Consumer complaint received 2023-06-07
Company: Great American Finance Co
State: IL
Product: Payday loan, title loan, or personal loan
Sub-product: Installment loan
Issue: Problem when making payments

Complaint:
1. I have a personal line of credit with Great American Finance for XXXX XXXX. 

2. The line of credit has two promotional balances with no interest for 18 months. Those promotional balances have to be paid off after 18 months to avoid the interest that is accruing every month. 

3. I have been having difficulty obtaining information or transparency from the company regarding my promotional balances, especially including the interest amounts that are accruing ( and which would be charged after 18 months if the promo bals. are not paid ). 

4. Also, for some reason the company stopped posting my statements online in XXXX XXXX, meaning that neither the XXXX, XXXX, XXXX, nor XXXX statements have posted. 

5. I called and spoke with an agent in customer service apx. one month ago, and was advised promo balance # 1 had a deferred interest amt. of {$270.00} and an promotional period exp. date of XXXX XXXX, XXXX ; and that promo bal # 2 had a deferred interest amt. of {$270.00} and an exp. date of XX/XX/XXXX. 

6. After making my monthly payment, I called back for updated balances on the two promotions ( given that they ought to have both gone down on account of the payment ). The agent *could not* tell me what the updated promo balances were ; nor the updated accrued finance charges. 

7. The agent also confirmed that my statements for the last several months, which were not available online, were also not available to him or to customer service. He requested that those back statements be made available online and to customer service, and that they be mailed to me. 

8. Despite this, they were never mailed to me and they were never placed online or made avail to customer servicer. 

9. Today, after the statement cycled, I called back for the updated promo bals. I was advised by XXXX in Customer Service that promo bal # 1 was {$400.00} ; and promo bal # 2 was {$2200.00}. He said he did not have/ could not provide the updated deferred interest info. It took a lengthy interrogation for him to admit that. He did not even seem to understand how promotional balances worked and I had to explain multiple times what the accrued deferred interest was. 

10. I advised XXXX  that I had previously been able to receive this info but that I wanted an update. I advised him that I had previously been promised that statements would be mailed to me and made available online. 

11. He said he could have a manager call me back, which I requested. He said he could either request the statements be mailed or have a mgr. call me but not both! ( what an outrage, especially after the statements had already been promised to me ). 

12. I explained that I would be filing a CFPB complaint and asked him to advise his supervisor. He said it was my decision to do so, but at first refused to advise the company, asking what good it would do to tell his supervisor? I said that I wanted to notate in the complaint that the company was already aware of the case. After several frustrating rounds in which I asked him yes or no would he advise his supervisor, he finally said yes. 

13. I also said that the company was harming its customers by not being transparent and that they are the ones who stand to profit at the expense of their customers when their customers are hit with accrued deferred interest charges due to a lack of information and transparency to the customer so that they are unable to make informed decisions. It does not appear XXXX notated this concern,

Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation