Consumer complaint received 2019-06-09
Company: NISSAN MOTOR ACCEPTANCE COMPANY LLC
State: NY
Product: Vehicle loan or lease
Sub-product: Loan
Issue: Problems at the end of the loan or lease
Sub-issue: Problem with paying off the loan

Complaint:
Hi, I took out a loan for a care with Nissan finance in XXXX. The loan was for roughly {$18000.00}, for a XXXX XXXX. At the time, I was a grad student. I paid off the payments every month for an extended loan period. Over the following six years, I was a teacher and then later applied to law school. I paid the final payment when I was in law school, in the spring of my 2L year. I have an email titled " Payoff success '' from XX/XX/XXXX from Nissan. After that " success email, '' and paying the final payment, Nissan sent me my title to my car, which I received in XX/XX/XXXX. 

After receiving my title, I did not have any contact with Nissan finance for almost 8 months. I had paid off my loan in full ( I assumed ) without ever making a late payment, and had been given my title by Nissan as proof of that fact. 

Almost 7 months after receiving my title, I signed up for XXXX. I received a warning " overdue car payment. '' I was concerned, and assumed something fraudulent had occurred. At the time, I was in my 3L year of law school. I logged back into my old Nissan account, which I had not had any reason to log into since receiving my title. Nissan was claiming that a final payment of around {$150.00} had never been paid, and had been dinging my credit score for all the months after it had sent me my title for late car payments. My credit score-perfect before-had tanked. 

I called Nissan and they told me that my bank had refunded the final payment. They claimed they had called to alert me, but they absolutely never had. I have no emails or calls from Nissan, and I'm sure they can't point to any either. I spoke to at least five different people at Nissan, trying to figure out what to do. I sent in a payment for the roughly {$200.00} in XX/XX/XXXX( I think there had been some late fees, but I'm not sure ), but before my payment could process, Nissan " forgave '' the final {$150.00}. So, after all those months of dinging me for {$150.00} out of almost {$20000.00} total, when I tried to pay it, they in effect would not let me pay it. 

I called again, trying to figure out who to talk to in order to get black mark off my credit report. A woman gave me an address to mail a letter to. I mailed a letter with all these specifics, my account number, etc. to the address in spring XXXX. Months later, in summer XXXX, I received a letter stating that it was within Nissan 's discretion to remove the overdue payment mark and they were refusing to do so. 

It's a little funny, because I'm now a barred attorney in New York and I work at a law firm, but I feel completely helpless with this situation. I have no idea where to start or what to do to protect what I know are my rights under the law. I've also been overwhelmed as a first year associate at a law firm, and haven't had time to figure out how to resolve this issue. 

I know that it was fraudulent to assess these allegations against me after I paid off my entire care payment in full. I know that, even if I had missed the final payment, or somehow my bank refused to pay out the {$150.00}, it seems like Nissan is in the wrong for sending me my title but never contacting me once about this allegedly unpaid payment. But I just don't know what I'm supposed to do about it. I have the letter Nissan sent me in response to my letter, and somewhere I must have a copy of the letter I sent to Nissan. I have my Nissan account number, and Nissan must have a record of six years of timely payments. 

I recently applied for an apartment in New York, and was denied the apartment despite making a good salary per year because of the " serious delinquencies '' on my credit history because of this Nissan problem. If I have to, I suppose I can hire an attorney for this problem myself. But it just feels WRONG and generally like Nissan should be held accountable. I assume if they are doing this to me, they are doing it to a bunch of people less able to advocate for themselves than I am. 

Could you please help me to hold Nissan accountable, and point me in the right direction for what I should do? 

Thank you, XXXX

Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation