How do Extended Warranty Refunds Work

by Lloyd
(Georgia)

Question: How do extended warranty refunds work? I purchased a car from another dealership and traded in my car that I financed through Santander Finance/Drive Financial with a warranty I bought through Carmax.

The current dealership is paying the vehicle off, I already canceled the warranty at CarMax - in Roswell, GA - and wanted to know what the warranty refund process will be for me to receive my refund?


Answer: Hi Lloyd,

If the warranty was financed with the vehicle, then any refund would be owed to the lender. It does however take warranty companies a notoriously long time to refund money (4-6 weeks).

If the payoff is made on your trade in vehicle and a warranty refund is sent after your account has a zero balance, then that money would be sent to you from the lender. This is because the lender got their money and this is legally yours, because your debt with them has been satisfied.

If the dealership that you traded your vehicle into had already accounted for your warranty refund and made the payoff minus that amount, then the lender would keep the refund when it got to them, because it is now payment for money that they original lent.

Another scenario would be one in which the extended warranty refunds get to the lender before the payoff. If this happens, then the payoff check would be too high and you would receive money back from the payoff being too high.

Hope all that makes sense...

Justin