Shipping a car still under loan to Sabah/Sarawak — bank release letter

Yes — a car still under a loan can be shipped to Sabah and Sarawak, but you need a bank release letter first, because the financing bank remains the registered owner until the loan is settled. Banks take 3-7 working days, so request it about two weeks ahead. Everything else follows the normal RORO process.

A question we get often: "My car still has a loan — can I ship it to Sabah/Sarawak?" The answer is yes. There's just one extra step versus a fully-paid car: a bank release letter. Sort that out early and the rest is the same as any normal shipment.

✅Can You Ship a Financed Car?

Yes. Thousands of vehicles move between the Peninsular and Borneo every month, and many are still under hire-purchase. The reason is simple: until the loan is settled, the bank is the registered owner. So to move the car across the sea, you need written consent from the bank — that's the bank release letter.

There are really only two situations, and they're easy to tell apart. If the loan is still running — hire-purchase or a straight vehicle loan — the financing bank remains the registered owner, so the release letter is mandatory. If the loan is settled and the registration is already in your name, you don't need the letter at all; the normal document set is enough. If you're unsure which side of that line you're on, check the registration (VOC) before you make any phone calls.

One thing people routinely conflate: a bank release letter is not the same as an authorisation letter. The authorisation letter is what you need when the person shipping the car isn't the registered owner — a brother sending his sister's car, say. A financed car can need one, the other, or both, depending on who physically hands the car over on pickup day. Both are listed in our document checklist.

🏦What Is a Bank Release Letter?

The release (or authorisation) letter is an official document from the financing bank stating they permit the vehicle to be relocated/shipped to Sabah or Sarawak. Without it, the port and we can't process the shipment because ownership is still under the bank's name.

Each bank has its own name and format for it (sometimes "temporary relocation consent" or similar), but the purpose is the same.

When the letter reaches you, don't just file it — read it against your booking first. The details the bank asked for when you applied (loan account number, plate number, model, destination) are the same details that flow into the Bill of Lading and the customs declaration at the other end. A mistyped plate number, or a destination that says Kuching when you're actually shipping to Kota Kinabalu, is far easier to have the bank correct now than when the car is already sitting in the yard.

📝How to Get the Bank Release Letter

1. 01

   Contact your bank's hire-purchase department

   Tell them you want to ship the vehicle to Sabah/Sarawak and request a release/relocation consent letter.

2. 02

   Prepare vehicle & destination details

   Loan account number, plate number, model, and destination (e.g. Kota Kinabalu / Kuching). Make sure the loan account isn't in arrears.

3. 03

   Wait for processing (3-7 working days)

   The bank processes and issues the letter. Some email it; others require collection at a branch.

4. 04

   Hand it to Rentaka

   Send a copy of the letter with your other documents at booking. We verify it and proceed with the shipment.

⏳Time & Cost

• ⏳ Time: 3-7 working days (varies by bank). This is the #1 avoidable delay — request early.
• 💰 Cost: some banks charge a small processing fee, others are free. Check with your bank.
• 📅 Tip: request the letter first, THEN lock the sailing date — so your shipping date aligns with the letter being ready.

📅Timing the Letter Against the Sailing

Almost everyone asks "how long does the letter take". The more useful question is the other way round: "if I want the car there by a particular week, when do I need to start?" Work backwards and it becomes obvious.

• 🚢 The shipment itself: 10–14 days from booking to arrival.
• 🏦 The bank release letter: 3-7 working days, and we suggest padding that to 2 weeks so a public holiday or a branch collection doesn't derail anything.
• 📋 Documents are collected at Step 7 of our process, the stage where the Bill of Lading is drafted — so the letter needs to be in hand before then, not on sailing day.

Add those together and you're looking at roughly a month between your first call to the bank and the car sitting in your driveway in Borneo. Which means: if you're aiming for the end of the month, you call the hire-purchase department at the start of it — not in the final week.

Order matters as much as the total. The vessel slot is reserved when you pay the deposit (Step 2 of the 13-step process), so don't lock a date before you know the letter is moving. Sailing schedules are fixed too — we can prioritise the yard side of things, but nobody can ask a vessel to leave earlier because a letter ran late.

⚠️What Actually Happens If the Letter Is Late

Short answer: your shipment doesn't die, it slides. We can hold until the letter is ready — in practice your car goes on the next sailing rather than the one you originally aimed at. For most people that's a handful of extra days, not a crisis.

What you want to avoid is paying the deposit first and only then discovering the bank won't issue. If a booking has to be cancelled, the deposit is refunded by stage: before the vessel is booked (Step 8) you get 80% back, after Step 8 it's 50%, and once the vehicle has been loaded (Step 9) it's non-refundable. That's why "letter first" isn't polite advice — it protects your money.

The usual reason a letter stalls isn't the bank at all, it's the account: banks normally issue it as long as your loan account isn't in arrears. If there are arrears, clear them before applying — an application submitted on an account in arrears typically just returns you to the starting line a week later. And if you genuinely need to move fast, say "urgent" at quotation stage so we can prioritise the yard steps (5-9) the moment your letter lands.

🚢Other Documents & the Shipping Process

Besides the bank release letter, the documents are the same as a normal shipment:

• 📋 Vehicle registration (VOC) — original or certified copy
• 🪪 Copy of the owner's IC
• 🛡️ Valid road tax & motor insurance
• ✍️ Rentaka booking form

See the full list in the document checklist. Once documents are complete, the process is the same: pickup/handover → inspection → RORO to the destination port → clearance & delivery. The whole thing is usually 10-14 days.

Worth knowing: ownership gets checked again at the far end. Even though this is a domestic shipment, customs clearance is still required because Sabah and Sarawak sit in separate customs zones, and our destination-side broker reviews the Bill of Lading, the ownership documents, and road tax and insurance before the vehicle is released (Step 12). That's exactly why small paperwork inconsistencies are better resolved while the car is still in the Peninsular.

🛡️Insurance & Road Tax Are Two Separate Things

This is the part financed-car owners most often get tangled in, because there are two completely different kinds of cover and both matter.

• 🚗 Your road tax and motor insurance must stay valid for the whole transit. The reason is practical: the car is driven around the port area and up and down the vessel ramp. If either one expires mid-shipment, renew before pickup.
• 🌊 Marine Insurance is what we arrange for every shipment, covering the warehouse-to-warehouse leg through loading, the voyage and discharge. The premium is calculated on your vehicle's Insured Value and is billed separately from the shipping rate — it isn't part of the transport price you're quoted.

On a financed car, condition documentation is worth more than usual, because you're looking after an asset the bank still has an interest in. The Step 6 inspection at our Klang yard records roughly 16-20 photos plus a detailed condition form, and the full report is emailed to you within 24 hours. Keep that email. At delivery, compare against those photos and report any damage within 24 hours — after that window the insurer assumes the damage happened post-delivery and the claim fails.

🚫Common Mistakes Worth Avoiding

• 1️⃣ Locking the sailing date first, requesting the letter second. Backwards. The letter drives the date, not the other way round.
• 2️⃣ Applying while the loan account is in arrears. Clear it first and save yourself a full round trip.
• 3️⃣ Assuming Rentaka can apply on your behalf. It's a personal account matter between you and your bank — but tell us and we'll brief you on exactly what to ask for.
• 4️⃣ Road tax expiring mid-transit. Check the expiry before you book, not after.
• 5️⃣ Leaving belongings in the car. Not allowed on RORO — personal items must come out before pickup and travel separately.

❓FAQ