Well I had written about my adventures of using the CT DMV site to guide me through registering a vehicle so when I went to register the second vehicle I had fewer problems with the DMV and some new ones with a bank.
I had paid off my motorcycle in 2000 however my old NY state title showed a lien, so when I went to DVM and showed the title with a lien from one defunct bank and a letter of loan satisfaction from yet another defunct bank the DVM said I would need a letter of merger stating all of these banks were one in the same to complete the registration.
Well, I first needed to find out who owned the second defunct bank. Subsequently, I googled my way to that answer then I called that bank and after pushing buttons and speaking a bunch of information I got to a person who looked for my information and could not find it.
So as a good agent they transferred me to the auto department to see if they had more information. However, after redoing all the answers to get to a person that person said they were not the auto department and then transferred me to a dead phone line.
Consequently, I went back to the web and searched the site for first defunct branch address that was on the title and luckily it was still a working branch of the new bank, then I found the automotive loan 800 number and called and got to a person who was able to send me the letter I needed.
But this time the web saved me from more transfers to nowhere and found who I had to deal with phone number.
I guess we’ll be seeing more of this, due to all the bank takeovers. So hold onto that paper work – you never know when you’ll need an address to link it all together.
1 response so far ↓
1 Neil Raden // Dec 3, 2008 at 1:01 pm
Gene,
That’s a crazy story. I have one too. When I moved to California from New York in ‘88, I had to transfer the title of a car because California law requires re-registering the car within 10 days. I called the bank (MidLantic, also now defunct) and asked to do that. They declined as it was a new car with a 3- or 4-year loan on it, and suggested I pay off the loan instead. I didn’t see an alternative, so I did and they sent me the New Jersey title with a stamp “Lien Released”
Fast forward 20 years and a collection agency just sent me a bill for almost $80,000 for the unpaid balance and interest for their client, a bank I never heard of.
So now I have to go back and try to retrieve a copy of the canceled cashier’s check (also drawn on a defunct bank – Security Pacific) or see if California still has the original NJ title with the lien removed stamp.
Anyway, how are you doing? We haven’t spoken in ages.
-NR
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