Consumer complaint received 2021-03-25
Company: U.S. BANCORP
State: CA
Product: Payday loan, title loan, or personal loan
Sub-product: Installment loan
Issue: Struggling to pay your loan

Complaint:
I am contacting you to notify your office of the egregious, aggressive and illegal debt collection tactics that US Bank has been engaging in. I have been misled and victimized by misrepresentations made by their collection agents. I have been promised resolutions that do not exist, and as a result tens of thousands of dollars that I do not have were withdrawn from my bank account. I trusted US Bank and have made good faith efforts to resolve the situation but instead get half truths and misrepresentations and an attempt to force me to sign a confession of judgment. I feel this is outrageous and unacceptable. 

I began using equipment financing for my business in the year XXXX. I have always paid my loans on time. When Covid-19 hit, my business was severely impacted. My revenues dropped 75 % due to the lockdown in my county in the spring. US Bank has made tens of thousands of dollars off of me in interest and regular payments for years. Now I am in a terrible situation -- many of my customers are in trouble and have asked for reduced payments or they are not paying us, or they have gone out of business. I have lost more than half of my old customer base and I am unable to put anything towards marketing right now. I have worked on several different avenues to improve the business and so far it does not seem sustainable due to the lack of business recovery in my region. The new shut down order that went into effect in XXXX is another nail in the coffin for my business. If I do not get permanent and significant relief from my business debt obligations I will be out of business soon. My industry has dramatically changed and now working remotely is becoming a norm with many of our client base and especially in the IT industry which we provide service to. Over the last 60 days I have been unable to collect payments from ANY of my clients for services, instead I have to invoice them and HOPE they pay me for the services early next year. My cash flow is non-existent and I need help. 

I have paid close to or more than half of the balance on this agreement. The servers that I purchased from US Bank are now obsolete and outdated and are worth cents on the dollar. I contacted their office to attempt to negotiate a resolution when the pandemic hit and was told that if I made a large payment in XX/XX/XXXX of {$11000.00} that US Bank would offer me a settlement. However, there was no settlement offered, but instead a three month forbearance that did not help my company resolve this matter. While going back and forth to try and get a real settlement offer on the table US Bank made an unauthorized withdrawal of {$2900.00} as payment towards one finance agreement and {$2600.00} towards the other finance agreement. I did not say this was OK. I was finally offered a settlement with a slight reduction in the balance and a new 5 year term with payments of {$5000.00} per week. I was shocked when I saw an illegal Confession of Judgment hidden in the paperwork, this was not disclosed to me, and this type of document is not legal or valid in my state. Since that time I have reached out to try to work out a reasonable resolution, but US Bank keeps telling me that the only offer on the table is $ XXXX with a confession of judgment. This is not acceptable

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