Consumer complaint received 2020-04-10
Company: Exeter Finance Corp.
State: OH
Product: Vehicle loan or lease
Sub-product: Loan
Issue: Managing the loan or lease
Sub-issue: Problem with fees charged

Complaint:
In XXXX of XXXX I opened a loan for an automobile with Exeter Finance Corp . The loan was for XXXX XXXX XXXX and came with a 22.+ % interest rate. I made my first payment in XXXX of XXXX. In XXXX of XXXX I was switching jobs and moving over 300 miles across state. I called into Exeter so see if I could have an extension or deferment to offset my payment as I was going to be having my pay date changed by almost 3 weeks due to he new job. They told me that I wasn't eligible for a extension. I asked him if there was a way to change my actual due, to which he responded with we don't do that. I was pretty much left to my own to figure it out. Up till his point according to my credit report I hadn't had any missed payment or a delinquent account. As a consumer I tried to contact this financial institution to remedy a problem before it happens and I felt like I was mislead, lied to, taken advantage of and manipulated in this situation. I continued to make my payments as close to my original due date as possible. In XXXX I got engaged and started to do a deep dive into my credit. I found that Exeter had reported my last 19 -  {$680.00} car payments as 30 or more days late demolishing my personal credit report by lowering it hundreds of points. On top of that I also found out that I had amassed a {$1000.00} in late fees with Exeter due to these late payments. To say that I was upset was an understatement. I couldn't refinace my car with a different lender due to the city credit took a and the late payment. So now I was locked in with Exeter.  How could a financial institutions in good faith put a customer in such and awful position? I decided that i was going to call in and see why I could do to rectify this situation and thats when I really started to learn about what type of company I had jumped into bed with. The first customer service rep that i spoke with was absolutely awful. Through our call she did she did shed some light on things i was unaware of. She said that they do allow for a due date change so long as your account is current which completely contradicts what the rep i called in XXXX told me. she was of no help at all and quite rude so i requested a supervisor. The supervisor wasnt much more help or any nicer. Halfway threw our call it was disconnected I called back and was told that supervisor wasnt available anymore and that she would give me a call back. I never received a call back. So a few days later I called back, spoke with a rep and then a supervisor AGAIN. This supervisor said she would review the calls and my account and contact their credit department if she felt likely there was reasons too and that she would call me back. While i spoke with both reps I mentioned the I was going to contact the CFPB and both times they tried to encourage me to wait till they could se what they could do before I went that route, both times they never followed threw and left me hanging. I never received a call back from the second supervisor by the date she indicated it any of the several days that followed. 4 days after the latest I was supposed to receive a call back I called into Exeter for a third time to speak with a supervisor. I spoke with a lady who reiterated the same things that i had already heard which to me sounded like excuses and cover ups. She told me that my account was more than 30 days past due in XXXX which would have made me ineligible for a date change. She also told me that they report to the credit bureau on the XXXX of the month. I told her that they didnt report late payments to my credit until XXXX of XXXX which is almost 6 months after I called in to change my due date. She said that because I make my payment in the 23 that my account would be made current in that day each month which was 7 day before they reported. I found all of this to be totally aloof. She essentially said that if I knew there policies and procedures better that I could have called in after I made a payment and got a date change. I dont think that its fair that I as a customer should have to seek this information out when I am calling you to seek a remedy in the first place and this was never offered as information to me by that agent. They withheld information from me to cause me yo have this issue and owe them more money. It felt like they were making things is as they went and again I felt lied to and taken advantage of by this financial institution. My credit is destroyed and on top of paying {$680.00} a month for 5.5 years to still owe $ XXXX on this car and its only worth {$5500.00} is crazy that they would tack on {$1000.00} more in fees. Each rep had a different storys and a basket full of fallacies they can use to manipulate their customers.

Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation