Consumer complaint received 2018-05-08
Company: FIFTH THIRD FINANCIAL CORPORATION
State: OH
Product: Vehicle loan or lease
Sub-product: Loan
Issue: Struggling to pay your loan
Sub-issue: Lender trying to repossess or disable the vehicle

Complaint:
On Sunday XX/XX/XXXX my vehicle was wrongly repossessed for a failure to make payments by Fifth Third Bank. The two most recent payments had been made on or around XX/XX/XXXX, cashed on XX/XX/XXXX, and XX/XX/XXXX, cashed on XX/XX/XXXX. However, they failed to credit my account properly and it fell into delinquency. Compounding the problem, the bank failed to notify me in writing that the account was becoming delinquent. They simply called and left several messages on my voicemail demanding payment without any details. Upon receiving the messages I investigated the problem in my online account where I found no notification of outstanding balance due. There were no messages or notifications internal to their documents section indicating a past due problem, no past due notification on the account dashboard, no messages sent to the account 's email address on file, and no hard copy letters sent to the accounts delivery address. Most frustratingly, and to be frank unbelievably, there are no customer available hard copy and/or e-statements for the account indicating past due payments.

When I contacted customer service on XX/XX/XXXX, I spoke with XXXX   who indicated I would have to make a hard cash payment at a Fifth Third Branch for XX/XX/XXXX, XX/XX/XXXX, and XX/XX/XXXXback payments, and one month in advance, XX/XX/XXXX, as well as pay the XXXX repossession fee before they would release the vehicle. I requested to know why I received no written notification the account was becoming delinquent to which he responded they were not required to notify me and that they only make telephone calls as a courtesy. I asked him how I could retrieve a copy of the account 's monthly statements to reconcile payments made, which he responded they didn't keep monthly statements for the account. At this point, I indicated this was unacceptable and requested to speak to his supervisor to obtain a copy of the statements.

His supervisor, XXXX, provided no additional help. He would not provide copies of the statements further indicating the bank didn't keep those records, and stated it was my responsibility to ensure payments made were properly credited to my account. This is in spite of the online account information being incorrect and me informing him I had copies of the cancelled checks where they had been cashed by Fifth Third. Still seeking satisfaction, I requested to speak to his supervisor, which he refused, and simply passed me off to XXXX in the internet department to see if XXXX could determine why delinquency notifications were not being properly reflected in my online account.

At this point, I visited my local 5/3 Bank to resolve the issue. The bank manager XXXX XXXX XXXX was able to determine the cancelled checks were indeed received and not properly credited to my account. After he failed to determine where the funds were credited he called the back office who indicated they they also couldn't locate them but would look into it. To get my vehicle released, I was required to make three equal payments for XX/XX/XXXX, XX/XX/XXXX, and XX/XX/XXXX. He was further able to get them to waive the {$390.00} repossession fee. Combined with the final check which I informed him was written on or around XX/XX/XXXXbut yet to be properly credited, I am now fully paid up nearly three months in advance through XX/XX/XXXX on a vehicle which currently resides in impound.

I understand with many thousands of transactions processed on a daily basis, sometimes items get misplaced and/or missed. However, this isn't an issue of a simple misplaced payment. From top to bottom, Fifth Third has no document tracking in place for my auto loan. They keep no statements, reflect no past due payments in my online account, provide no email communications around failure to receive payment, and have no internal payment tracking controls as they still haven't located my lost payments. They simply indicate it's my responsibility as the customer to ensure checks which clear my account are accurately reflected in my online banking in spite of this online banking system having no way for me to know there is a problem and no access to monthly statements for reconcile.

This wasn't a mistake, it was gross negligence boarding on predatory/abusive lending practices. Further this entire repossession could have been avoided with a simple email to a customer using an email account they had on file. An email sent to a customer upon an account going delinquent isn't an unreasonable request. Especially prior to repossessing a customer 's sole method of transportation and personal asset.

Company response to consumer: Closed with monetary relief