Consumer complaint received 2022-04-08
Company: HYUNDAI CAPITAL AMERICA
State: FL
Product: Vehicle loan or lease
Sub-product: Lease
Issue: Getting a loan or lease
Sub-issue: Fraudulent loan

Complaint:
On XX/XX/2022, I went to the dealer XXXX Hyundai located at XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX, XXXX XXXX, NY XXXX. To get information about a car lease. Before providing my ID or agreeing to moving forward with any type of deal to lease the car, the representative said they had to do a SOFT INQUIRY to first see if I was eligible for an offer and if it was good for me then we would proceed with the credit application process. They capture my information on their system and before providing it I asked again what type of inquiry was this and I was assured it was only a SOFT INQUIRY. After this I was taken to the finance department and at this point I hadnt signed any consent to submit a credit application or was I asked for authorization to do a HARD INQUIRY on my credit, the finance person proceeded to read an apparent credit report under my name and even gave me my credit score. I immediately asked him again if they had done a SOFT INQUIRY and he confirmed this to me for 3rd time. After he read the report from his system I asked him for a copy of it and he only gave me a paper that showed my credit score, I received this paper after he had the report on his system and even before asking me for my ID or agreeing to submit a credit application since we had not even seen the numbers nor had I agreed to lease the car. After the finance person presented a different offer from what we had been told by the sales representative I declined to move forward and left the dealer. 30 minutes later I found out they had actually run a HARD INQUIRY in my credit report which I never agreed to. I immediately called the sales representative and he was as surprised as I was, he questioned the finance person about the inquiry and I could hear the finance person over the phone yelling at the sales representative and then he picked up the phone yelled at me denying ever saying it was a soft inquiry and hung up. 

Under the Federal Trade Commission Act, Section 5 Unfair or Deceptive Acts or Practices an act or practice is unfair when it ( 1 ) causes or is likely to cause substantial injury ( usually monetary ) to consumers, ( 2 ) can not be reasonably avoided by consumers, and ( 3 ) is not outweighed by countervailing benefits to consumers. Since Hyundai finance is supervised by the CFPB and it cooperates with the FTC, Hyundai is supposed to be in compliance with its regulations. 

FCRA 819 specifies that a party who knowingly and willfully obtains information from a consumer reporting agency under false pretenses shall be fined under Title 18, United States Code, imprisoned for not more than 2 years, or both. '' I was very clear about not doing a hard inquiry if I the deal was not honor because Im under contract a few months out from closing in my house. Now I was left with no car and a hard inquiry preventing me from getting one at another dealership because another inquiry will continue to hit my credit report and potentially getting me denied for my mortgage which Im supposed to close soon.

Company public response: Company has responded to the consumer and the CFPB and chooses not to provide a public response
Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation