Ask VMW: My bank said I can't bring my car over to Germany?

Not only did I have this question emailed to me, but I had a similar comment on one of my blogposts.  I guess people are starting to receive orders now to come overseas.  I thought this is an important thing to address and catches many off guard:

"I was all set to ship my new car over to Germany.  I didn't even think this would be a problem.  I didn't have my title because I bought the car last year.  I was told by the military shipping people that all I needed was a letter from the finance company.  I was shocked to find out that they refused to supply that letter!  I can't believe that here I am serving my country, and I can't take my car with me because of this stupid thing!  What am I going to do?"

Believe it or not, this same thing happened to my then young soldier husband on one of his first overseas tours.  His finance company refused to supply the certified letter or letter of release as it is called.  I'm sorry I'm not going to provide the answer you want, but you basically have two choices here.  You can either pay off the remainder of the loan to get the original title (or I believe certified copy) or you can leave your vehicle with a trusted person in the US.  My husband ended up leaving his car with my dad who drove it a few times a month.  The good news was that his insurance was superlow in that timeframe.  After that lesson, we only buy cars with cash now....we don't ever want anyone ever again telling us what we can and can't do with our cars.

But, before you do any of that.....try to negotiate with the finance company.  Send a nice letter, addressed to the boss of that finance company....address him by name and not "Dear Sir"....send it certified.  Make comments in there about being a career soldier, what your specialty is...in other words, make yourself look like a responsible military person who is not going to lose their job anytime soon.  End the letter with some good contact information and something along the lines that you respectfully wait for his response.  Offer to pay the loan down if that doesn't work...not completely, but just down.  Believe it or not, I have seen some of these finance companies cave where military members were VERY persistent and VERY confident.  Be firm but don't be an a**hole.  Remember, the company has a larger stake than you do in that car...and honestly, I don't blame them for being cautious where as an example, you may have only paid $2k on a car worth $30k.  Can you imagine if you stopped paying on your loan and the major expense that finance company would have trying to reposses the car?.......the more leverage you have, the better it will be to get what you want!


One more thing....backing up here...I have heard but cannot confirm that car loans thru USAA and other military affiliated credit unions and banks "may" be more accomodating with taking vehicles overseas.  This would be a great question to ask before you purchase your vehicle and choose your finance company!




As an aside, this applies to any overseas location!  I've had someone tell me this happened to them going to Belgium and also Hawaii believe it or not.  Do your research before you are "stuck".  If anyone has any other tips on how they tackled this issue, please do post below.