do I need to pay off my car before landing?

[kolibri]

I was in the same situation. I have 2 cars and brought them in canada. One was purchased with the loan from USA credit union (now I believe it's Genesys- in MI) and they allowed me to export the car. They wrote a letter stating that and I showed it at the border. Customs officers actually were surprised seeing this, but decided that's none of their business if the financial company allows me to do this. At that time I was owing ~ 5k.
The 2nd car was a totally different story. Toyota asked me to payoff the whole amount before exporting that (~18k). I contacted various banks in Canada asking for the loan. Nobody wanted to deal with me except TD. I had to come to Canada (I was able to do that and it was just about an hour drive) to get all the documents ready. They promissed I'll get it based on my us credit history, but at the end after various "appeals", they rejected to give me a loan.
TD sucks, liars, don't deal with them. I wasted so much time, money driving back and forth, and nerve cells on the border answering various stupid questions.
So finally I found a credit union in Toronto (after various credit history checks, employment letters, etc) who was willing to give me the loan.
But honestly I would never do this again, I would just drove the car in Canada, paying usa financial institution. Just need to be insured for travels to Canada.
Not sure which way is the better one, the last one is a total risk, the first one - if you ll be able to get the loan, but have to go through so much humiliations like you are poor asking for some money... Brr...
So try to check credit unions instead of big banks.
Good luck!

 

[chelley]

Did they come after you for the explorer?

if you see above, they most certainly did (wasn't me, but my ex who had all sorts of stellar plans to have a free truck lol)... they showed up a couple days after the 2nd payment was missed

 

[can_usa_97]

as a loan processor at a small US bank I have to affirm that sounds correct. TD in the States is not affiliated in any way except name, with TD in Canada.

and our stories get eerier!
Prior to the birth of my twins, I worked at a US Bank as a Collateral processor. Creepy Heather! lol

 

[can_usa_97]

In my searching to be able to bring along our two cars I've only found information indicating that they needed to be free of any leins / aka clear title. THIS to me says that the car needs to not be held by a bank / aka have a loan tied to it.

Our two vehicles are paid in full as of this month, so I will need to just ensure that we have clear titles.

I'm not sure that they wouldn't come after you in some fashion - for any amount. My husband (granted this was coming from Canada to the US) had 1600 in credit card debit he racked up while moving to WI. The credit card company kept after him / us and eventually putting it to a collector who threatened legal action because we weren't paying it off quick enough.

 

[AllisonVSC]

I just finished importing my car from the US. My understanding of the RIV instructions is that you must have a clear title and that the owner's name on the title must match the name of the immigrant importing it as goods. In addition the car must be deemed "importable" by the RIV and they provide a list of cars which are on their website. The car has to be exported from the US (they check your title, identity, and the VIN on the vehicle to insure they match). The export office is only open Mon through Fri work day hours and Friday is their busiest day. Here are the costs I incurred in the process...

Cost of the Recall Clearance letter $0, but I had to have several updates which required I returned to the states if I didn`t want to pay the CAN car dealership then request a refund.
Cost to export $0, but took over an hour due to the volume of exporters...mostly truckers loaded with multiple vehicles
Cost to import $204.75 payable to RIV which can be paid online or at the border
Cost to install day time running lights $80 after some searching...Crappy Tire wanted over $400 to do the same work!
Cost for safety and emissions testing ($39.99 and $89.99)
Cost to register and get tags in ON $125.00
Cost for US driver record for insurance purposes $7
Cost to insure the vehicle in ON even with highest driver safety rating $1741 (almost $1000 more than my US insurance plan)

Some of these costs also included taxes and some were tax exempt because it was on my goods to follow. I did drive my vehicle in Canada for several months before I imported it. And though I did not have any problems, I did have police officers do u turns when they saw my vehicle did not have front tags (when they saw my back tag was from the states they did not stop me).

 

[spprivate]

With all the hassles around importing your car to Canada,it is better to sell it off in US.Since you are not in hurry post your car for sale and you will have enough time to sell it for a descent price.

 

[Kess]

Couldn't you keep driving and making your payments without the bank even knowing that you now live in Canada? Once you have paid off the loan, then officially import it into Canada.

The issue is with the insurance and registration. Even with moving between provinces you only get so many months before you are expected to change your vehicle registration and insurance to the region you are living (I tried moving between BC and Alberta, thankfully returned to BC before I went through with the process). You would probably need a provincial or federal inspection to do that and I don't know how the US loan/lien factors into that.

I'm trying to convince my husband to sell his car before he moves. It's paid for but we have to determine if the cost of repairing it for the inspection will be worth it.

 

[iarblue]

And what i suggested like she said they were very tight for money.I suggested to pay it off and once she brings it here and has it transfered over,she can go to a finance company and finance it again.Just so she has money.And also i dint say they would come to get her across border,i said equifax in the states can post a bad report on you and they can see it here in Canada.
A lot of the states are on bored with Canada for these things even your licence,if you get a ticket in the states it wil show up on your licence here.But anyway she has ideas from everyone so she can look around to se what best suits her.

 

[AllisonVSC]

"I suggested to pay it off and once she brings it here and has it transfered over,she can go to a finance company and finance it again.Just so she has money." ~airblue

What a ridiculous suggestion. Why would anyone try to finance something they already own? That would just cost her more money.

 

[iarblue]

Because she said if she does pay it off and moves here it would strap them for money.So i was just suggesting to get money she could finance it here again,as she dont want to pay it off but might have to to get it here,please read her post and then the rest.......i dont understand people they read the last post placed and nothing else.and then blast off.
Her first post said if she was to pay it off with the move and all their money would be very tight,and i just suggested if they needed money they could refinance it here,not for the whole amount of course,just what they needed and it was just a suggestion not a quote that she must do.Good god this forum is certainly getting a little bit crazy lately.
P.S. so if you read the first post you will see where she asked if she could finance it in Canada once its here.............

 

[CBIS]

Wow is this how this forum runs? :'(Someone gives a suggestion and someone else tears them apart?
I have read the original post three times,just to make sure i wasnt reading it wrong too.I read the poster asked if she could get the car refinanced in Canada.So Iarblue was correct,looks like allison needs to take a breath,i think the process is getting to her.
Ill be sure not to ask too much or post anything,just sit on the sideline...

 

[kolibri]

I suggested to pay it off and once she brings it here and has it transfered over,she can go to a finance company and finance it again.Just so she has money.

This is what I actually ended up with. i paid off the car and got the personal loan for the same amount from credit union in Canada. Otherwise I would ended up living in my OWN car on the street

 

[jmni1]

The answer is Yes you must own your car witha clean title before Canada will let you import it. I had the same problem my car is an 2009 toyota and i owed 8,000 still on it. I called Toyota Financial and they said no they would not give me permission to bring it into Canada and that if I was to move to Canada with it I would have to pay it off it full. I found this interesting because I was 1 year ahead in payments. They even said that the maximum amount of time I could have the vehicle in canada was 30days- even if I was just visiting. Also in order to stay for 30days I would need to ask for their permission. So in the end I ahd to scramble to pay off my car so I could visit my husband for 6 months and have no problems.
I guess the big concern for u.s. companies is that if you would not make the payments it would make it difficult to repo the car if you are in Canada. If you can afford it I would suggest paying off the car, because the tax rate in canada is much more that the U.S. so I would assume that buying a car in Canada is much more expensive then buying one in the U.S.
I hope this information is helpful for you.

 

[heatherusa]

and our stories get eerier!
Prior to the birth of my twins, I worked at a US Bank as a Collateral processor. Creepy Heather! lol

It really is an eerie coincidence... I love it.

 

[heatherusa]

With all the hassles around importing your car to Canada,it is better to sell it off in US.Since you are not in hurry post your car for sale and you will have enough time to sell it for a descent price.

The only problem I see with that is that the same vehicle I own, same options etc, but one year older, is literally 2x as much money in Canada as I paid for it in the states. Selling and getting a new car (for me) is not an option as I could never afford what I have now. Bummer,