Consumer complaint received 2020-07-20
Company: HYUNDAI CAPITAL AMERICA
State: MA
Product: Vehicle loan or lease
Sub-product: Lease
Issue: Managing the loan or lease
Sub-issue: Billing problem

Complaint:
Note : I filed a complaint with the company already. however, the manager in Customer Service advised me he did not think anyone from the complaint department would get back to me. The manager acknowledged the issue, but did not know what would be done do fix it. 

Recently, Kia Finance made changes to their statements and ( and according to the manager ), their payment application hierarchy. This has made the statements very confusing and the hierarchy change was never communicated to me.

Prior to the change, if I prepaid my lease one month in advance, I would get a bill indicating a due date and an amount owed as XXXX ( Example attached XXXX. Now, even if I am prepaid, it still shows me an amount due and the date it is due because the company keeps advance payments in suspense until the due date ... and then applied them.. 

This application of payment may be legal or not, but Kia has a systemic issue the CFPB must address, and it is that Kia repeatedly dose not have correct information on Statements ( Example attached ). For instance, even though my XXXX  payment was made prior to the statement date, it is not reflected anyplace in my XXXX or XXXX Statement, which causes confusion. XXXX Both attached ) When I called today, I was given misinformation at the first two levels ( CSR and 1st level manager ) and my call was escalated to a higher level manager in customer service who assured me my XX/XX/XXXX payment was applied, and that it should have been listed on my subsequent statement. This needs to be fixed. 

So my complaints are : 1. I want my payments applied on the day of receipt and not placed in suspense. 
2. My XXXX  Statement is incorrect and does not reflect my XXXX  XXXX  payment. I want it fixed for my records. Either that, or i want it reflected on my XXXX statement. 
3. Kia finance does not break down how your payment is applied on a statement. If you owe {$540.00} and pay {$600.00} they initially place your entire payment in suspense till the due date instead of applying it. Then, on the due date, the place the extra {$53.00} in suspense so that the next month, it can all happen again and they then take the {$53.00} in suspense and apply it to your payment, place your payment in suspense, and apply it on the due date - so even though you pay extra each month - you never get ahead and your payment amount never changes. The {$53.00} is just carried forward in suspense in perpetuity. If this is legal, it needs to be disclosed on the statement as such. I want my payment application broken down on the statement and for the statement to read I owe zero that month if my payment was already received. Kia is telling me I owe money, even though I do not, just because they'd like to keep the money in suspense. I f I sent it, and they got it ... I don't owe it. 
4. I'd like my past payments properly applied on the date of receipt and interest recalculated.

5. The statements with improper information problem is clearly a systemic issue. I'd like my future statement to be correct and accurate.

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