Missouri Motor Vehicle Dealer Bonds

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Who Is Required To Purchase an Auto Dealer Bond In Missouri?

All license classifications are required to purchase an auto dealer license bond.

• New vehicle (franchise) dealer
• User vehicle dealer
• Powersport dealer
• Wholesale dealer
• Trailer dealer
• Boat dealer

There are additional bonding requirements for speciality licenses.

• Special Event Auction License
• Selling Vehicles Without a Title
• Lease Rental Licenses
• Title Servicing Business

Each auto dealer bond has a required bond amount. This bond amount is the maximum financial protection extended to a customer or the Missouri Department of Revenue if they fall victim to purposeful, fraudulent actions by a dealership.

The bond amounts are different depending on the specific license or licenses you're getting.

What Are the Missouri Auto Dealer Bond Amounts?

Standard Vehicle Dealer License

All standard dealer licenses have a set bond amount of $50,000.

Special Event Auction License

Special event auction licenses have a bond amount of $100,000.

This is a unique license as you may only need for a temporary period of time. You'll learn about renewing your bond below.

Selling a Vehicle Without a Title

This is not really a license. All dealers can elect to sell vehicles without a title and they must register to do so.

If you choose to do this, you must purchase a bond in the amount of $100,000.

Lease Rental Licenses

If you're operating as a leasing company, you need to purchase a bond with an amount of $100,000.

Title Servicing Business

While not technically a dealer, a title servicing business must purchase a surety bond in the amount of $25,000.

A title servicing business is responsible for obtaining a certificate of ownership for a vehicle in return for a fee.

You'll learn how much it costs to purchase the specific bond you need, but it's a good idea to understand why you're required to purchase this bond.

Why is a Missouri Motor Vehicle Dealer Bond Required?

The Department of Revenue and Motor Vehicle Bureau set the licensing requirements as a way to ensure only qualified individuals and businesses operate as dealers in the state.

These requirements include items such as:

• Having your financials inspected
• Making sure your dealership lot is set up correctly
• Paying an assortment of state mandated fees
• Passing a criminal background check

The licensing process is used to siphon off only the highest quality applicants who meet the necessary requirements.

Yet despite the licensing process, every year there will be a few dealerships that purposefully choose to harm their customers financially to make more money.

Examples of these actions include:

• Improperly transferring a title
• Selling vehicles with no title
• Misrepresenting vehicle information like mileage, manufacture year, or condition
• Stealing customer deposits
• Failing to pay the correct sales taxes to the Department of Revenue

If a customer (or the Department of Revenue in the case of failure to pay taxes) is harmed by these actions or similar, the customer can make a claim against the bond.

Any one claim or the sum of multiple claims can only be as high as the bond amount.

How Much Does a Missouri Auto Dealer Bond Cost?

Missouri auto dealer bonds are what's called a credit driven bond.

This means the price you'll pay will be unique based primarily on three factors:

• Personal credit or owner and owners
• Dealer industry and experience
• Prior bond claims if an owner has been licensed in the past

A surety is the insurance company that uses these factors to quote a rate.

This rate multiplied by your bond amount is the price you pay.

And the rates quoted by different sureties can vary by two to three percentage points.

As you can see from the bond amounts, you can easily save hundreds, likely thousands of dollars when you purchase your bond.

How to Save Hundreds Even Thousands of Dollars When Purchasing Your Bond

At Surety Bonds Direct, we are a surety agency. We work with the highest A-rated sureties specializing in vehicle dealer bonds.

• We will price shop for you when you request a price quote
• We'll collect all the different rates from these sureties
• And deliver to you the lowest possible rate and price

It's our job to make purchasing your surety bond easy.

Plus there's no obligation to purchase through us when you get your price.

We just want the opportunity to earn your business and make your life easier.

Missouri Auto Dealer Bond Price Examples

Here's example pricing so you can get an idea of how the pricing changes when the rate goes up.

We'll use a $50,000 bond amount for the example. But just imagine how large the price differences are with the $100,000 bond amounts.

This is one payment for the entire bond term of 12 months.

It's easy to see how you can save enough money to easily cover all or most of the application fees and dealer plate fees.

Getting your exact pricing within 24 hours costs you nothing. Plus you're under no obligation to purchase the bond.

Click here and complete our quote form. It's fast to fill out and if you prefer to speak with a person, call a bond specialist at 1-800-608-9950.

How Long Does The Missouri Auto Dealer Bond Last?

When you purchase your bond, you'll choose an activation date. This is called the effective date.

The bond has a term of 12 months at which time you'll have to pay - one time - for another term.

Renewing your bond before its expiration is easy. As our customer, you're assigned your own bond specialist.

Your bond specialist will contact you 30 to 45 days in advance with pricing ready to go so the renewal process is seamless.

Once you pay the renewal premium, you don't have to do anything else. Your bond is active and you can continue selling vehicles.

Motor Vehicle Dealer Bonds And Getting Your Missouri Business License/Registration

Missouri has a helpful resources page on their website with links to all the forms and instruction handbooks you'll need. Click here to view this resources page.

At a high level, the licensing steps are:

• Decide on your license classifications or classification
• Determine your ownership details and identities
• Determine if you'll need to purchase a surety bond
• Purchase your surety bond
• Fulfill all of the dealership and property requirements
• Complete your application

Dealer license fees, salespersons fees, and insurance is not required prior to approval for your application.

Once your application is approved you'll have to fulfill these requirements. This is where you'll be notified of your bond amount if you're required so you can double check against your calculations.