Consumer complaint received 2018-11-07
Company: ALLY FINANCIAL INC.
State: NV
Product: Vehicle loan or lease
Sub-product: Loan
Issue: Managing the loan or lease
Sub-issue: Billing problem

Complaint:
My husband and I recently joined bank accounts. The Ally vehicle loan auto payment still came out of my husband 's old account on XX/XX/2018. The email thanked us for our payment of {$580.00}, so we assumed that we paid in full. The following day, XX/XX/2018, we received another email thanking us for our payment of {$570.00}. So, we received two emails stating that we were paid in full for the month of XX/XX/XXXX. It wasn't until over one month later, on XX/XX/2018, that another email was sent stating that our " vehicle payment scheduled for XX/XX/18 was returned. '' The old account that the auto payment drew from had insufficient funds because it was no longer in use, due to my husband being added to my account as a joint account. Now, my husband 's credit has taken a major hit because this was considered a 30-day late payment. However, Ally did not notify us of this until almost 6 weeks after the fact. Instead, we were told on two separate emails that we were paid in full. If we had been notified immediately, we could have paid this in full immediately, and our payment would never have been considered late. My husband and I have been paying on this vehicle loan through Ally for over 4 years now, and have never been late on a payment. 

Because we are in the midst of buying our first home, we need a letter from Ally stating that our account has been " paid as agreed. '' We close on this home on XX/XX/2018 -- in just one week. If we do not receive this letter, and give it to our Home Loan Officer immediately, we will not be able to go forward with the loan for this house, and will lose this opportunity. We have spoken to numerous Customer Service Specialists and they have now submitted our request twice, and have marked it " urgent '' twice. Every time we check the status, we are told it is still " pending '' and given no further answers. Ally failed to notify us of our late payment until 6 weeks after the fact, which is considered fraudulent behavior -- they never gave us the opportunity to correct their mistake. We requested on multiple occasions that Ally send us a formal letter, on their letter head, referencing our account #, stating that we are " paid as agreed '' by XX/XX/18 -- which they failed to do. This letter needed to be sent via fax to XXXX XXXX XXXX at XXXX XXXX XXXX. 

My husband and I have both been calling Ally separately for weeks now. He has called at least on 4 separate occasions. Due to a lack of help, I began calling -- I called on XX/XX/18 twice and they finally stated that someone from the Executive Customer Relations Department would be contacting us within 48 hours. I also faxed over a cover letter on XX/XX/18 stating the information listed above in addition to the emails we received. They did not contact us until XX/XX/18, and unfortunately we missed their call. I called back this same day and left a detailed message. My husband called yesterday, XX/XX/18 and left a detailed message. I called today, XX/XX/18, and left another detailed message, with no response.

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