Just get a loan to pay off then pay off your loan immediately. You may incur some interest charge, but the other option will send you to the butcher. You will not be charged for the purchase option fee via financial institution option. At least you have the financial institution option, some states only have dealer-butchered option. Lol
Or Nissan could just operate like a normal brand that doesnât make its customers jump through hoops.
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Call the Attorney General or Consumer Affairs office in your state. They can put Nissanâs balls in a vice if they want to.
You have a contractual right to purchase the car from NMAC. They cannot dictate how you pay for it.
Nissan writes to me that they cannot do that. Can you point me where to look for that right?
That sounds like the best way to do.
What is weird: I donât even know exactly how much my bank needs to pay them - as Nissan states excluding taxes. How to get the EXACT amount INCLUDING taxes then?
Also, Nissan wants my financial institution to send Nissan the money by mail via check (!!!). WTF?
You have to understand (which appears you donât)
- NMAC doesnât have the staff to handle payouts
- NMAC is going to put many obstacles to FORCE you to use a Dealer
- Dealers processing a lease buyout can take time (hours even), that time the dealer/employee is making no money off this sale, so they are baking in junk fees to make money. If you donât like the fees, you donât have to go to that dealer, and they donât lose money either way.
- Some states (it appears WA is one of them) force NMAC to allow a non dealer buyout.
- NMAC still doesnât have the staff, so they force you to get a loan from a bank and have the bank send them the check (Note : You canât send them a check it appears even if you have money), this slows down the buyouts and buys NMAC time to process previous lease purchases.
So basically NMAC doesnât have the staff (Covid or Cheap, no idea) and needs to divert the flood of buyouts.
Thank you for all these useful explanations, forbs.
Getting a loan, even if it is only for a few days, will impact my credit score, I believe. Not sure how bad is that.
Question: If I get a loan from my bank for that lease closure & car purchase from Nissan, what about the tax?
Nissan, in itâs financial institution letter, only lists the price excluding tax.
When you get the new title, they ask you for the tax
Hmm, I donât understand. Who is getting s title and asking for tax? My loan bank?
It wonât be much of a ding. 5-10 points for a couple of months.
As for sales tax - most likely (if itâs similar to my state) - Nissan should send you title and you go with it to DMV to register at which point DMV will ask for taxes.
The funny part in all of this - payoff letters used to include sales taxes to confuse consumers because it was always higher than dealer payoff but it would never show as separate number.
Leveraging useful financial products at favorable terms is what your credit is for. 
The actual impact is going to depend a lot on what the rest of your profile looks like, but with a clean, seasoned credit file you may not even notice.
I had a new auto loan report last month.
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The pay off amount from your 2 options should be different. Financial institution option has tax
Not sure if the 800lb animal in the room has been addressed: why are you buying a used Nissan? They seem to be turning around with the 2021 and newer models but for a long time Nissans were cheap junk that were only good for cheap leases. They wonât hold up. They wonât hold their value. Why on earth would you purchase a 2018 or 2019 Nissan product?
Itâs in your lease contract. You have a right to purchase the car at the end of the lease thatâs written into the lease.
I would call and request payoff letter.
Not sure about Nissan specific, but hereâs the info for Infiniti from payoff letter.
I have requested a payoff letter via my Nissan Finance portal - and they have two (dealer-assisted or financial institution).
They amount - always excl. taxes - they list there is the same for both.
My dealer likes to have that amount +$75 Nissan fee + $300 buy fee + taxes 
Not sure about $75 Nissan fee, but â$300 buy fee + taxesâ is irrespective of dealer assisted buy or direct payment to NISC. If your dealer is not charging anything else, then it might be smooth path as they can include taxes in final amount rather than you visiting DMV later if paying directly to NISC.
The dealer is going to perform Registration for you, so they will collect the taxes.
If you buy out (indirectly via bank) when you go to the DMV to register the car in your name, they will ask you for the taxes on the purchase price. Either way the government gets their tax money.
You can buy or sell leased Hyundai without the dealer. Not sure why it is on Your list.
I was talking in general about degrees of shadiness across various brandsâ dealer networks. 
Two of my favorite Toyota experiences were when a sales guy told us that Toyota.com was wrong and they donât actually manufacture the color combo we configured on the site (guess what, they didnât have any like that in stock), and at another Toyota location a sales manager shoved an âinvoiceâ under our nose and then pretended not to know what âTDAâ stood for when I asked (itâs an advertising fee; "Toyota Dealer Advertising, or something like that).
I hadnât even asked to see the invoice, because I know thatâs not a valid reference point anyway.