Texas Title Lenders Took 10,872 Cars in Three Months. The Fee That Gets You There Has No Cap.

If you’re about to sign over your car title for a quick $1,800, know the odds first. Texas title lenders repossessed 10,872 cars between April and June. That’s about 120 a day, every day, for the first half of the year.

The number comes from the Texas Office of Consumer Credit Commissioner, which makes title shops report every quarter. Its second-quarter report counts 174,350 active title loans and 6.24 repossessions for every 100 of them. The first quarter was worse: 10,903 cars, at 6.57 per 100.

For context, the regulator’s own December 2025 study says repossessions have historically averaged about 9,700 a quarter, roughly 4.2% of active loans. Fewer loans are outstanding now. More of them end with a tow truck.

The fee nobody capped

Here’s how a Texas title loan works. The shop you walk into usually isn’t the lender. It’s a “credit access business,” a broker that arranges the loan from a third party and charges you a fee for the favor.

The lender’s interest is limited to 10% or less. The broker’s fee isn’t limited at all. The OCCC puts it plainly: “Fees charged by broker are uncapped,” and the APR “can routinely exceed 400%.”

What does uncapped look like in practice? In the Dallas area last quarter, the average single-payment title loan was $1,873 at $18.97 per $100 for 30 days. That’s about $355 for one month. Our math puts it near a 231% annual rate before anyone refinances.

And plenty of people refinance. About half of Dallas and Houston single-payment title borrowers rolled their loan during the quarter. Each roll is another fee, and the $1,873 is still sitting there.

Translation: if each renewal only covers the fee, pay $355 three times and you’ve handed over $1,065 while owing exactly what you borrowed.

The installment version just spreads the pain out. In the Houston area, the average was $1,426 at $117.40 per $100 over about 163 days. That’s roughly $1,674 in fees to borrow $1,426.

The yearly receipt

The 2024 totals show where the money goes. Texas title borrowers paid $686 million in broker fees that year. The cash handed out on new title loans was $391 million.

That year, 11,051 single-payment title loans were paid off without a single refinance. Another 7,485 were refinanced more than ten times.

The shop’s bet is that you’ll be in the second group.

What to do instead

Check a credit union first. Federal credit unions can make payday alternative loans capped at 28%, and we laid out how those loans work and who qualifies. Run the payment through our loan calculator next to the title quote. The gap is the price of convenience.

Already holding a title loan? Get the full payoff amount in writing and put every spare dollar toward principal, not just the renewal fee. If you’ve fallen behind, read our guide to reinstating or redeeming a repossessed car before the sale date, because the OCCC says you can still owe a deficiency balance after the car is sold, plus repossession and court costs.

Compare personal loan options on our loans hub and the best loans page. A loan at 36% APR costs about $3 per $100 a month. The title shop wants $19 to rent you back your own car.

The detail

Figures come from the OCCC’s credit access business quarterly reports for the first and second quarters of 2026 and the second quarter of 2025 (11,190 repossessions, 6.09 per 100), plus the agency’s December 2025 consumer loan study, which supplies the 2024 fee and refinance totals. Regional fees for single-payment title loans ranged from $18.23 to $20.21 per $100 where the OCCC published them. The annual rate, monthly cost and fee totals are our math from those tables. The reports only cover licensed credit access businesses, so the agency warns the true volume of high-cost credit in Texas may be understated.

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