Comerica Auto Loan CARFAX Policy After the Fifth Third Merger (2026)

Comerica won't give you a free CARFAX or AutoCheck for a used-car loan, and as of October 2026 you can't apply for a Comerica auto loan to apply for: Fifth Third closed its acquisition of Comerica on February 1, 2026, and moved Comerica's customers and branches onto Fifth Third's systems and brand on September 8. Comerica.com now forwards to 53.com. So the real questions are what Fifth Third does on car loans, and who pulls the history report. The short answer is that Fifth Third mostly lends through dealers, and the report is on you or the dealer.

I checked this on Saturday afternoon, October 17, 2026. When I fetched comerica.com from our box with curl, it redirected straight to Fifth Third's home page. Fifth Third's Welcome Center for former Comerica customers says plainly that "Comerica is now part of Fifth Third," and the investor release from September 8 says roughly 600,000 customer accounts and 293 banking centers in Arizona, California, Florida, Michigan and Texas were converted over Labor Day weekend.

What happened to Comerica loans

Existing loans came along. Fifth Third's Comerica Welcome Center says deposit accounts and other loans have transitioned to Fifth Third accounts, and that a Comerica loan still in process would continue as normal, with the bank contacting the customer if anything needed to change. Mortgages moved on September 1, 2026, with new account numbers but the same terms, rate and payment. The FAQ doesn't single out auto loans, so if you had a Comerica car loan, read the transition letter you got in the mail and call 800-972-3030 if the payment address looks wrong.

Watch for scams here. That same page warns that fraudsters target customers during bank transitions and that the bank won't ask for your password or PIN by phone, text or email. Honestly, a "Comerica loan department" text asking you to "verify" a payoff this fall is a red flag, not a service call.

Comerica did make consumer car loans in the past. Its investor slides to the SEC around 2008-2010 describe a small, self-originated consumer book whose "other" category included automobile, watercraft, student and RV loans. The same slides show a much bigger dealer lending business, mostly floor plan loans that finance a dealership's inventory, which tells you where Comerica's car money really went.

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Fifth Third's auto lending, and where CARFAX fits

Fifth Third's Auto Loans and Financing page tells buyers who found a car at a dealership to ask whether the dealer participates in its lending program. The other option it describes is refinancing, with a 0.25% rate discount for moving a non-Fifth Third loan and another 0.25% off for automatic payments from a Fifth Third checking account. The page shows no rate table, no private-party purchase loan, and nothing about CARFAX, AutoCheck or any history report requirement. One warning from our testing: that page sometimes serves an error screen to scripts while loading fine in a normal browser, so try again before deciding it's gone.

We covered the Fifth Third side in detail in our Fifth Third auto loan CARFAX policy post. The pattern is similar at BMO, another Midwest bank whose car-loan story changed over the last few years, and at KeyBank. Banks care about the car as collateral and its value. They don't promise the buyer anything about its history.

What to do before you sign

If the dealer hands you a free report, read the date, the VIN and the brand section before you trust it. Our post on whether a dealership's free AutoCheck is enough explains what those reports can miss and when to pull your own. A printout run months ago won't show an accident reported since, so look at the run date.

Then check the VIN for recalls and title brands, and pull a history report of your own. CarVins is a licensed CARFAX and AutoCheck reseller and isn't affiliated with CARFAX, AutoCheck, Experian, Fifth Third or Comerica. As of mid October 2026, a report costs around $5.50 at guest checkout and about $4.50 for members, and getting both reports together is roughly $6.75. Buying them retail is closer to $39.99 to $44.99. Look at the checkout total before you plan around it.

Local news covered the branch side of the merger too. WDIV ClickOnDetroit reported in July that more than 70 locations were slated to close and that customers would need new login credentials on September 8. If your old Comerica branch is gone, the loan isn't; it lives in Fifth Third online banking now.