Consumer complaint received 2019-03-10
Company: VALLEY NATIONAL BANCORP
State: NJ
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:
Hello, I recently came to the conclusion of the scheduled payments of a {$55000.00} auto loan provided by Valley National Bank ( Acct : XXXX ) in XX/XX/2018. Upon receiving the final payoff statement, Valley National Bank incorporated over {$1000.00} of late payments and fees associated with payments which weren't made on the exact due date of the loan over the life of the loan. I purchased my vehicle at a dealership and had I known that the financing bank, Valley National Bank, didn't offer online payments I may have requested another lender ( if possible ), but nonetheless over the course of my loan term I admittedly didn't always submit a wire request from my primary bank in time to have the funds to Valley National by the due date. So upon receiving the final payoff statement from Valley National which included {$55.00} of principal and {$1000.00} of late fees, I simply asked Valley National to provide me with a reconciliation of the {$1000.00} of late fees over the course of five years of payments so I could validate those {$1000.00} of late fees and/or additional interest. After being bounced around various departments at Valley National I was told by a collections XXXX that the statement had to be mailed and couldn't be made available online. As I waited for the mailed copy to arrive, I continued to receive collection calls on the remaining principal balance and outstanding fees ( daily over the course of 2 weeks ). I assured the parties involved that I wasn't declining to pay and would make payment arrangements upon receipt of the mailed materials. Over the next 2 weeks all I received from Valley National in the mail was further notices of the remaining principal balance and requested fees. At this point I called Valley National collections to again ask on the status of the requested reconciliation materials. I was told that the materials request was never made and that another department would have to handle reconciliations. Concerned, I asked to speak to a manager and urged her to please initiate the request for the materials so I could reconcile. I even offered to make a payment at the time for the remaining principal balance while I awaited the reconciliation materials so as to close out the loan without any negative impact upon my credit status. She assured me that no further collection actions would be taken, no late payment report would be made to the credit bureaus and assured me that the materials would be mailed over the next few days. Ten days later, I still had not received the materials in the mail and again called the company, at which point I was able to " get to a person '' who had working knowledge of the fee reconciliation system. Rather than asking yet again for the reconciliation to be mailed, I just had her verbally read the day count and $ fees associated with the various payments which weren't made on the due date over the course of the loan, at which point I agreed to pay the principal balance and fees in full, fully expecting that I would never receive a reconciliation in the mail. Days later I received the vehicle title in the mail and figured this was closure, however upon application for a refinance of my existing home loan ( XX/XX/XXXX ) I now discover that over the course of this whole ordeal, Valley National reported me as 30 days late two times for the unpaid {$55.00} balance, while all the while I was simply waiting for their reconciliation of late fees on the payoff notice to be provided to me. I contacted Valley National and asked them to please restate the report to the credit bureau given that my delays were related to an ask for a simple reconciliation of late fees over the course of a five year loan. Valley National declined to consider this and says " what is done is done ''. Is there any remediation that can be taken at this point. This is virtually the only blemish on my credit over a period of 20+ years and is now impacting the cost of my home loan refinancing. This feels like a classic case of poor communication between departments within a loan servicer, please help ...

Company public response: Company believes complaint represents an opportunity for improvement to better serve consumers
Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation