Consumer complaint received 2020-11-29
Company: CREDIT ACCEPTANCE CORPORATION
State: NH
Product: Vehicle loan or lease
Sub-product: Loan
Issue: Managing the loan or lease
Sub-issue: Billing problem

Complaint:
I should have known better at the time but due to bad credit I couldnt get approved for vehicle financing anywhere else. I went into the situation being content with over paying for a XXXX car and expected high interest rates because of my credit situation. The dealer actually did a superb job of making Credit Acceptance sound like a decent opportunity, which should have been a red flag.

You can pick any car you want! Approval wont be a problem ... Yes XX/XX/XXXX % interest is very high but just make on time payments for a 6 months and try to refinance through a credit union.

Both the dealer and credit acceptance advertise and brag about how they help your credit by reporting to the credit bureaus, what they dont tell you is that if your FULL monthly payment isnt paid by the EXACTDUE date, they report you as 30 days late. 

Last year I put my account on auto pay bi-weekly to split the amount due in half each time I got paid because well ... 23 % interest makes for a pretty excessive monthly payment ... so every two weeks half of my monthly payment was auto paid to them ... .except some times that second payment fell outside of the exact due date but still well within a week or so. 

Now, this wouldnt be such a huge problem except for the lack of transparency within the customer portal ... where you can pay this company all your money but you cant see ANYTHING useful to your contract as in payment history, statements, no warnings, no advice. However, there is a nice message explaining PAYMENT ARRANGEMENTS are not reflected in the portal which in my case includes bi-weekly auto pays. 

So, the portal ALWAYS said I was a month late..I called customer service out of concern back in probably XXXX or XXXX and was assured this was ok and just a bug in the portal that doesnt allow us customers to see our own financial information, and/or status. 

Fast forward to recent days. You do not have any idea how MAD I was and am, as someone who has been struggling and trying to fix my credit for YEARS to find out credit acceptance had been reporting me as past due almost every single month since I switched my payments to bi-weekly which was in XXXX of XXXX. 

Not once did I receive a letter, an email, a text or carrier pigeon advising me my account was past due. 

The worst part is SIX of those reported missed payments are for every month since XXXX, during this pandemic when ALL other banks and alike are trying to helping their customers. 

I tried to dispute the last 6 late marks to no avail but this company did not care at all about helping me nor did they consider the fact that Ive made numerous extra payments through out the contract, never took my account off auto pay and was NEVER 30+ late, and the real kicker being I was laid off in XXXX due to COVID. I did not ever ask to skip payments, I didnt ask for any special treatment etc. I kept paying. 

As of this AM I still owed XXXX dollars, which I decided to just pay off completely today, because I am so frustrated and defeated over this entire process. How is that for financial relief from a creditor for a customer unable to work because of this pandemic? 

Anyways, I requested my pay off quote, paid the amount on the document they sent me ... ..and now it says I owe XXXX .... in 341 days ... ... which did make me laugh a little but I am sure they will try to mark that as a late payment on my credit report as a final slap in the face. 

I did not get a confirmation email from Credit Acceptance, no messaging saying the account is paid, no receipt, no instructions on how I am going to get my title for my worthless car ... nothing. 

All I got out of my experience with them is a car that has cost me more to fix than what its worth, and an absolutely DESTROYED credit score because they were the only open loan on my report besides student loans. 

As a XXXX year old graduated from college I have been not only dreaming but STRIVING to put the pieces needed into place to purchase my own home and now because of this company I am being and will continue to be denied that opportunity because of my credit score that has been calculated based on what has been reported by this company alone. I am pretty sure I still wont even be approved to finance a new vehicle after this situation. 

Contrary to this rant I have gone off about, I am a laid back, whatever happens happens kind of person and I really make it a point not to dwell on things ; but the sheer destruction this company did by destroying my credit, combined with the the circumstances and timing of when it happened is inexcusable. Because of that, I am submitting this complaint along with a XX/XX/XXXX review. 

I dont expect this to rectify the damage that was done, I honestly dont even think the damage is repairable at this point but, maybe it will help someone else along the way who is considering financing through Credit Acceptance. They are a predatory lending company, who make money off of other peoples disadvantages by charging DRASTICALLY high interest rates, on used cars that cant even pass the required state inspection ( mine hasnt passed since XXXX, I bought the car in XXXX ... the only garage to give it a sticker was the dealership I bought from ) and most importantly the LACK of transparency, communication and access to my own financial information to avoid something as damaging as this is completely unacceptable.

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