There are a LOT of complaints about US Bank buyout process (and many other banks in general) so I thought I share my recent “success” in the lease buyout process for a 1.5 yr old lease that resulted in almost a $3k savings on Sales Tax and overall almost $10k ‘profit’ on the sale.
US Bank leases are rejected by a lot of online dealerships so my only way was to buy it out myself. It was not without problems however; they also made it difficult by requiring the buyer to pay sales tax… And later, I found out that they do not pay to the CA DMV - they actually printed a check out for the CA DMV and sent it to me with a title… What a shameless way to hold onto $3k of my money for 1+ months. So here’s the steps I took, including the forms.
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Request a lease buyout. They will send you a letter with the amount + sales tax, and an address to mail the money to. Send a cashiers check overnight and SCAN a copy of all the docs for your records
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4 weeks later I received from US Bank a signed title + a check written out to the DMV. Immediately, without delay, bring this over to AAA to re-register and apply for a title. Important! Request the RUSH processing, and SCAN all docs as usual (for paper trail)
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While waiting for the new title to arrive, I went to various online dealerships to get offers. Carvana gave me a 30-day offer so it was very convenient. When the new title arrives, immediately bring the vehicle/title to the dealership **SCAN/Take photo of the title beforehand, and SCAN the bill of sale, etc.
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Download and fill out CDTFA-101-DMV from the California Dept of Tax. Mail this to them with supporting documentation (the scans). Wait for their reply. In my case, they asked me for a copy of the title which fortunately I had scanned.
I mailed the form in on Feb 24th and received notice of refund almost exactly two months later. See below for various docs from US Bank, the rediculous check they gave me (to turn into DMV), and the “victory” letter notifying me of the refund from the CA Dept of Tax.
