Consumer complaint received 2020-01-08
Company: ALLY FINANCIAL INC.
State: TX
Product: Vehicle loan or lease
Sub-product: Loan
Issue: Managing the loan or lease
Sub-issue: Billing problem

Complaint:
My XXXX auto payment did not go through around the XXXX of the month. It comes out of a savings account that I only use for these payments so I don't check it often and this was during the XXXX holiday so I did not notice it until a collection call came in the first part of XXXX. I tried to log in to make a payment and it would not allow me to make a payment, so I called. I could not get a payment processed via the automated system so I waited for a representative. The rep told me that they would not accept my payment because their automated attempts to send the payment through my bank had been rejected too many times so the only way I could get a payment to reflect immediately over the phone was for them to process a XXXX XXXX payment at a fee of {$4.00} using a debit/credit card number. I made the payment received a confirmation and thought everything was ok. This was XXXX XXXX, XXXX. On XX/XX/XXXX I my bank showed an auto payment to Ally went through for my XXXX payment. the first part of XXXX receive debt collector call from Ally. I speak to the rep and find out they are not showing my XX/XX/XXXX payment. I explain to the rep I did it via XXXX XXXX with a fellow rep and ask them to check or get a manager. The rep comes back and confirms they show the activity for the XXXX and apologize and said will notate the account. XX/XX/XXXX my husband 's & my work and personal numbers start receiving call after call from debt collectors for Ally. I call Ally back. They tell me I'm 45 days late, they do not have the XX/XX/XXXX payment reflected. I explain again and ask to speak to a manager. I get put on hold then transferred then hold and then an answering machine picks up. I leave a message and call back number but no one calls me back all day. I call back later speak to another rep who after having to check around and put me on hold for a long time tells me that they show the payment, but my account was blocked by the fraud dept at the time the payment was made and so the account did not accept the payment. I asked why it was blocked and they said it was flagged and blocked by fraud because they'd tried a total of 12 times to send auto payments through the account and they were returned ( my bank does not show these many attempts ). I ask why then did the auto payment XXXX XXXX go through the account successfully if my account is blocked? They said because it took that long with the holiday and such for the system to kick in the block but that the XXXX payment that is showing it's scheduled to go through via auto payment will not process. I ask if they can just unblock my account and credit the payment from XXXX XXXX. They said they do not have the power to do that and this was all determined via some algorithm and advise me to contact my bank and ask them to retrieve the transaction and credit my account. They also didn't understand why the money hadn't bounced back to me already because they have not accepted this $ since XXXX XXXX. I asked how can I get this fixed because every day I'm showing later and later and they said that the only payments they will now accept from me are via XXXX XXXX or XXXX XXXX and I have to go to a location like XXXX or where ever they do these type of payments and make a cash XXXX XXXX or XXXX XXXX payment to Ally for a fee of $ XXXX {$10.00} each transaction and then call Ally and give them the reference # for this payment. I will also need to make 6 consecutive payments like this before Ally will start accepting any other type of payments from me. I called my bank, of course they said they could not retrieve a payment that was already paid out and my only recourse was to file a fraud claim, but I can't because it's not technically fraud because I authorized it and it went to my auto finance company they are just choosing NOT to accept it. I was then told to try to get the XXXX XXXX to credit the money back. I called them and they tell me that the reference number I provide them they can not retrieve in their records and that since I did this payment through one of Ally 's reps I will need to contact Ally and have Ally call them and give them the information they need to try and research anything. In the mean time Ally keeps calling and advised me to get a cash payment via the way explained earlier as soon as possible.

Company public response: Company has responded to the consumer and the CFPB and chooses not to provide a public response
Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation