What should you do right after paying off your car loan?

I JUST finished paying off my car loan after five years. What should I do next?

1. Make sure your registration is valid and updated, with no penalties.

Some banks require that all registration concerns are valid and updated, with no pending penalties before they release your documents.

2. 2. Prepare a letter requesting for the cancellation of your loan and chattel mortgage.

Second, prepare a letter requesting for the cancellation of your loan and chattel mortgage from your financing bank or agency, and the release of your original official receipt and certificate of registration (OR/CR) from the bank or financing agency. Submit this to the bank or financing agency, along with your copy of the original loan contract and chattel mortgage form, plus two valid government-issued IDs. The actual release of your OR/CR can take a few days, or sometimes a single afternoon.

3. Bring the certificate of registration to the Registry of Deeds.

The original CR will have an encumbered annotation on it. You will need to bring it to the Registry of Deeds (RD) branch where the loan was listed and your CR was encumbered, to have the encumbrance canceled or removed. The RD will then issue you a form of cancellation on the encumbrance of your CR.

4. Go to the LTO office.

Take the CR and the form issued by the RD to the Land Transportation Office office where your vehicle’s paperwork was originally registered, so you can be issued a new CR without the encumbrance.

Finally, your car is well and truly yours! (topgear.com.ph)