More than 5,000 people who bought used cars from Payless Used Car Sales in Alaska are in line for $100 restitution checks after the state settled with the dealership over document fees left out of its advertised prices. Acting Attorney General Cori Mills announced the settlement on September 22, 2026, and the state estimates Payless will pay more than $500,000 in total. The refund period reaches back to November 4, 2018, and payments will begin only after a court approves the agreement.
Why Payless Owes Its Customers Money
According to the Alaska Department of Law, Payless did not include its document fees in the vehicle prices it advertised on its website. Under Alaska law, motor vehicle dealers must include all dealer fees in the advertised price of their vehicles. Buyers who found a car online at one price were then charged more at the dealership once the fee was added.
Payless’s document fees were generally $499, the department said. The vast majority of the illegal fees were charged before 2024.
“Alaska’s law on dealer fees is clear,” Mills said. “It is unacceptable for a business to offer one price online and then a higher price at the dealership as a result of tacking on previously undisclosed dealer fees.”
A refund that arrives on the company’s timeline. Payless has months after court approval to find and pay more than 5,000 buyers, so the useful move now is noting the purchase date, the fee paid and each step the dealership must hit, the kind of timeline the four-date rule in The Settlement & Refund Recovery System helps sort out.
Who Qualifies And How Much Each Buyer Gets
Consumers who were charged hidden document fees by Payless are eligible for payments of $100 each. That is roughly one-fifth of the typical $499 fee. The state said it chose to accept less than full restitution to avoid putting Payless out of business.
“This is the first time my office has had a serious issue with Payless,” Mills said, “and sometimes our team has to make a call about whether a stronger settlement is worth putting a significant number of Alaskans out of work, many of whom had nothing to do with the conduct at issue.”
The restitution window stretches back to November 4, 2018, an unusually long period. The department said that is partly because Payless and the state agreed to pause the running of the state’s six-year statute of limitations while Payless unsuccessfully tried to quash an investigative subpoena issued by the state. Because most of the fees were charged before 2024, many of the eligible buyers made their purchases several years ago and may have moved or changed phone numbers since.
The Timeline For Checks
The settlement sets two deadlines for Payless, both measured from the date a court approves the agreement. Within 90 days of approval, Payless must give the state a final report on the number of people owed restitution. Within 280 days of approval, Payless must complete the process of identifying, contacting and sending a check to the more than 5,000 consumers affected.
The state’s announcement describes checks sent from Payless to eligible customers. It does not describe a public claim form, and it does not call for buyers to pay anything to receive money. Any call, text or email that asks for a processing fee, gift cards or bank login credentials to release a Payless refund should be treated as a scam, regardless of whether it mentions the attorney general.
Buyers who purchased from Payless during the covered period can prepare by finding their buyer’s order or sales contract, which should show the document fee, and by making sure the dealership has a current mailing address. Anyone with questions about the settlement can contact the Department of Law’s Consumer Protection Unit.
Part Of A Wider Crackdown On Dealer Fees
Payless is the second Alaska dealer settlement over advertised prices in less than a year. In December 2025, then-Attorney General Stephen Cox announced a settlement with Lithia Motors over dealer fees at five of its Alaska dealerships that were not included in advertised prices. Lithia agreed to pay a $300,000 civil penalty, make restitution to consumers who paid more than the advertised price and regularly audit its advertising. That settlement required Lithia to review sales records back to January 3, 2019.
Unlike the Payless deal, the Lithia settlement required some buyers to take action. For certain time periods when Lithia dealerships lacked sales records, customers had to submit a copy of their contract and a signed, notarized affidavit within 100 days of court approval to receive restitution. The difference shows why buyers benefit from reading the specific terms of each settlement rather than assuming every refund arrives automatically.
What It Means For Older Car Buyers
For retirees on fixed incomes, a used car is often one of the largest purchases in a given year, and a $499 add-on at the signing table can wipe out the savings that drew a buyer to an online listing in the first place. The Alaska rule is simple: the advertised price must already include any dealer fee. The department has described document fees as one example of the dealer fees covered, so a dealer’s own paperwork charge is not supposed to appear for the first time at the dealership.
A buyer who sees a dealer fee that was not included in the advertised price can file a consumer complaint with the Alaska Department of Law through its online complaint form. Saving a screenshot of the online listing before visiting a dealership makes it far easier to show the difference between the advertised price and the final contract.
For Payless customers, the next milestone is court approval of the settlement, which starts the 90-day and 280-day clocks.
Tracking A Small Refund That Is Easy To Miss
A small check tied to a car bought years ago can easily be mistaken for junk mail or lost after a move. Buyers covered by this settlement need a simple way to connect the old purchase to the new payment and to spot a fake refund offer when one appears.
The Settlement & Refund Recovery System includes a claim log and payment tracker for recording when a check is expected and when it arrives, along with the scam-proof rules for screening messages that borrow a real settlement’s name.
Both are part of The Settlement & Refund Recovery System.
This article was prepared with AI assistance and reviewed against the linked official sources.
