice on that obligation, the statute gives the consumer no further right to cure.

  Source: Kansas Revisor of Statutes — K.S.A. 16a-5-111 (Uniform Consumer Credit Code, cure of default)

• Before a repossessed vehicle in a consumer-goods transaction is sold, Kansas law requires the secured party to send a reasonable authenticated notification of disposition, and that notice must include a description of any liability for a deficiency of the person receiving it, a telephone number from which the amount required to redeem the collateral is available, and a telephone number or mailing address from which additional information about the disposition and the secured obligation can be obtained. No particular phrasing is required, and the statute supplies a safe-harbor form.

  Source: Kansas Revisor of Statutes — K.S.A. 84-9-614 (contents of notification before disposition, consumer-goods transaction)

• A Kansas borrower can get a repossessed vehicle back by redeeming it. The debtor, any secondary obligor, or another secured party or lienholder may redeem the collateral by tendering fulfillment of all obligations secured by the collateral together with the secured party's reasonable expenses and attorney fees. The right to redeem ends once the secured party has collected the collateral, has disposed of it or entered into a contract for its disposition, or has accepted it in full or partial satisfaction of the obligation it secures.

  Source: Kansas Revisor of Statutes — K.S.A. 84-9-623 (right to redeem collateral)

• Kansas law protects a borrower's ability to pay off an existing car loan early, which is what a refinance requires. The Uniform Consumer Credit Code provides that the consumer may prepay in full the unpaid balance of a consumer credit transaction at any time without penalty, so a Kansas borrower replacing one vehicle loan with another is not exposed to a statutory prepayment charge on the loan being retired.

  Source: Kansas Revisor of Statutes — K.S.A. 16a-2-509 (Uniform Consumer Credit Code, right to prepay)

These are general procedural facts about Kansas, not advice about your loan. Rules change, and your lender’s own process may add steps — a licensed specialist can tell you what applies to your situation.