Consumer complaint received 2016-07-21
Company: JPMORGAN CHASE & CO.
State: CA
Product: Consumer Loan
Sub-product: Vehicle lease
Issue: Managing the loan or lease

Complaint:
I leased a 2015 Subaru Crosstrek XX/XX/XXXX. Chase Auto Finance is the financial company handling the lease financing for Subaru. My contract states that my payments are due on the XXXX of each month. In XXXX XXXX I logged into the Chase Financial website and set up a recurring auto-payment of {$420.00} to be automatically deducted from XXXX XXXX XXXX checking account. I also chose the " paperless '' statement option to receive my monthly statement via email. To date I have not received a single e-mail -- or any correspondence for that matter -- from Chase Auto Finance. 

On XXXX XXXX, XXXX I received an automated phone call from Chase informing me that my payment was past due. Noting that my payments were made automatically and that I had NEVER received a call from Chase before regarding the status of my lease, I was concerned. 

I was connected to a customer service representative and was informed that my payment was 18 days past due and that I had accumulated {$200.00} in late fees over the course of the last 8 months. I was informed that EVERY SINGLE AUTO-PAYMENT I HAD MADE WAS LATE. 

I stated that : A. My contract states that my payments are due on the XXXX of each month ; B. My payments had automatically been deducted on the XXXX of each of the prior 8 months, and ; C. Inquired as to why I was hearing from Chase after 8 MONTHS of late payments? 

Chase, knowing that my payments were allegedly late, simply churned my account for {$200.00} in late fees. The representative confirmed that there were no records indicating that Chase had ever made an attempt to contact me about my late payments or the late charges that were accruing on my account each month. 

With a simple phone call, letter or email I could have simply changed the date of my auto-payment to the correct date and avoided all of this. 

I asked why would Chase 's online system allow me to set up an auto-payment that was later than the due date? The representative flatly informed that that this " is not a Chase problem, you are responsible for knowing your contract payment date. '' I asked why, if I was past due EVERY MONTH for the LAST EIGHT MONTHS did it take Chase so long to contact me about this issue? Again, I was informed that this " was not Chase 's responsibility and that contacting me at all was a courtesy. '' It is my contention that Chase knew that my payments were erroneously set up past the due date and they chose to use this as an opportunity to generate late fees on my account, period. Chase has failed to send me a single statement ( via email or regular mail ). I had not received any communication from Chase about this or any other matter regarding my account. As such, I assumed that my account was in good standing. This was all completely avoidable has Chase chosen to communicate with me about this issue. Instead, Chase waited NINE MONTHS to bring this matter to my attention. 

I have changed my auto-payment date to the XXXX day of each month to avoide further complications. This was not necessary as MY CONTRACT STATES MY PAYMENT DATE IS THE XXXX OF EACH MONTH.

Company response to consumer: Closed with monetary relief