If you borrowed money from a bank and then went and bought a car with it, you own a car and you owe a bank. Those are two separate things, and only the first of them is for sale. A personal loan (persoonlijke lening) is an agreement between you and the lender about money. It is not an arrangement about a vehicle, and the vehicle does not have to be in the conversation at all.
That is the whole difference from a financed car, and it changes what you have to do before you sell. Our guide to selling a car that is on finance or lease walks through the harder version, where somebody else owns the car. This piece is about the easier one, with a short list of things to verify before you assume you are in it.
Why a financed car cannot move at the counter
A Dutch car changes hands on two items: the registration card (kentekencard) and both blocks of the registration code (tenaamstellingscode). Where a lease or finance company owns the vehicle, the RDW sends the code to that company. Its page on the registration document states it directly: you receive no registration code where your vehicle is the property of a lease or finance company, and the company receives it. The same page lists what the code is for, which is selling, trading in, suspending, scrapping or exporting the car.
So the owner of a financed car sits at the counter without the one thing the counter needs. A personal loan puts you nowhere near that problem. The money arrived in your account, you bought the car with it, the car went into your name, and the RDW posted the card and the code to you.
That gives you a first check that takes a minute. Open the folder. Both blocks of the registration code in your own name are a practical sign that the register is not treating a finance company as the owner of your car. Treat it as an indication only. The agreement you signed stays the authority on what you agreed.
The register says nothing about the loan, and that cuts both ways
The RDW’s own account of the data it registers is short on the subject. In the vehicle register it records vehicles and the people, companies and organisations that have those vehicles registered in their name, and it keeps track of whether a vehicle has been inspected on time and whether it is insured. Debts are absent from that list. Loans are absent from it. Nothing about your monthly instalment is visible to a buyer, to a dealer or to an RDW counter.
Owners read that as reassurance, and half of it is. Nobody stops the transfer because of your loan, and no flag appears against the plate. There is also nothing in the loan for a buyer to take over, because the agreement is yours and stays yours.
The other half is less comfortable. A silent register does not make your contract silent. The RDW is not checking your loan agreement for you, which is exactly why you should read it yourself before you commit to a date with a buyer.
What to look for in the agreement
Stay with what the document says and keep away from assumptions, including the ones on this page. Lenders write their own terms and yours may differ from the next person’s. Five questions are worth answering from the paperwork.
Does the agreement mention the car at all, by make or by number plate (kenteken). Does it tie any security to anything you own. How does early repayment work and what does the lender charge for it. What happens to the monthly payment if your Dutch bank account closes or you move abroad. And whom do you notify, at what address, if anything changes.
Where the paperwork has gone missing, ask the lender for it. The Dutch government’s page on the rules around consumer credit says the lender has to give you information well before the loan is concluded about the kind of loan, the amount and the conditions, so those conditions were written down and the lender has them. Ask in writing and keep the reply.
One thing holds regardless of what the terms say. Rijksoverheid puts it in a single line on its page about borrowing responsibly: money you borrow you always have to repay, with interest. Selling the car does not touch that. The instalments carry on in the ordinary way the day after the car has gone.
Selling it is an ordinary sale
Nothing special happens. You hand over the registration card and the registration code, the registration moves to the buyer, and you keep the proof of transfer (vrijwaringsbewijs). The RDW’s page on selling a vehicle sets out that order, and adds that a seller whose car has had an APK, the Dutch roadworthiness test, should give the buyer the report of the last inspection.
What you do with the money is a separate decision and it belongs to you. Paying the loan down with the proceeds is common and sensible. So is keeping the cash and letting the instalments run, if the early repayment terms make that the better arithmetic. The lender is the only party who can tell you which, and the answer is in the terms you asked for above.
Two jobs sit side by side if you are leaving the country. Getting the car out of your name is one, and keeping the loan payable from an account that still works is the other. They have separate deadlines and separate counterparties, and the one that quietly causes trouble is the direct debit on a Dutch account you closed on your way out.
Who has to be the one selling it
The registered owner takes part in the sale. That is the person the register names, whatever the loan says, and it is worth checking when a couple has one car and one borrower. A loan in your name with the car in your partner’s name means your partner sells the car. A joint loan does not create a joint vehicle. Where the car is in a company’s name, the sale goes through the company.
None of this gets harder because of the borrowing. It gets harder when the register and the household do not agree about who owns what, and that is a conversation to have before a collection date is agreed.
If you would like a figure for the car, ask us for an offer. It is free and nothing binds you until you accept, the offer has no expiry date, and you can take it away and sit on it while you work out what to do about the loan. At the handover the car is transferred out of your name at the RDW, you are paid before it is loaded, and the proof of transfer stays with you.
Frequently asked questions
May I sell a car I bought with a personal loan?
Yes. The loan is an agreement about money between you and the lender, and the car is registered to you, so the sale runs the ordinary way on the card and the complete code.
Does the RDW know about my loan?
No. The vehicle register records vehicles, who they are registered to, and whether the car has been inspected on time and is insured. Debts are not part of it.
Is the loan anything the buyer takes over?
No. It stays an agreement between you and your lender, and it has no bearing on the transfer. What a buyer does need from you is an accurate description of the car.
Should I pay the loan off with the sale money?
That depends on your lender’s early repayment terms, so ask for them in writing. The decision is yours either way, because the loan is not tied to the car being there.
What if I am not sure whether my car is financed or bought with a loan?
Look for the registration code in your own name, then read the agreement, then ask the lender. If the RDW sent the code to a company, you are looking at a finance or lease arrangement and the guide linked above covers that route.