Consumer complaint received 2021-01-12
Company: Credit Central Holdings, LLC
State: TN
Product: Payday loan, title loan, or personal loan
Sub-product: Installment loan
Issue: Problem when making payments

Complaint:
I have been a customer of Credit Central for almost 13 years. I had a Credit Central loan with a balance of around XXXX. When the pandemic hit, I was offered a XXXX  XXXX  in the middle of the school year. School was closed, and leadership was not sure if I would continue to get a paycheck as I was not a full-time contracted XXXX. I told the Manager XXXX XXXX about the issue. At first she asked me to check in weekly. Then an assistance manager telling me I could no longer call with an update but had to come into the office to update them. I live an hour away from the location. Because my sister is the manager at the one in my hometown, I had to open the loan in the closest location from there. I told them due to finances, I couldn't travel. I kept getting multiple daily calls, some back to back where employees were not documenting talking to me. I would speak to one in the morning and get a call that evening stating no one had talked to me. 

I then received a phone call at work. I was taken from my classroom where our secretary said Credit Central was on the phone to talk about my account. I have explicitly told them the entire time I have had loans there that I could not take work calls. Ever. Then, I received a call that a District Manager from Credit Central was outside the building wanting to see me. I was not there as I was at the hospital with a nephew going through XXXX. My secretary asked me if I needed to borrow money. I have never given permission for them to talk to my employer about a loan. Then school got cancelled and not just closed for a few days making it worse. 

Old references that had asked Credit Central not to be called began getting collection calls for me. I even received a call from my exhusbands current wife saying XXXX from Credit Central had called her to get in contact with me about a late business matter. I have never listed her as a reference as I do not have regular contact with her. Credit Central then contacted my father telling him I was three months behind on payments and could he have me call them. How would he know how far I was behind? During this time, I had offered to pay what I could and was told only full payments would be accepted thus making me fall further and further behind. Credit Central staff had contacted several people and disclosed personal information in an attempt to scare me into a payment which I said I did not have. I did stop answering the daily calls when I'd explained over and over I would call each Friday with an update if smaller payments wouldn't be accepted. 

I then received a letter from an attorney about the bill. I contacted the District Manager, XXXX XXXX. I explained to her what had happened and that I could make small payments until my paychecks started again. I had three jobs and each of them had been negatively impacted by Covid. She apologized for the disclosures and told me repeatedly that no one should give third party information. She said XXXX was one of her best managers and had not been documenting this calls with me. She said that she would have this bill eliminated if I would not contact CFPB about the disclosures and harrassing phone calls. She said I would be getting a letter in the mail within 30 days of this call for it to reach all the proper channels. The phone calls from the local office also stopped. About 45 days later, I am served a warrant where I am being sued for the XXXX loan. I attempted to contact XXXX who I was told had quit. The new manager, XXXX XXXX XXXX unsure of her last name spelling ) who told me they had received the paperwork but decided not to uphold it. Since I had not received anything in writting until then, they did not have to uphold. I explained that I could have been making payments and gotten a checks since this had I know it wouldn't be uphold. She told me that now they knew it would be paid. She told me she did not expect her employees to document every call with a customer especially if there were multiple calls. She also told me that the law states they can use what ever database available to find people linked with me. This is how they got my exhusband 's current wife 's information. They did not realize who she was but knew she was associated with me somehow. 

I will not end up having to pay court fees, lawyers fees and the loan when I was told it would be written off and not on my credit. They did uphold not reporting it to a credit agency. It is not on my credit as of today XX/XX/XXXX. However, the collection practices and disclosures are the issue. I would be more than willing to pay this debt had I been notified they would not uphold the word of their previous District Manager, XXXX XXXX. XXXX was extremely rude and told me I should have expected this. She acknowledged that her staff did not document calls and that they should not have come to or called my work. 

I contacted XXXX the week of XX/XX/XXXX to find out she had been terminated from Credit Central. There had been several customer and employee complaints. I thought it interesting that they were disclosing that to me not knowing who I even was. I now do not know who to contact because this can be handled now without everyone going to court and risking COVID exposure.

Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation