Consumer complaint received 2018-10-11
Company: CCS Financial Services, Inc.
State: IA
Product: Credit reporting, credit repair services, or other personal consumer reports
Sub-product: Credit reporting
Issue: Incorrect information on your report
Sub-issue: Account status incorrect

Complaint:
The XXXX XXXX  put a collections on my account. When I called in to inquiry about a new policy, I asked if I could pay off the old policy. The rep I spoke with informed me that I did not need to pay it. I have filed a complaint with the XXXX and this is the response to my complaint. You will see where they say I did ask about paying off the account : We have received your correspondence regarding the above referenced complaint. I have reviewed our files and offer the following response. 
On XX/XX/XXXX, Ms. XXXX applied for an auto insurance policy with XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX through the internet for a policy period of twelve ( 12 ) months. 
She chose to pay the premium due on an installment basis by making a down payment of {$280.00} plus eleven ( 11 ) future monthly installments due the XXXX of each month. During the application process she requested the policy be set up as 'paperless ' ; meaning, all of the policy documents would be sent to the email address while certain documents would be sent to both the email and garaging addresses listed on the application. 
On XX/XX/XXXX, we emailed Ms. XXXX an invoice in the amount of {$240.00} due XX/XX/XXXX. 
On XX/XX/XXXX, we mailed her a Notice of Cancellation which advised her policy would cancel effective XXXX XXXX on XX/XX/XXXX, if premium payment was not received. 
On XX/XX/XXXX, she visited our website and made a payment 2 re-presented the payment again to see if sufficient funds were available. We charged her account with a {$25.00} NSF Check Fee. 
On XX/XX/XXXX, Ms. XXXX visited our website and made a payment in the amount of {$240.00}. 
On XX/XX/XXXX, we received a notice from Ms. XXXX ' banking institution that the payment she attempted on XX/XX/XXXX, in the amount of {$240.00}, that we re-presented to the bank, was returned a second time due to " Customer advises not authorized ''. 
On XX/XX/XXXX, Ms. XXXX visited our website and made a payment in the amount of {$240.00}. 
On XX/XX/XXXX, we emailed her an invoice in the amount of {$290.00} due XX/XX/XXXX. 
On XX/XX/XXXX, we received a notice from Ms. XXXX ' banking institution that the payment she attempted on XX/XX/XXXX, in the amount of {$240.00}, was returned due to NSF. We followed our normal procedure and waited a few days then re-presented the payment again to see if sufficient funds were available. We charged her account with a {$25.00} NSF Check Fee. 
On XX/XX/XXXX, we received a notice from Ms. XXXX ' banking institution that the payment she attempted on XX/XX/XXXX, in the amount of {$240.00}, that we represented a second time, was returned due to NSF. 
On XX/XX/XXXX, we emailed and mailed Ms. XXXX a Notice of Cancellation which advised her policy would cancel effective XXXX XXXX  on XX/XX/XXXX, due to Insufficient Funds Check-Payment. We also set up her policy to disallow reinstatements due to NSF payment history. This listed a total installment due in the amount of {$530.00}, as it included the replacement payment due, NSF Fees, as well as the current invoice amount. 
On XX/XX/XXXX, Ms. XXXX called regarding the invoice she received. She advised that she would be unable to submit a payment for the invoiced amount. We advised that she would need to submit a payment prior to XX/XX/XXXX, in order to avoid the cancellation of her policy. 
On XX/XX/XXXX, effective XXXX XXXX, no replacement premium payment having been received, Ms. XXXX ' policy cancelled due to Insufficient Funds Check-payment. 
On XX/XX/XXXX, we emailed and mailed Ms. XXXX a Notice of Lapse which confirmed that her policy had cancelled effective XXXX XXXX on XX/XX/XXXX, due to Insufficient Funds Check-payment. 
Following the cancellation, an outstanding balance remained due in the amount of {$330.00} for dates coverage provided, even though no collectible payment was received since XX/XX/XXXX. 
On XX/XX/XXXX, we emailed and mailed Ms. XXXX an invoice from our Collections Department, in the amount of {$330.00}, due immediately. Please note, the invoice stated, " If 3 you do not pay the amount owed or contact us within 10 days of the date of this letter, we then have no recourse other than to turn this debt over to a collections agency, which could negatively impact your credit rating. '' On XX/XX/XXXX, Ms. XXXX called regarding the collections invoice she received. She stated, " I received a collections notice. I don't have {$330.00} to pay anybody right now but I guess my question is : If I pay the {$330.00} then what happens? '' We advised that her policy was cancelled, and ineligible for reinstatement at that time. As such, she would need to have a new policy issued. We then advised that when she contacted our Representative they would advise of the amount needed to begin her new policy. Please note, we did not advise that she " did not need to worry about that balance ''. She also did not ask to pay the outstanding balance due on her old policy, as she specifically stated that she was unable to submit a payment at that time. Therefore, we are unable to speak to her contentions listed in her complaint. 
On XX/XX/XXXX, Ms. XXXX called to begin a new policy, as her prior policy was unable to be reinstated at that time. At that time, our Representative did not review her prior policy to determine if an outstanding balance remained due per our normal procedure ; therefore the amount was not included on her new policy. Please note, the debt was still valid for days of coverage provided on her prior policy, and as such she would still be required to submit the payment due for the collections invoice. During the call we did not advise that the prior outstanding balance would be waived or added to her new policy. Again, we are unable to speak to her contentions listed in her complaint. We apologize for any confusion this may have caused, and will use this as a training opportunity for our Associates. We did advise that she would need to submit the payment using a credit or debit card, and she advised, " I understand that, I just want to know how much I would have to pay to get this started. '' Please note, at that time, the policy did not begin as she did not submit the required down payment. 
On XX/XX/XXXX, Ms. XXXX called to complete the quote she had started on XX/XX/XXXX. She was then assigned a new policy number : IA XXXX. Please note, when starting this policy, she chose to pay the premium due on an installment basis by making a down payment of {$430.00} plus eleven ( 11 ) future monthly installments due the XXXX of each month. 
Unlike her prior policy, she did not choose to set this policy up as 'paperless ' ; meaning all of the policy documents would be sent to the garaging address provided. During this call we did not advise that the prior outstanding balance would be waived or added to her new policy. 
Again, we are unable to speak to her contentions listed in her complaint. 
On XX/XX/XXXX, the outstanding balance in the amount of {$330.00} was sent to a collections agency for payment recovery. This may have caused a negative impact to Ms . 
XXXX ' credit rating, as advised in the invoice from our Collections Department. 
On XX/XX/XXXX, we mailed Ms. XXXX an invoice in the amount of {$340.00} due XX/XX/XXXX. 
On XX/XX/XXXX, we mailed Ms. XXXX a Notice of Cancellation which advised her policy would cancel effective XXXX XXXX  on XX/XX/XXXX, if premium payment was not received. 
On XX/XX/XXXX, effective XXXX XXXX, no premium payment having been received, Ms. XXXX ' policy cancelled due to non-payment of premium. 
4 On XX/XX/XXXX, we mailed Ms. XXXX a Notice of Lapse which confirmed that her policy had cancelled effective XXXX XXXX on XX/XX/XXXX, due to non-payment of premium. 

