Consumer complaint received 2022-04-30
Company: TOYOTA MOTOR CREDIT CORPORATION
State: NJ
Product: Credit reporting, credit repair services, or other personal consumer reports
Sub-product: Credit reporting
Issue: Problem with a credit reporting company's investigation into an existing problem
Sub-issue: Difficulty submitting a dispute or getting information about a dispute over the phone

Complaint:
Please accept this letter as my formal request for support with Toyota Financials investigation into a credit dispute. They have demonstrated a lack of communication and their process for credit disputes is unclear. I lack confidence that they will address this manner. 

I set up the autopay for my account via telephone in XXXX of XXXX. Since that date I have made all of my payments on time, even through a pandemic when many people were unable to make payments. On or about XXXX of XXXX, the autopay on my account stopped when my lease matured. I did not receive any form of communication from Toyota Financial that my autopay was being stopped nor that my account had matured. There was no written letter, no email, and no telephone call placed to inform me that the autopay had been stopped. 

On XX/XX/XXXX I received a phone call from a representative at Toyota Financial. She explained to me that my contract was up and asked me what my intentions were with the car. I explained to her that I wanted to buy out the car and she then explained to me the process. During this conversation with XXXX, she did not do any of the following : ( 1 ) XXXX did not verify my address. You will read later on in this letter that in a later call it is revealed that Toyota Financial had a two year old address of mine which was updated via telephone call in XXXX. ( 2 ) XXXX did not inform me that my account was delinquent. She did not ask me for payment and she did not tell me that in one day credit markers will be sent to the credit bureaus. 

Within the next week I started the process of securing a car loan and was informed that my score would not qualify me for good rates because my Toyota Financial account was delinquent since I owed two payments. Confused, I called Toyota Financial on XX/XX/XXXX. I spoke to a representative who explained that my autopay was canceled because my lease had matured. I explained to her that I never received any communication until XX/XX/XXXX when I was contacted about returning my car. I explained to her that the representative, XXXX, did not ask me for any payment nor did she explain that I owed two payments. This representative verified my address which was incorrect even though I updated it two years ago in XXXX. This representative also helped me process a dispute with Toyota Financial and directed me to process disputes with the different credit bureaus. She advised me to wait 30 days for the dispute to be reviewed so that I could then buy out my car. During this call I also immediately paid the money that was owed. 

On XX/XX/XXXX I missed a call from Toyota Financial. I immediately returned the call and spoke to a representative who explained to me that a notice of repossession could be placed on my account and that my car would be taken from me if I did not either return the car or buy it out. She explained that my lease matured for more than 60 days. I explained to her that in a previous call I started the dispute process and was advised to wait 30 days for the decision to be made. She explained to me that the dispute would not be reviewed unless I wrote a letter to the Credit Dispute Research Team. This was not something I was informed of when I spoke to someone on XX/XX/XXXX and started the dispute. She pressured me once again to tell her my intentions with the car. I, once again, explained that my credit had taken a serious hit since the autopay was canceled by Toyota Financial. She insisted that I still had to make a decision. I informed her that I would try to get a loan over the week of XX/XX/XXXX through XX/XX/XXXX. 

It was proven to be really difficult to secure a loan with the credit score drop. It is very unfair of Toyota Financial to treat a customer in this manner, especially a customer that has paid faithfully every single month for nearly four years. During the time that the payments were due, I did not receive any phone calls, letters, emails from Toyota Financial attempting to collect their debt. There was no communication either informing me that the debt would be reported to credit bureaus as delinquent. As a loyal customer, I was not given any opportunity to mend the missed payments prior to them being reported to the credit bureaus. I only discovered that these payments were late because I attempted to get an auto loan from my Credit Union. As someone who prior to this had not missed a payment, it is evident that I would have corrected this immediately as I did once I knew that the payments were late.

Company response to consumer: Closed with non-monetary relief