Sell your car in Providence: running, rarely driven or won't start
To sell your car in Providence, start with an offer online. Pickup is free, and the driver comes to the car on a permit street, in a driveway or in a lot. Until pickup day, a car parked on the street still has to follow the city's overnight permit rule, the sweeping schedule and, in winter, the parking bans.
Prefer a callback? Leave your number ↓
Offers powered by our buying partner — ★ 4.7 Trustpilot (205,000+ reviews) · ★ 4.5 Google (8,900+)
What to settle with the city after the sale
- Move the permit to your next plate, if you have one. Providence checks overnight permits by license plate, so there is no sticker to peel off. If another car takes the permit, email Parkingchanges@providenceri.gov with your first and last name, permit number, address and the new plate number. The city warns that an out-of-date plate on a permit puts you at risk of a ticket.
- Pay what’s left at the Municipal Court. The cashier window is in the Public Safety Complex at 325 Washington Street, between Dean Street and John J. Partington Way, open 7:30 a.m. to 3 p.m. (2:30 p.m. in July and August). After hours and on weekends, a lockbox in the outer lobby takes payments, applied the next business day. Questions go to (401) 243-6414.
- Clear any old car-tax block. Unpaid Providence car tax from 2021 and earlier still has to be paid, and until it is, no registration in your name can be renewed. The City Collector, Room 203 at City Hall, 25 Dorrance Street, releases those DMV blocks (Tax Collector).
Where we pick up around Providence
Say which block the car is on, and we set the pickup time clear of the overnight rule and of the sweepers. Providence sweeps from 10:30 p.m. to 7 a.m., Sunday night through Friday morning. Every section of the city is swept at least four times a year, downtown and the Jewelry District every other Sunday, and permit holders get the schedule by email (DPW). The truck comes free to any neighborhood, from the East Side and Federal Hill to Elmhurst, Silver Lake, Mount Pleasant and Washington Park, and past the city line: south into Cranston, north through Pawtucket, North Providence and Lincoln, west to Johnston and Smithfield, and over the river to East Providence and Barrington.
In a snow ban, a car that can’t be driven has nowhere to go. A parking ban keeps every car off city streets around the clock, permit holders’ cars included. Permit holders can move to one of sixteen approved snow-parking locations and have eight hours after the ban lifts to leave, but a car has to be able to drive there. After the February 2026 blizzard left at least 37 inches on the city, the citywide ban was not lifted until 5 p.m. on Saturday, February 28 (City of Providence).
The yearly rent on a Providence curb
Nowhere in Providence can a car sit on the street between 2 and 5 a.m. without an overnight permit or a guest pass. A permit costs $100 a year for a car registered in the city, each car needs its own application, and a household can hold two at most (City of Providence). Some residents can’t buy one at all. In a building with six or more units, the owner or manager first has to get an exception from the city’s Curbside Administrator, and students in dorms or college-owned housing are not eligible (parking rules). So a car you rarely drive may be using one of your household’s two permits, or have no legal overnight spot on the street at all.
Cash for your car in Providence
Junk cars in Providence fall under Chapter 15 of the city code. A car counts as “dismantled, junked or inoperable” if it can’t legally or physically be driven, or simply isn’t registered. Keeping one outdoors, on public or private property, takes a storage license (Code §§ 15-36 to 15-41). A car found in violation gets a notice fixed to it: the owner has seven days to remove it, may first request a hearing before the public works director, and bears the cost of removal. Cash for cars in Providence isn’t only for ones that run. Sell yours as a junk car: say it doesn’t start, give the address, and the driver loads it from the driveway, the yard or the curb.
When a blown engine or a slipping transmission is what keeps it off the road, selling a car with a blown engine or head gasket and selling a car with a slipping transmission explain whether fixing it is worth the money. Crash damage has its own guide, selling a car with accident damage, which explains why dents and scrapes matter less to a buyer than damage to the frame.
What an unpaid Providence ticket turns into
- •Providence wrote 51,845 overnight parking tickets in 2025, up from 27,276 in 2020, and a ticket costs around $40 after fees, per a February 13, 2026 report (The Providence Eye)
- •Parking and environmental violations double after 14 days and triple after 28 days (Providence Police)
- •Pay online with three or more tickets on the record and it can take up to 24 hours for your name to come off the city’s boot list (Providence Police)
- •Unpaid Providence parking, speeding, speed-camera and red-light-camera tickets issued to a registration must be paid before that registration can get an overnight permit (City of Providence)
Asked by Providence sellers
My car is on the street until pickup. What can get it ticketed or towed in the meantime?
It's illegal to park within 8 feet of a hydrant, within 25 feet of any intersection even where no sign is posted, or within 20 feet of a crosswalk. Police tow a car that blocks a driveway or sits on a sidewalk right away, and downtown some sidewalks are hollow and can collapse under a car. When Traffic Engineering posts emergency no-parking signs for an event such as WaterFire, cars left in the way are towed on the spot.
An orange sticker showed up on my car. When will it be towed?
After 48 hours. Providence Police put that sticker on a car they treat as abandoned on a city street when it isn't blocking traffic, and tow it if it's still there when the time runs out. On private property the sticker is yellow and the owner gets seven days. A car obstructing traffic, or one left on city property, is towed at once.
Providence towed my car. What will the tow lot ask for?
First find it. Call Providence Police's non-emergency number, (401) 272-3121, and dial 0. With the registration number, make and model, they can tell you which tow company has it. The registered owner needs a valid photo ID showing the car is registered to them. An unregistered car needs a notarized bill of sale and is released “Tow Only,” so it leaves on a truck. Tow companies on the city's list release cars Monday to Friday, 8 a.m. to 5 p.m., and Saturday, 8 a.m. to noon. Don't wait long: an abandoned car worth under $500 that nobody claims within 10 days can be demolished.
I live in Providence but the car is registered in Massachusetts. What does that cost me here?
An overnight permit runs $200 a year for a car registered outside the city, twice the in-city price, and the application still needs the registration and proof that you live in Providence. For the title side of a sale, see our guide to selling a car with an out-of-state title.
What the RI DMV needs from a seller, from the signed title to the cancelled registration, is in our Rhode Island selling guide.