Verified answer

You are still responsible for this month's payment.

Contact the dealership first, and talk to the finance department. Ask him if the deal has been bought by a bank yet. If so, ask him which bank. Then call that bank to verify that the deal is indeed done. If the deal is completely done, then payoff from the dealer to your current loan should be there in the next few days. Contact your bank and let them know that, give them the name of the dealer, the finance manager and their phone number.

If the deal is NOT finalized yet, make your payment but stay in contact with the dealer to verify when it is. After it is finalized, you will need to again, contact your present lender to verify that payoff was sent from teh dealer. But here's the thing - since you will have made one more payment since signing those contracts, the dealer's payoff estimate will not be accurate. Confirm how much the total payoff was, and when it was received by the bank. Read your contract, and find hte line that shows 'estimated payoff to lender' under the trade section. The difference between actual payoff, and that estimate is to be refunded to you. Contrary to another post, it is NOT applied as down payment. In order to do that, you would have to sign another contract, and start the process over again. The dealer has to refund the excess.

Good luck

You are ultimately responsible for your car payments. I would just pay that month's bill and tell the dealer. They may put that towards your down payment since you would had it if you didn't pay it. They may also offset your first payment for 45-60 days. Any overpayment of the payoff would be mailed to you. Most dealers will payoff the previous loan and tack on the difference onto the new loan. That is so the dealers don't loose money.