Consumer complaint received 2016-08-15
Company: VW Credit
State: TN
Product: Consumer Loan
Sub-product: Vehicle lease
Issue: Managing the loan or lease

Complaint:
On XXXX XXXX, XXXX I decided to go to VW to see about purchasing a car. They had specials going on, the year end " Sign and Drive ''. It appealed to me because I did n't have to put any money down. I wanted a new car. I never had a new car before. I figured that leasing a car would be better for me at the time. In three years I could trade it in for a new one, or keep it. Which was better than keeping a car for 5 years to pay it off. Either way they ran my credit and I was approved. I paid for more mileage just in case I went over. I lived close to work, but traveled occasionally to see family. The car was great. I enjoyed it. I made my payments on time until the last year. I changed banks and setup auto pay. Some how I was always 30 days behind for a few months. I never received anything in the mail regarding this. I am not sure I missed a payment and that continued to trickle down over the months. It made my credit look bad. This was in XX/XX/XXXX. My lease was almost up. In XXXX XXXX I had some mechanical failures ( electrical box ) that had to be replaced. That was {$500.00} out of pocket that was not warrantied for some reason. After spending time with the vehicle and knowing how much was owed, I decided it would have been best to just purchase it at the end of lease. Then I find out I CAN NOT DO THAT because of my CREDIT. When I leased the vehicle my score was a XXXX. Now it was a XXXX. NEVER did I see anything stating I could not get my loan changed from lease to purchase through VW Credit. My credit changed. I was paying for the vehicle. Now I have derogatory remarks on my credit and I owe VW Credit a {$9000.00} overage for using the vehicle. To purchase the vehicle it was {$12000.00}. I went over my miles because I had planned on keeping the car. I feel like I have been scammed out of a car. Why? Because I leased it through VW Credit. When leasing the vehicle all it said was if you chose to keep your vehicle just pay {$1.00} to change from lease to purchase. VW Credit could not finance me due to my credit score. I could not get financed anywhere else. I tried. Medical issues and Family issues kept me from getting financing. I had to return the vehicle, only for VW Credit to charge me with {$9000.00} of overage. I would have rather kept the vehicle. The buy price was {$12000.00} at the end of my lease. For {$3000.00} more and I could have bought the car. VW Credit later sold the car for {$15000.00}. They made and extra {$3000.00} more off of my vehicle by selling it to someone else. By adding my {$9000.00} mileage overage it would bring $ XXXX+ {$9000.00} the total of {$24000.00} for a brand new purchase price of {$32000.00} for a vehicle that was 3 years old with XXXX miles. I do not feel that is right. I feel like I was setup and scammed. VW Credit needs to specify up front that at the end of your lease you have to find another lender for financing. Credit may prevent you from owning your vehicle if even if you planned on keeping it. I was never told this. Otherwise, I would have purchased up front when I could have done so. I also tried to convert over to a purchase 30 days into my lease, they said I would have to wait until the lease was over.

Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation