Consumer complaint received 2021-04-10
Company: JPMORGAN CHASE & CO.
State: IL
Product: Vehicle loan or lease
Sub-product: Loan
Issue: Managing the loan or lease
Sub-issue: Billing problem

Complaint:
Recently I bought a new XXXX, which was financed through the dealer which uses Chase Bank as their loan provider. On XX/XX/XXXX, I went to set up my online loan account to pay my first bill. I entered the account number that was sent to me and my social security per the instructions I was sent. The website gave me several options for verification. This should have been a red flag, actually, as two of the three verification options were not info I had given on my loan applicationone was a long disconnected landline ( disconnected at least 15 years ago ) and one was an older email that I dont actively use. The other was my current work number which I can not use for personal use. The only one I could possibly use for verification was the old email. My current mobile phone number, which was my main number on the loan application was not a verification option. My current email which was the only email address used in any of my correspondences with the auto dealer was not a verification option. 

When I got the verification email, I should also have realized something was wrong. It was addressed to my old married name -- a name that has not been my legal name for almost 10 years. My ex-husband is an abusive person, and it was very shocking to be confronted with that name when that name was not the name under which I applied for this loan, nor is it my legal name.

Many years ago, I had some accounts with Chase. They are all long-closed. I presumed that through my social security number ( which I NEVER changed to my married name, by the way ) the old account was linked to the new one.

I copied the code that was sent me, input the code
on the verification page on the website, and set up a new username and new password. This was a username I had not used before with Chase and I user name I only use for one other financial product that was recently opened with a different bank ( which has all my information correct ). 

When the dashboard page for my new account came up it was populated with my old married name!!! Not my current legal name. Not the name I used on the loan application. That is traumatic. It was/is NOT possible to change the account name online. I called the customer service number and spent an hour on the phone getting bounced to various Chase people ( and also got disconnected once ) and no one could help me. I will repeat, I spent an hour on the phone with various people at Chase -- in the auto loan department, the credit card department, the general number, and NO ONE could help me. They did admit that somehow my old account must have linked to the new on through my social security number. 

Additionally, the email on the new account was my old ancient email -- NOT the email I used for the loan application. I believe also that I had an opportunity to input my current email, and that was not evident until I spent the time to change it. 

Even worse, the new account also populated my primary address as my old married addressthis is my abusive ex-husbands current address. That, at least, I was able to change. But I only noticed it because I went in and checked everything for accuracy. This is a safety issue. This is the kind of thing that could result in violence. What if my bills started getting sent to my ex due to this? 

Then I checked the phone numbers. The primary phone number was my long disconnected land line. Luckily that I was able to change too. 

I should not have to spend time correcting these things when my loan application had everything CURRENT and CORRECT. 

To add insult to injury, while I was on hold, I decided to set up payment for my bill due on XX/XX/XXXX. I went to add my bank account. I received an error message saying that I could not add my bank account because it was associated with another account ( clearly the ancient, closed Chase credit card account that auto-populated the incorrect info ). 

I tried to login to that old Chase account ( I still had the info in my password manager ). It has me locked out because I have not used it in years. So I can not remove my bank account from that old account to be able to link it to this XXXX/Chase auto account so that I can pay my bill. 

This was not my mistake, I dont feel I should have to spend any more of my time trying to fix this. It is painful and perpetuates abuse. It is a giant waste of my valuable time to fix a corporate mistake. I work in technology and it is unfathomable to me that someone made the decision to populate a new account -- without any sort of change to verify if the pre-populated information is correct and with NO way to correct one of those data points ( my name ) -- with information from a long-closed account just based on matching two data points with that old account ( social security number and an outdated, if still active, email ).

Id just like to be able to pay my bill and not be confronted with a traumatic name when I log in to my online account. My online account needs to be the same legal name as the one on my loan application. And I would just like to be able to link my bank account without a hassle. It just needs to be unlinked from my ancient closed Chase account. 

I do not feel I should have to spend hours trying to fix this mistake that never should have happened. 

I also contacted my auto dealer and asked them to try to resolve this. They said they would try but as of XX/XX/XXXX, I have not heard back from them. 

Additionally, when I posted about this to my social media, I had two other people note that they similarly had had ancient info from long-closed Chase accounts pulled in as primary addresses/phone numbers to their new auto loan account when they set it up. So this is not an isolated incident.

Company response to consumer: Closed with non-monetary relief