Following the cancellation, an outstanding balance remained due in the amount of {$48.00} for dates coverage provided. 
On XX/XX/XXXX, we mailed Ms. XXXX an invoice from our Collections Department, in the amount of {$48.00}, due immediately. Please note, the invoice stated, " If you do not pay the amount owed or contact us within 10 days of the date of this letter, we then have no recourse other than to turn this debt over to a collections agency, which could negatively impact your credit rating. '' On XX/XX/XXXX, Ms. XXXX called regarding her credit rating, as she had learned that the collections invoice on her prior policy had been turned over to a collections agency as advised. She stated that when she called on XX/XX/XXXX, she attempted to pay off the outstanding balance for her prior policy but that our Representative had advised, " You have nothing to worry about. '' Our Representative attempted to question whether or not she had received any types of invoices or notices regarding the remaining balance due and she advised she " never got a bill for that or nothing. '' Please note that assertion is a direct contradiction of what she advised during the call on XX/XX/XXXX, as noted above. Our Representative then questioned which collections invoice had negatively impacted her credit rating, and she stated that it was the collections invoice from XX/XX/XXXX. She then requested to have the calls from XX/XX/XXXX and XX/XX/XXXX reviewed. Our Representative then attempted to provide a direct call back number and she questioned if the number was for collections advising, " If it's involving collections, I'm not paying collections anything. '' We then advised that the review of the calls could take up to twenty-four ( 24 ) to forty-eight ( 48 ) hours, and that we would contact her once the review was completed. 
On XX/XX/XXXX, we emailed XXXX XXXX and advised of our findings regarding the review of the calls from XX/XX/XXXX and XX/XX/XXXX. Specifically, we advised that during the calls no mention of the prior balance due was made by neither our XXXX nor XXXX XXXX. 
After receiving this complaint, we have reviewed XXXX XXXX ' policies, including the phone calls surrounding the start of her second policy. As noted above, the collections invoices sent to her clearly stated that failure to submit the balance due would result in the debt being turned over to a collections agency which could negatively impact your credit rating. When she originally called on XX/XX/XXXX, it was regarding the collections invoice she received ; therefore, we can not speak to her contention that she had no knowledge that the outstanding balance would be turned over to a collections agency. At no point during any of the calls from XX/XX/XXXX or XX/XX/XXXX, did any of our Representatives advise that the prior outstanding balance would be waived or that she did not have to submit a payment for the amount due. Instead, that balance remained due as it was a valid debt for days of coverage provided. We find that the outstanding balance due was correctly submitted to a collections agency, and are unable to remove the charges from her credit history as requested. While we do acknowledge that our Representative did not attempt to collect the outstanding balance at the time of starting her new policy, we can confirm that this did not alleviate her of the responsibility for submitting a payment for the balance due for days of coverage provided. Please be aware that the collections invoice from XX/XX/XXXX for 5 days of coverage provided has also not been paid at this time. To avoid this amount being turned over to a collections agency as well, she will need to submit a payment in the amount of {$48.00} on her current policy. 
We find that our cancellation and collections procedures were compliant and in accordance with Iowa insurance guidelines and our normal policy procedures as reviewed and approved by the state of Iowa. Again, we apologize for any confusion she XXXX have experienced during this process, and hope that we have sufficiently explained this matter. 
Please contact me if you have any questions or need additional information or documentation regarding this complaint.

Company public response: Company believes the complaint is the result of a misunderstanding
Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation