Consumer complaint received 2022-06-02
Company: CREDIT ACCEPTANCE CORPORATION
State: ME
Product: Vehicle loan or lease
Sub-product: Loan
Issue: Problem with fraud alerts or security freezes

Complaint:
My name is XXXX XXXX and my husband and I are having a VERY serious problem our Credit Acceptance auto loan account, which we opened in XXXX of XXXX for our XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX. Our account number is XXXX. 

In XXXX of XXXX, at the very start of the COVID-19 pandemic, my husband was furloughed from his job and my hours at my job were slashed in half. Therefore, we had to put our account with Credit Acceptance Corporation on " COVID protected status '' and temporarily pause our payments and freeze all credit reporting due to the circumstances caused by the pandemic, which obviously were not our fault and entirely out of our control. Prior to COVID, we had a PERFECT payment history. However, approximately 4-6 weeks later, I contacted Credit Acceptance to have our payments resumed. The representative I spoke with transferred to an automated phone system to enter our bank account information, confirm our payment dates, etc. etc. At the end of the call, the recording said that I had successfully set up our auto pay. Despite this, we later discovered that NO payments had been taken from our bank account by Credit Acceptance whatsoever, which they, at the time, claimed was due to some sort of " technical glitch. '' I had to reestablish auto pay MULTIPLE times over the course of the next year or so, but there was always some sort of " glitch '' where our payments were never taken from our bank account, which I truly believe was done intentionally by Credit Acceptance. We have recently learned of the massive {$27.00} XXXX dollar settlement that Credit Acceptance was ordered to pay in our neighboring state of Massachusetts just last year for predatory lending practices, which I truly believe we are victim of. 

Fast forward to XXXX of XXXX - our account was put back into COVID protection status ( it never should have been removed from this status in the first place ) and we were making our payments every single month by way of auto pay. We split our payments into XXXX biweekly payments that were debited automatically from our bank account every other Friday, which are my husband 's pay days. We have done it this way since day one of taking out this loan. Today, XX/XX/XXXX, totally out of the blue, I received an email from Credit Acceptance stating that our account had been removed from COVID protection status with NO explanation as to why, how, etc. Our family is dealing with a great deal right now. My husband just had a XXXX  XXXX due to a serious XXXX that nearly killed him and is now XXXX-XXXX, which, needless to say, has turned our lives upside down in a very devastating way. He can no longer XXXX XXXX. We are currently in the process of building a XXXX  XXXX  home that my husband will be able to navigate easily with his wheelchair. This means that our credit scores and credit history are of the UTMOST importance right now as we are dealing with mortgages and the lender will be pulling our credit scores once again right before our closing date on our home this summer. I have worked EXTREMELY hard to raise my XXXX score XXXX points in just the past year alone. I now have EXCELLENT credit and I NEED my credit to remain excellent for this home purchase that we are right in the midst of, and now Credit Acceptance is threatening to ASSAULT and DEMOLISH all of the EXTREMELY hard work that I have put into my credit this past year or so by removing our account from COVID protection status and reporting our account in the derogatory manner to the credit bureaus, all for a vehicle that is now almost XXXX XXXX XXXX, has almost XXXX miles on it, is having mechanical problems, and is rusting. We currently owe FAR MORE on this vehicle that it is even WORTH. We are not even CLOSE to paying this vehicle off. We can not even trade it in because we owe far too much on it. Believe me, we have tried, but no dealership will take it as a trade due to the amount owed on it, despite paying on this vehicle for 3 years and still having several years to go. This is PREDATORY. 

As soon as I received the email from Credit Acceptance today stating that we were being removed from COVID protection status and negative credit reporting and collection activities would ensue, I IMMEDIATELY called Credit Acceptance. Everyone who I spoke with was extremely rude and uncaring and refused to assist me in this matter. I was repeatedly cut off, spoken over, and spoken to in a cold, uncaring, condescending manner. I am absolutely DISGUSTED by how I was treated. I was bounced around from agent to agent and even disconnected twice, once even by a supervisor. I spent about XXXX HOURS on the phone, which was during my work day when I should have been working ; however, I NEEDED to get this issue resolved, but got absolutely nowhere. 

We need this very critical issue immediately resolved and our account placed BACK in COVID protection status ( we are still being affected by COVID as it is still VERY prevalent where we live- I myself was just in the hospital with the omicron variant ). My husband and I have enough on our plates right now and we will NOT have our mortgage and home buying process completely halted and destroyed by this predatory company when we HAVE BEEN MAKING OUR PAYMENTS. My husband REQUIRES this XXXX  XXXX home.

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