Tred

Tred

 3.8/5 (81 reviews)

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Overall Rating3.8 out of 5
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About Tred

Tred.com is a website dedicated to helping both buyers and sellers save money when buying or selling a car online. The company cuts out the middleman by acting as a broker but without charging the usual high broker fees. Tred accepts private dealers only and helps with transactions and logistical issues like taxes and title transfers. It also inspect cars to make sure they’re fit for sale.

Pros & Cons

Pros

  • Personal sellers
  • Minimal broker fee
  • Help with paperwork and payment

Cons

  • Limited selling areas
  • App doesn’t have all features

Bottom Line

Tred is an online marketplace of person-to-person vehicle sales. It promises low fees, provides access to financing and helps with the logistical processes of buying and selling cars.

Top Tred Reviews

Verified

I have sold multiple cars to private parties in past 15 years, this is the best and easiest of all. Car selling/buying always has that ill feeling of getting scammed or low balled...

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Verified

The process of selling a car via private party can be cumbersome. ... Tred solves this problem. ... I sold a car to an out of state buyer and am really happy with how this worked ...

Read full review

What is Tred?

Tred is an online car buying site that specializes in selling low-cost vehicles from private sellers. You can both buy and sell cars from Tred.

In some cases, Tred ships vehicles to the buyer. The company gives buyers access to extended warranties, gap insurance and financing and provides sellers with its Monthly Vehicle Value Report. Tred also promises to charge sellers a minimal broker fee.

The company offers a mobile app for both buyers and sellers and also provides vehicle inspections.

How does Tred work?

Buying a car from Tred is simple because the site does more than simply sell cars; it also helps with logistics and paperwork, including registration, title transfers and taxes. Tred bases its success on cutting out the middleman, acting as the broker without charging a typical broker’s fee. This helps both the buyer and the seller save money on the exchange.

Tred also helps guide payment between the buyer and seller. Dealers cannot sell vehicles through Tred — only private sellers are accepted.

Buying a car on Tred

When buying a car on Tred, you can use several filters to narrow down your search. From the search results, you can look at pictures, cost and mileage and estimate the monthly payment. Tred ensures the legitimacy of both buyers and sellers by taking several important steps:

  • Each vehicle undergoes an accident history and mechanical check to see if it’s appropriate for sale.
  • Buyers and sellers must download the Tred mobile app, snap a photo of their driver’s license and take a photo of themselves for identification purposes.

Tred also facilitates payment, which is a rare feature among online car buying sites. One downside of Tred is that it only allows for sellers in a few select areas, including:

  • Seattle
  • Los Angeles
  • San Diego
  • San Antonio
  • Austin, Texas
  • Portland, Oregon
  • San Francisco
  • Dallas
  • Houston
  • Tampa, Florida
  • Miami
  • Jacksonville, Florida
  • Orlando, Florida

However, buyers can buy from anywhere in the United States, and shipping is available.

Selling a car on Tred

You can sell your car through the Tred website; you set the selling price and can get help with loan repayments. Tred can provide extended warranties, gap insurance and buyer financing. Tred’s Monthly Vehicle Value Report helps you keep track of your car’s worth and any subsequent fluctuations.

Tred performs an inspection for every vehicle. This added assurance goes a long way in demonstrating to potential buyers that the vehicle is in good condition and ready to sell. Tred claims that its business model, which doesn’t require payment to salespeople, means sellers can keep a larger portion of the money in the sale.

Tred fees

Tred has fees for both buying and selling vehicles through the website. Seller fees include:

  • Upfront publishing fee: This is a monthly fee that covers the cost of registration and lien checks, as well as identity verification of potential buyers. The fee is $9 monthly for listings under $10,000 and $19 monthly for cars higher in price.
  • Selling fee: This fee is paid at the time of sale. It will either be $99 or 0.99% of your selling price — whichever is greater.
  • Listing upgrades: Sellers are able to upgrade from a basic to a premium listing. This lets sellers add 30 more photos and provides a $20 car wash coupon. The cost to upgrade your listing is $19.
  • Restocking fee: If you choose to deactivate your listing despite connecting with a potential buyer, there is a restocking fee of $99. This helps to cover the costs of marketing your vehicle and is not paid until deactivation.

Buyers are only subject to one Tred fee: a documentation fee. The cost of this fee varies by state. It helps Tred cover the cost of insuring your transaction, title and registration, temporary permits and more. This means buyers don’t pay high fees to buy through Tred.

Tred financing

With the company’s financing plans, Tred promises market-leading rates, with interest rates as low as 3.34%. There’s also an option for every credit score.

Vehicle listings include estimated monthly payments. These estimates are based on a 72-month term and $0 down. To get a better idea of your interest rates, terms and down payment amounts, request an estimate.

Tred FAQ

Does Tred ship its vehicles?

Tred does work with partners to offer shipping if needed. This service comes at an additional fee.

How does Tred make money?

Tred makes money through fees paid by both sellers and buyers. These fees include:

  • Publishing fees
  • Listing upgrades
  • Selling fees
  • Restocking fees
  • Documentation fees
How does Tred market your car?

Tred markets your car by listing it on more than 20 high-profile websites, including:

  • Allstate
  • CarsForSale
  • Kelley Blue Book
  • Facebook Marketplace
  • AutoTrader
Do I qualify to sell a car on Tred?

Tred has a number of eligibility requirements and rules for selling a car in its terms of use. Some of these rules include:

  • You must complete a vehicle safety assessment.
  • The vehicle in question must have a clean title.
  • If your vehicle requires inspection, you must take it to a certified mechanic promptly.
Does Tred have an app?

Tred does have an app. The Tred app is available for both Android and iPhone devices.

Is Tred legit?

If you’re looking to buy or sell a car, Tred is a legitimate option to consider. The company promises sellers will make 30% more than they would with a broker. Buyers, on the other hand, will pay 30% less than dealer prices for their purchase. It also promises much lower fees for sellers.

Tred takes the stress out of selling a vehicle by handling all the small, mundane tasks such as DMV visits, paperwork, marketing, buyer vetting and other organizational needs throughout the selling process. All sellers have to do is list their vehicle and coordinate test drives.

Tred Reviews

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Page 1 Reviews 0 - 10
Verified Reviewer
Original review: Dec. 30, 2022

TRED is an unorganized business that puts consumers at risk. BEWARE of this company whether you are buying or selling a vehicle. I listed my vehicle on TRED, which was not great as it didn’t list car details correctly on many websites (one of the main reasons I was using TRED). But the main complaint is that TRED reneged on a closed transaction putting me in harm's way (and they didn’t care at all). After receiving confirmation of sale via an email with a bill of sale, TRED informed me to transfer possession of vehicle to buyer and to remove insurance from the the vehicle... But it was too good to be true; hours later a TRED representative called and informed me that they were unable to do the transaction and that they will not release my funds and had to cancel the transaction!

It gets even worse… I had already transferred possession of the vehicle to the buyer (who lived hours away) and removed insurance from my vehicle (per TRED’s guidance). TRED left me high and dry. They didn’t call me back for an entire day. When I spoke with a manager, he gave me the email address “legal (at) TRED.c..,” which I NEVER received an email back from. They removed my car from their website and that's it!

This is horrible company - BUYER and SELLER BEWARE. They have no internal systems or checks and balances to check on what types of sales they can/cannot do. They don't care about customers; in fact a representative said that Mr. Feek, the CEO of this ~ten person company wouldn’t have the time to hear my concerns. They have misleading advertisement that states something to the effect that you never have to step a foot into a dealership, which is not true. I received my car back from the potential buyer with hundreds more miles on it then when I had tried to sell it. I consider myself lucky considering the car wasn’t damaged, despite having hundreds more miles on it.

4 people found this review helpful
Verified Reviewer
Original review: May 21, 2022

I was willing to risk because Tred.com offers a warranty with their used vehicles. After the purchase, I got a complete list of what was wrong with the car. The seller then added that there was a tick coming from the engine. It is an older vehicle, so I was willing to take the risk. When the vehicle transport company arrived, the car would not turn on at all. He spent an hour trying to jump it, and it would start. I got a call explaining that the seller was laughing and uncooperative. I wanted to cancel it, but the transport company said I could not cancel once they were on site. Tred.com called me to say that all sales are final and the issues will not be covered under the warranty. So Thousands of dollars just went out the window like that.

18 people found this review helpful

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    Verified Reviewer
    Original review: Feb. 10, 2022

    They almost cost a buyer $110,000.. A Doctor in Texas was buying my Ford Raptor from me, and YES trucks are that expense right now.. We had a deal, he headed to his bank (Wells Fargo), and since $110K is a lot of cash, his banker called Tred customer support to get confirmation of wiring instructions (every smart person does this), and after waiting 20 mins on the phone, the TRED support gave the wrong number, and the banker at Wells confirmed it was going to different account the Tred, and Tred banks at Wells Fargo.. Buyer was so SCARED that he almost lost $110K (would of if his banker had not called) he decided not buy the truck.. So I lost, buyer lost, and TRED is making the seller experience EVER more risky than selling a car just by yourself..

    22 people found this review helpful
    Verified Reviewer
    Original review: Feb. 2, 2022

    Every time you tried to put in info on your vehicle, the stupid chat window would pop up in the way. It took me 20 min of chatting to get beyond the license plate form. Then after uploading my personal info, including driver's license copies, title pics front and back, and current smog cert, they wanted a photo of me to verify it was me, but would not let one choose it out of their gallery. Finally, just backed out and deleted the ad, and told them NO!! Told them I would give a bad Yelp review! So I did.

    13 people found this review helpful
    Verified Reviewer
    Original review: Sept. 29, 2021

    TRED is generally great, with one exception. If you sell a car, your payment (balance due after paying off loan) is not scheduled until SEVEN DAYS after the buyer confirms possession and all paperwork is completed. But TRED will send you the payment the next day if you pay them an additional fee. In my case, this fee was around $400. This fee doesn’t reflect the cost of a wire transfer for TRED. Unless you pay the fee, TRED will not even initiate an ACH payment for seven days, and the processing time could add even more time. Of course, TRED does not include this information prominently in its ads for sellers, and only mentions it after you already post your car. I recommend that you consider selling your car on other platforms that will pay you faster without charging an unnecessary fee.

    36 people found this review helpful
    Verified Reviewer
    Original review: Sept. 18, 2021

    Sold a car on Autotrader, and used their Tred app to close the deal. It was supposed to be easy, but wasn't. The seller and buyer see different status information in their respective Tred apps almost constantly. The process isn't clearly spelled out because it's oversimplified in their advertising. There are "now what do I do?" questions almost continuously throughout.

    There's supposed to be checklists, but they don't automatically pop up on the app. It isn't intuitive, doesn't provide timely updates, and it constantly asked for more and more info from me, the seller, as the process moved along. Should be one easy place to upload everything all at once, but that's not the case. We had to make several phone calls to finish the deal, which took over an hour. Also Tred didn't verify the buyer's payment to me, the seller, until next day - it's supposed to be almost immediate. The buyer thought it was done, but I only got payment verification after making calls to their customer service. I wasn't impressed. They charge a 1% selling fee, and then held my money for a week after the buyer drove away before paying me. I do not recommend using Tred.

    32 people found this review helpful
    Verified Reviewer
    Original review: Aug. 29, 2021

    We tried to purchase car and had to pull out of the sale today because the private seller that's really a dealer doesn't have the title. TRED and owner both blame one another and we have not received our funds back and our bank released them to TRED and we never received this car. Our bank said we will have to start making payments and we have no car. And on the same day they lower the price on a car that right now belongs to us. They ought to be same.

    24 people found this review helpful
    Verified Reviewer
    Original review: July 19, 2021

    Where are the 5 star reviews coming from???? Tred can't follow-through on anything and they gave us misinformation multiple times. Not going to sell any other vehicles with them! Although we sold our vehicle on Tred, it was such a pain afterwards. We were told that they do all the paperwork and take care of DMV transfer, etc. Well, nope. We asked them where we send the title to and they told us "DO NOT SEND US THE ACTUAL TITLE, WE JUST NEED A COPY",...we thought it was strange to not want the actual title, but we did what they asked and sent them a copy of the title. Then 2 months after the sale, in a huff, they wanted the actual title, stating that they originally gave us the wrong information,...so we sent it to them.

    Then, about a month after that (so 3 months after then sale), the DMV sent us a letter "YOUR VEHICLE WILL BE SUSPENDED",...what???, we didn't even own it anymore! When we called Tred they said they don't take care of that and it should have been on our checklist from them. When they looked into it, they realized they didn't put it on our checklist. Then after speaking to DMV they said that Tred can do that paperwork, they just didn't want to. Honestly, we could have sold it ourselves quicker and we wouldn't have to deal with Tred giving us incorrect information.

    27 people found this review helpful
    Verified Reviewer
    Original review: July 2, 2021

    I saw a Tesla Model X 100D advertised on TRED. After a back and forth between TRED and the owner I completed the sale. The vehicle was then shipped to me, and imagine my surprise when the vehicle that arrived was not a high-end 100D but rather the least expensive 75D. I verified the smaller battery pack with Tesla, and TRED is telling me that they use NMVTIS to verify VIN including build and insist it is listed as 100D. It only charges ~70kw, and Tesla insists it is 75kw so it feels like I got scammed. I don't know that it was an intentional bait and switch but what I received was not what I thought I was buying.

    30 people found this review helpful
    Verified Reviewer
    Original review: June 10, 2021

    I purchased an Audi S4 Avant from 2007, owner lied and didn’t turn over full review, car needed 9.5k in repairs after buying it for 10k. I contacted the mechanic and he sent me the paper he had on file. I sent it to TRED. Tred said that there was no proof the owner lied. Tred still hasn’t sent me my tags either. 4th set of TEMP tags, constantly hung up on while trying to call them. GARBAGE COMPANY! I’m sitting on hold right now actually. It's so frustrating. I lost so much money on a broken car, I don't have a problem repairing a car, but I was lied to and continue to be treated like I’m not a paying customer. Spend your time and money elsewhere please.

    30 people found this review helpful
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    Tred Company Information

    Company Name:
    Tred
    Website:
    www.tred.com