Consumer complaint received 2020-09-16
Company: ALLY FINANCIAL INC.
State: MI
Product: Vehicle loan or lease
Sub-product: Loan
Issue: Managing the loan or lease
Sub-issue: Billing problem

Complaint:
I am submitting a complaint against Ally Financial. I initially filed with the XXXX  but they were unable to assist me and they have closed the complaint due to Ally not responding timely. 
In XX/XX/XXXX I had a total loss from a vehicle accident. I had insurance as well as GAP insurance. 
In XX/XX/XXXX I received statement requesting a payment of {$460.00} ( this amount was previously my monthly payment ). I was confused as Ally had received payment from both my insurance company XXXX XXXX and my GAP insurance. I tried to look my account up online but they disabled it. I was not able to find it even by searching by the account number. I contacted customer service and he advised me to go online and I told him the account was no longer available to me. He told me well sometimes it takes a minute for them to catch up just wait and everything should be caught up in a month or two. 
I next received statement from Ally dated XX/XX/XXXX with an amount due of {$100.00} but with a due date of XX/XX/XXXX. Underneath that is listed an amount paid of {$4000.00} with a due date of XX/XX/XXXX and scheduled payment {$460.00}. It further has listed in the comments section that {$1600.00} is still due on the vehicle. Yet I owe {$100.00} on XX/XX/XXXX? It appears they are charging my account as an installment account even though they know the vehicle totaled and the payments were made for the pay off amount. I have no idea where they came up with the amount still owed. I am unable to determine from the documents and statements received what the true actual numbers are and how they applied it against the total payoff. 
In XX/XX/XXXX and XX/XX/XXXX I received statements that showed I owed zero amount and on the XXXX statement it has a payment of {$1200.00} being paid but yet it still shows in that comment section the amount of {$1600.00} to pay off vehicle. Then in XXXX I receive a statement again stating I need to pay {$100.00} on XX/XX/XXXX. I called Ally he stated he was sending account to be investigated and instead of it being investigated I immediately began receiving collection calls. 
I explained the situation to the collection person. She then indicated that I was 3 or4 payments behind when I just received an email a week prior that I was 2 months  behind apparently their time goes much quicker than the rest of the world. I said I did not understand how I could owe so much still towards the vehicle. She advised that I did an extension agreement in XXXX and XXXX of XXXX and I still owed for that. I stated so -when my insurance was provided the payoff amount they did not include the total pay off amount? I said that does not make sense you should send the total pay off amount of the vehicle as that is what was requested. 
Ally did finally respond to me from the XXXX  complaint, I received about week late. It did not explain what I asked of them about the statements and the inaccuracies. They send me a letter and an account sheet that shows different information than what was on the GAP pay history. In the letter they also stated that as soon as a vehicle is totaled they immediately disable the account. I find that interesting since every employee I spoke with told me to look at my online account and even an emails I received in XXXX and XXXX advised me to look at or make my payment through my online account the same one they XXXX. 
Also, they know this was payoff for the vehicle why were they still charging me interest, late charges and applying the payoff amounts they received to principal and interest? The amount that was to be refunded back to the dealership which was around {$1200.00} for the maintenance agreement instead of simply taking out of the amount owed on the vehicle they made it appear like a payment on my account and split that across principal and interest. That should have been taken out of the principal or total owed period. The persons argument that the GAP insurance did not pay about {$1200.00} was because the information that I sent them provided by Ally showed an amount of {$1200.00} being applied as a payment to principal and interest - it did not show the amount as a refund back to the dealer so GAP insurance took the amount owed to the dealership out of the payment owed to Ally. 
Finally, where did that payment amount of {$1200.00} come from that is listed on the invoice? perhaps from GAP once it was realized? But the comments always said I owed over {$1600.00} for the vehicle. Something is definitely wrong with this entire situation. They have affected my credit when I was finally making headway after about five years of diligently working on past debts and ensuring timely payments. Now they have me owing over {$1900.00}. They are treating the account like a monthly payment agreement even though it is a total loss and if in fact I did owe anything I would think they would contact me and try to work out how the rest was be paid. 
They are costing me money because my car insurance looks at my credit report and I am not able to obtain low interest on anything because whatever they are doing ruined what I have been working towards for over 5 years. Because of this my credit dropped over 30 points when it should have went up after Ally account was shown as paid and no late payments. It is not right, if anything I think I should be owed money due to the confusing billing practices that I do not think are above board and forcing me to lose a lot of hard work I have put into fixing my credit. They are causing me a great deal of stress, lost time to deal with this issue that should not be this difficult. 
I should not owe any money Ally financial. They were paid by my insurance and my GAP insurance. I would like real explanations of the statements I received. As stated in XXXX and XXXX I received statements that showed I owed XXXX amount and then in XXXX I again owed the XXXX. I want to know all payments received, how they were applied, if they were applied correctly and how they came up with the amounts that I owe. I want the account to show a XXXX balance and show it in good standing without any late payments because I never paid late. If I felt Ally was being above board on what is owed on the account I would not have an issue, the problem is I think they are trying collect additional money from a mistake they may have made I do not know really. Please review the attached documents and advise if you need anything further from me. 
Attached : the XXXX  complaint, Ally late reply to XXXX  complaint, payment history for GAP provided by Ally, billing statements XX/XX/XXXX through XX/XX/XXXX, email advising me to go to online account that Ally disables as a matter of practice but their customer service or auto email info does not know about.

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