Consumer complaint received 2019-06-21
Company: FIRST CREDIT FINANCE
State: CA
Product: Credit reporting, credit repair services, or other personal consumer reports
Sub-product: Credit reporting
Issue: Incorrect information on your report
Sub-issue: Account status incorrect

Complaint:
Hello, This complaint is in hopes that you can assist me with an issue I've been dealing with for years. I am actually upset at myself for letting it drag on this long. Many years ago I received a loan for a car through First Credit Finance. Due to unfortunate financial circumstances, I was forced to abandon my vehicle after about a year and a half and allowed First Credit Finance repossess it. I am not upset about that. First Credit Finance paid out money and deserved to get paid back. Since I couldn't pay them, they had every right to repossess he vehicle, sell it, and then come after me for whatever was left pending. Unfortunately, that is not the issue here nor why I am so upset and am asking for your assistance. 

I am asking for your assistance because although what First Credit Finance did was well within their rights, what they've done to my credit report is not.Back on XX/XX/XXXX, I began inquiring into possibly purchasing a home. I went to a Mortgage lender and the lender showed me a credit report that described as me being 60 days late on my vehicle one time and 90+ days late on my vehicle loan 20 times. It goes without saying that this was impossible. I only had my vehicle for about 1 1/2 years before it was repossessed so there was no way i could be late 21 times if I only had the vehicle for a maximum of 18 months. Truth be told, I don't even think I had it that long. Furthermore, the loan on the vehicle was only for {$14000.00} and even after paying for a year and having them sell the vehicle to recover some of their money, the report said I owed them {$21000.00}! After disputing the account several times with the credit bureaus, the account kept coming back as verified and accurate. I actually gave up on it for a while because I didn't know what to do or how to fix this. Then on XX/XX/XXXX, I went to another mortgage lender and sure enough, the report still showed First Credit Finance was reporting the account exactly as before. There was no other choice, I hired a company to assist me in figuring out how I can have this fixed. 

The company I hired informed me that in order for a company to collect on a deficiency balance in California for motor vehicles, a company was supposed to give me a disposition of vehicle document detailing what they sold the car for, what their fees were, and what remaining balance left was. Because I don't remember ever receiving one, I submitted a request in writing for this document on XX/XX/XXXX. No response was ever given and no document was ever provided to me. Since nothing was ever provided to me, my consultant advised me to contact First Credit Finance by phone and ask for this document or any document explaining how they are calculating their charges and why they are reporting multiple late payments post repossession date. On XX/XX/XXXX, my representative and I called First Credit Finance directly. 

On XX/XX/XXXX we reached an " assistant portfolio servicing manager '' named XXXX. When asking XXXX about any documentation regarding this account, XXXX said there was a judgment file on XX/XX/XXXX. We asked for a case number but XXXX could not provide one. XXXX claimed that counsel was handling this account. We asked for counsel 's number but XXXX refused to provide us with one. He said he would forward our number to counsel to call us back. I'm no fool and knew that would never happen and to this day I have been proven correct. I have not received a call from anybody regarding this account. Regardless, my representative knew no call would be received either so he began asking questions. If there was a judgment filed on XX/XX/XXXX, why was there 150+ day late payments reported all the way until XX/XX/XXXX? That should be impossible if a judgment was obtained on XX/XX/XXXX. XXXX then tried to refer us to counsel again without allowing us to actually speak to him or be transferred to him or receive any information about said counsel. My representative pressed on and informed XXXX that counsel had no say in how First Credit Finance did their credit reporting. He asked to speak to a supervisor above XXXX 's station. XXXX refused to send us anywhere. My representative then informed XXXX that because no disposition of vehicle was provided after written request, no case number was provided, no explanation as to why late payments were being reported for months or possibly even a year AFTER the vehicle was sold, and no cooperation plus and outright refusal for us to speak to someone with authority over this, I would be filing this very complaint. XXXX just said counsel would speak with us and hung up. We have never spoken to anyone else about this since that day. 

I am now filing this complaint because I know those late payments are not allowed on my credit report according to the FDIC rules on how accounts are supposed to be reported. 
Under FDIC Law, Regulations, Related Acts 5000 - Statements of Policy UNIFORM RETAIL CREDIT CLASSIFICATION AND ACCOUNT MANAGEMENT POLICY Closed-end retail loans that become past due 120 cumulative days and open-end retail loans that become past due 180 cumulative days from the contractual due date should be classified Loss and charged off.2 In lieu of charging off the entire loan balance, loans with non-real estate collateral may be written down to the value of the collateral, less cost to sell, if repossession of collateral is assured and in process. 

In other words, This account should have been reported as a charge off after 4 consecutive months of no payment and the account should have reflected what I owed after sale. This account obviously does not and has late payments reported well after they purportedly obtained judgment against me. I say purportedly because I have no case number to even look this up and know if it is or not. Please help me in getting this company to remove this account from the credit report as they have been reporting it illegally for years now and its too late to simply correct their reporting. Furthermore, they have been illegally verifying an account that can not be verified as it is not accurate.

Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation