What is the difference between a pawn shop and a pawn loan?

In GEORGIA, can a Title Pawn company come after you for the difference in what they sell the car for and...?

• ... what they gave you originally? I want to stress here that this is a specific question to the state of Georgia and not anywhere else in the US. Basically here's the situation. I have an old clunker that still works and I'm getting ready to move out of state. I don't use the car so I don't want to take it with me. I'm leaving in a couple of weeks so I don't have time to do a private sale, so basically I was left with two options. I could either sell the car to a junk yard or do a title pawn. I called a junk yard and they only offered to give me $500 for the car. I went to the title pawn place and they gave me $1,200 so obviously that was a better option in respect to cash. I read every letter of the title pawn contract and in Georgia unlike most states when you pawn your car title you are doing an actual pawn just like if you'd pawned jewelry, guns, etc. The contract basically states that if I miss a payment they have the right to get the car which I have no problem with in fact I planned on dropping it off in their parking lot right before I left to move out of state. Getting to my question, from everything I've read including the contract I signed, the only recourse the title pawn place has is to take possession of the vehicle. They don't report to credit bureaus or anything like that. My question is is there anything I'm missing that would enable the place to come after me for the difference in what they sold the car for and what they gave me. I must stress again that this is not a loan. It says that specifically in my contract. I am simply giving them possession of my title as a pawn just like any other type of pawn. I do believe this is something different about Georgia that is not true in most states, so I'm really looking for someone that actually knows what they are talking about.

• Answer:

  No they won't..and they are not required to give you any money if they sell the car for a higher price either The AJC article tells the story of a building contractor named Scott Oden, who pledged his wife’s $13,000 Ford Expedition for a $2,000 loan. Scott was unable to make the payments on time and the title loan store repossessed the vehicle. When the vehicle was sold, however, the title lender kept all of the proceeds. In other words if the vehicle generated $10,000 at auction, the title lender kept the entire $10,000 as Georgia law does not require the lender to refund to the borrower the difference between the loan balance and the sales price.