Checklist Before Your Junk Car Pickup

Once you've accepted an offer and scheduled a pickup time, there are a handful of small things worth taking care of beforehand. None of them take long, but skipping one can turn an easy pickup into an unnecessary hassle. Here's what to run through before the tow truck shows up.

Clear out the car

• Check the glovebox, center console, door pockets, trunk, and under the seats for anything personal — registration papers, sunglasses, chargers, spare change, tools, anything you'd want back.
• Look in less obvious spots too: seat-back pockets, the trunk's spare tire well, and any aftermarket storage compartments.
• Once the car is picked up, it's gone — there's no coming back for something you forgot.

Deal with your EZ-Pass transponder

• If you have an EZ-Pass toll transponder mounted on the windshield, remove it before pickup. It's tied to your account, not the car, and leaving it in place risks tolls being charged to you for trips you didn't take.
• Follow EZ-Pass's own process for deactivating or returning the transponder once it's out of the car — their program has its own requirements for closing this out properly, so check with EZ-Pass directly rather than assuming removing it from the windshield is the whole story.

Handle your plates correctly

• Remove your license plates from the car before pickup. In New York, plates are registered to you, not the vehicle, and they don't transfer with a sale.
• Plates need to be off the car before it's picked up or leaves your possession — don't let a buyer take the car with the plates still attached, even temporarily.
• After removal, plan to surrender the plates to the DMV. For the full picture on that process and the FS-6 receipt you'll get in return, see the plate surrender guide.

Keep your insurance active until plates are surrendered

• Don't cancel your insurance on the vehicle right after pickup. New York requires plates to be surrendered to the DMV *before* insurance is cancelled — doing it in the wrong order can create complications with your registration record.
• Wait until you've surrendered the plates and have your FS-6 receipt in hand before you cancel or adjust the policy.

Have your paperwork ready

• Locate the vehicle's title ahead of time so you're not searching for it while the tow truck waits.
• Sign the title over in the seller section only at pickup, in front of the buyer — don't pre-sign it and leave it lying around beforehand.
• Have a valid photo ID ready, since most buyers will want to confirm your identity matches the name on the title.

Take a few photos for your own records

• Before the car is loaded up, snap a few photos of it — the exterior, the odometer, and anything notable about its condition.
• These aren't required by anyone, but they're useful to have on hand as your own record of the car's condition at the time of sale, in case any question ever comes up later.

The morning of pickup

Running through this list takes maybe ten minutes, and it heads off nearly every common pickup-day headache: a forgotten personal item, a transponder still active on your account, plates that should've come off, insurance cancelled too early, or a title you can't find when the driver's standing in your driveway.

Set aside a few minutes before your scheduled window to walk through each section above, rather than trying to remember everything on the spot once the tow truck is already pulling up. Handle these ahead of time and pickup itself is quick — the car gets loaded, the title gets signed, and you're done.