How to Get out of a Car Lease

There are many reasons you may want to get out of a car lease. Unfortunately, lease penalties often make it expenses to abrogate a lease early. There are strategies you can use, however, to help you get out of your lease contract before it has expired without suffering large financial repercussions.

Difficulty:

Moderately Challenging

Instructions

Transfer Your Lease

1. Look through your lease contract or contact your leasing company to see if "assumptions" are allowed. Assumptions allow another party to take over your old lease under certain conditions for a fee.

2. Calculate what the mileage should be at this point in the lease. If your mileage is more than allowed, it will be much harder to get a buyer to assume your lease.

3. Place an add to find a taker for your lease. There are several Internet sites, including Lease Trader, that allow you to post the specifics of your car and your lease terms for a fee (see Resources below).

4. Negotiate with a potential buyer for who will pay the assumption/transfer fees and how the car will be delivered.

5. Contact the leasing company to complete the transfer process and turn over the keys to the new buyer.

Sell the Car

1. Contact the leasing company to get a current buyout figure for your car. This figure represents how much it would cost to purchase your car outright.

2. Look up the Blue Book value of your car and compare it to your buyout price. You can find this information from Kelley Blue Book online (see Resources below).

3. Place ads in the newspaper, online classifieds and/or with online car listing services to find a buyer if the book value is close enough to the buyout price. You may have to eat a few thousand dollars, but this is a much cheaper option than walking way from a lease.

4. Pay off the lease with the money from the sale of the car.

Tips & Warnings

• Choose lease terms that are shorter if you get tired of the cars you drive quickly. 24-month leases have slightly more expensive monthly payments, but they will allow you to find a new car sooner.

• Finding someone to take over your lease is easiest if you put down a large down payment on your lease that reduced the monthly payments significantly. That makes taking over your lease more attractive to potential buyers.

• Never lease a car with the expectation of getting out of the lease early. Any savings you might see over buying the car will be wiped out by terminating your lease early. Make sure you can afford the lease for the entire term.

Resources

• Used car book values at Kelley Blue Book
• Lease listing services at Lease Trader