Consumer complaint received 2021-11-30
Company: TRUIST FINANCIAL CORPORATION
State: OR
Product: Vehicle loan or lease
Sub-product: Loan
Issue: Managing the loan or lease
Sub-issue: Billing problem

Complaint:
I have a vehicle loan with Regional Acceptance Corporation based in XXXX WA and have experienced ongoing abusive practices from them that fall under UDAAP. They make it very difficult to pay more than the minimum payment and the process a customer has to go through to have them apply any overage payment to the principal is unfair and abusive. In order to have extra payments applied to the principal, RAC requires I call them and request an " account adjustment. '' I can't request this online, nor is there any other method available to me to make this request in writing such as email. 

The problem is that the agents who answer the customer service line ( XXXX ) are not all trained to make the account adjustment and apply the extra payments as requested. Either they don't know what I'm talking about or they say they don't know how to make the adjustment. Every month when I call to make the account adjustment, it requires several phone calls to get someone who knows how to make the account adjustment. I am following their policy and procedures in calling them to apply the extra payments to the principal but they don't know how to help me once I call and get an agent. 

Today, I called to request an account adjustment be made for the {$500.00} payment I made on XX/XX/XXXX. Of that payment made, {$390.00} is the minimum payment and I requested that the additional {$100.00} be applied to the principal. The first agent I got was XXXX who said shes never heard of that kind of request and questioned that its something they can even do. After repeatedly explaining that this is their own procedure, I requested that if she is not able to make the payment adjustment, to give me to a supervisor who can. But XXXX became abusive, talking over me, not letting me finish my sentence, raising her voice, telling me shes trying to help me when clearly she wasnt. As with other times Ive called and had trouble with the agent understanding what is being requested or how to make the adjustment, I requested to speak to a supervisor. Then the call goes as it usually does, with the agent becoming even more rude, talking over me, and telling me that if they have to get a supervisor on the line that I will be on hold for a long time. This was the case today. Though I told XXXX that I was on my lunch break, she told me that there is only one supervisor she can connect me with and he's busy, and if I want to talk to him, I will have to wait until he's free. When I asked XXXX to put an agent on who knows how to adjust the payment, she threatened to put me back in the general customer service queue to start all over again. 

This is abusive!!! It should not be this difficult to get extra payments applied to the principal. I should not have to call the finance company multiple times to get a simple payment adjustment made, be subject to abusive behavior by their agents, and not be able to speak to a supervisor when I cant get the task performed by one of their agents. If they refuse or are unable to apply my extra payments to the principal, that means my extra payment is going to the interest which only benefits the finance company and not the loan holder. That is an unfair and abusive practice. When I called last month in XXXX to make the account adjustment, it required XXXX phone calls before the adjustment was made. Per my phone records, I called RAC twice on XX/XX/XXXX, then called on XX/XX/XXXX, XX/XX/XXXX, XX/XX/XXXX, XX/XX/XXXX, and XX/XX/XXXX, before I finally got the adjustment made ( RAC will have the same records of these calls ). The first call I got XXXX and she said she wasnt logged on to their system and I had to wait while she logged on. After 12 minutes, I asked if she was still logging on and reminded her I was calling on my lunch break from work. Her reply was that I needed to be patient while she logs on the system to help me. After a few more minutes I disconnected the call as I had to go back to work. Why would customer service agents answer a customers call if they arent logged on to their system? Why would it take 15 minutes to log on to the system?

Today I was on hold for 21 minutes waiting to speak to a supervisor to get the account adjustment made. After 21 minutes, I hung up and called the customer service line again, and reached " XXXX, '' and after repeating that I am calling to make an account adjustment for the {$500.00} payment made on XX/XX/XXXX, applying the extra amount of {$100.00} to the principal, XXXX stated she didn't know what I was talking about. My lunch break was over and rather than go through another stressful phone call again, I hung up and decided to file this complaint instead. As of today, I still dont have the payment adjustment made and I have no recourse to have the adjustment made other than calling customer service multiple times and being subject to abusive behavior. This is a violation of regulation UDAAP. 

Another UDAAP violation by this company was revealed during the phone calls I made last month in XX/XX/XXXX. When I called to make a payment on my due date ( XX/XX/XXXX ), the automated system said my balance due was {$25.00}. The payment amount that was actually due was {$390.00}. So I hung up from the automated system and called customer service and asked the following : Why is the balance only {$25.00}? 
Since that is not my minimum payment amount of {$390.00}, what is this amount for? Is it a fee? 
Why is my regular minimum payment amount not stated as the balance owed? 
Why hasnt the {$25.00} ever showed up on account statements or their automated system? 

The answers I got back was that they couldnt tell me what the {$25.00} is for as it was not showing up in their system. One agent said my minimum payment due wont show up in their automated system until the day AFTER the due date, which is false. Other agents said they dont know why my minimum payment was not stated in their system on my due date. One agent ( XXXX ) told me that the {$25.00} is not a late fee but would research their archive system and call me back with an answer. This agent also said that it must be very old since its not in their system with current transaction history. I asked that agent if thats the case, why hasnt the {$25.00} shown up on past statements or on their automated system when I call to make a payment by phone? The agent said they didnt know but would find out and tell me when she calls me back. That agent did call back and left a voicemail saying it was an NSF fee from XX/XX/XXXX. No explanation was given for why this fee has never shown up on my statements before XX/XX/XXXX or stated on their automated system. So now I have a mysterious {$25.00} payment thats from almost 5 years ago that theyve never told me about until it showed up last month on their automated system and they can not provide proof for the charge. This is an abusive practice!! 

When I tried to access my account statement online for XX/XX/XXXX to view the supposed NSF, I got an error message that the statement is not available. That's when I noticed that they stopped providing account statements after XX/XX/XXXX ( see attachments ). By law the finance company must provide account statements for each billing period ( which is monthly for this loan ). This is another UDAAP violation.

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