Consumer complaint received 2023-04-27
Company: ALLY FINANCIAL INC.
State: IL
Product: Vehicle loan or lease
Sub-product: Loan
Issue: Managing the loan or lease
Sub-issue: Billing problem

Complaint:
I lost my job in the mortgage industry and my payment for my car loan kept bouncing but I realized the reason it was bouncing was because it was coming out on the 6th of each month which was well after my husband 's pay check went into our account. So I set up a auto bill pay through my bank so that the car payment would come out early on the day my husband 's pay check went into our account on the last day of the month. That way Ally would get their money right away before we ran out of money. Unfortunately they put a block on my account and even though they received the payments, they refused to credit my account. The first bill payment left my XXXX XXXX XXXXXXXX checking account on XX/XX/XXXX for {$350.00} for a payment that was due on XXXX By mid XXXX I noticed that my payment still had not been credited on Ally 's website so I called and spoke to a representative. They told me that they could see the payment but that it wasn't being credited because of the hold on my account. They said I needed to send a new payment via XXXX XXXX because of the hold on my account. I told them that it wasn't fair that they were holding the funds I needed to use for the payment and that they should credit my account since they could see the funds sitting there and received by Ally. The representative told me they would escalate it up to a manager and that they would research it and get back to me. Another week passed by and I had not heard from them so I called again. At this point my XXXX payment had just left my XXXX XXXX XXXXXXXX checking account via auto bill payment on XX/XX/XXXX in the amount of {$350.00}. This new representative told me he could see both payments received by their payment system but was still sitting in Ally 's account and not being credited to my account because of the hold. Again they told me to send a payment via XXXX XXXX because my account was now late. I told them that it was grossly unfair that they had been holding my payment and not giving me credit for it. He said they would return it to me but I told them not to that I wanted it escalated to a manager to get it credited to my account because a creditor can't just hold someones payment for over 30 days and not give them credit for it and then mark them as being late. If they weren't going to accept the payment then they should have immediately rejected the payment and returned it at the point that it was sent. I explained that I had lost my job and did not have extra money to just keep sending them car payments while they hold my previously sent funds. The representative told me he would escalate and have a manager call me in two days. Again no one reached out to me. I called back and was told that someone had already processed a return of my payment because of my phone call. So they completely ignored my request, never called me like they said and refused to credit my account for money they held on their end for over a month!! How is this even legal!?!?!?! 

On XX/XX/XXXX one of the payments was finally returned to my bank after more than 30 days so I took it along with money we were using for our mortgage payment, which made our mortgage late, to take two payments in the amount of {$720.00} to XXXX XXXX on XX/XX/XXXX and pay both XXXX and XXXX car payments even though Ally still had XXXX of the payments previously sent by my bank and had just returned one of them more than 30 days after they received it. 

On XX/XX/XXXX I received the second payment of {$350.00} back from Ally, again 30 days after they had received it and held it in their account, collecting interest I'm sure, but refused to apply it to my account as a payment. On XX/XX/XXXX my bank sent XXXX 's payment on XXXX for {$350.00} but this time it was credited to my Ally account as payment received. I called them today to ask if the payment was being returned and was told by a supervisor by the name of XXXX that the payment never should have been credited to my account and that they were going to have it investigated and returned to me. That's when I told them that I was going to file a complaint with the CFPB because they were making it impossible to make the payment. People are struggling to survive and yes I had returned payments because of losing my job but I was able to set up the auto payment and make three months of on time payments which they refuse to give me credit for and keep sending back to me. They then make me take the payment to XXXX XXXX, pay an additional fee to resend the payment they just returned to me. They are marking me late on my credit and charging me fees even though I'm trying my sincerest to make these payments. Never have I had a company make it so hard to make a payment. Please investigate this. It's not fair that I had to take money from my mortgage payment and send it to them just because they refused to give me credit for a payment they had in their account that had cleared. They held on to both payment for 30 days and then returned them and marked me late. How is this fair??? This situation has been incredibly stressful and upsetting. I'm trying my best to keep my accounts current while working odd jobs and updating my education to get a new job. I've called so many times and they have not worked with me or helped me get these payments credited to my account. Instead they return the payment and continue to punish me as if I haven't made the payments. Sometimes people fall on hard times but companies shouldn't be allowed to make it impossible for people to make payments and then say they're late when they aren't.

Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation