With rising interest rates pushing the cost of buying a car higher, concerns about affordability, consumer access to credit and softening new vehicle sales have both dealers and lenders exploring new ways to streamline the auto financing process to save time and money. Looking to mitigate these trends, Dealertrack has pinpointed the payoff and title release process as a key area where money may be slipping through the cracks.
According to recent findings from Dealertrack, lenders spend approximately $20 to $25 per title released on back of the title lifecycle labor costs such as, overnight postage, short-pay write-offs and over-pay refunds. This translates to almost $1 million in costs for a lender that releases 40,000 titles annually, resulting from outdated tools, manual procedures and slow workflows. To overcome these daunting costs, lenders and dealers need to work closely with their third-party technology providers to build deeper partnerships, digitize processes and better connect workflows to ensure greater accuracy and speed.
The time-intensive and manual process of obtaining a payoff quote, handwriting and mailing checks overnight and then waiting for delivery of title can often result in incorrect payoffs, delays in title receipt and high processing costs. With its unique Accelerated Title solution, Dealertrack is driving efficiency and creating cost savings by providing the exclusive ability to reduce the payoff and title release process from an industry standard 12 to 18+ days to as little as four to six days, effectively speeding up the funding “lifecycle” by as much as 70 percent.*
“There is a lot of value to be gained by improving vehicle payoff and title release process,” said Cheryl Miller, senior vice president and general manager for Dealertrack F&I and Registration and Titling Solutions. “Through Dealertrack Accelerated Title, we’re working to cut inefficiencies and deliver an integrated workflow between dealer and lender that increases transparency and consistency for a faster, streamlined title release process.”
Dealertrack offers lender solutions that are both unique, intuitive and advanced for lender partners to drive operational efficiencies while building upon and strengthening their dealer relationships. With more than 40 lenders on Accelerated Title, the solution gives dealers more control over their transactions, as the fully electronic process provides them with 24/7 title tracking and reporting for the insight they need when they need it.
*Based on average industry timeframe for vehicle title release and vehicle payoff process of 18+ days, as determined by Dealertrack data.
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