Consumer complaint received 2022-11-05
Company: Bridgecrest Acceptance Corporation
State: OH
Product: Vehicle loan or lease
Sub-product: Loan
Issue: Struggling to pay your loan
Sub-issue: Lender trying to repossess or disable the vehicle

Complaint:
Please review Bridgecrest 's practices. I have had my car loan with them for XXXX years. During that time I have had occasions where my payment was late for a variety of circumstances. Recently, in XX/XX/XXXX, they repossessed my car. I admittedly was past due, so I appreciated that they worked with me, and I was able to scramble to gather the needed funds to pay what was needed to get my car back. I have been paying consistently since. 

However, I woke up this morning and my car was gone. I was shocked, because I was about to make my payment that was due XX/XX/XXXX ( I got paid XX/XX/XXXX, I've been requesting that they move my due date to my pay day for XXXX YEARS, but they have been unwilling to assist me with this request ). Since the payment due date was only XXXX days ago, there was no reason to think I had cause to be concerned. I borrowed my wife 's car to go to work today, because I was already late because of this. Still thinking it was stolen, I wanted to call the police, but had an exceptionally busy day and couldn't. I got home and found that there are drag marks from where I was parked, out of the lot, and across the street. Since I couldn't figure out what respectable company would drag a car like that, I called the police to get the theft report filed. To my surprise, the officer I spoke to let me know my car had been repossessed. It turned out that I had not returned a document I had been sent to update the title ownership after the XXXX repossession. Apparently, although they were listed as the lienholder, they were quick to update it to remove my borrower ownership in the car when it was repossessed. They did this even with my talking to them daily about where I was in getting funds together to get my car back ; I don't understand why this was completed when I was making efforts to resolve the problem!! I received XXXX letter about the title, but we are in the process of moving, and I could not find it to complete this. They sent me a new copy, and I was working on getting what they needed back to them. They needed me to sign the document, get them a copy of my insurance card, and a copy of both sides of my driver 's license. I, like most people, don't have a copier at home, so it took a few days to get that done. Additionally, the document needed to be notarized. So, I was trying to find a notary. I didn't notice until after the fact, but the letter says that if I didn't return it by XX/XX/XXXX, I would be in default of my loan contract, and they could take possession of the vehicle. The letter was dated XX/XX/XXXX!!!!! That is SEVEN calendar days!!! How is that a fair or reasonable amount of time?!?! I even received a phone call reminder to turn this form in, but was not advised there was a chance my car would be taken to alert me of the urgency. I feel like I was set up to fail. I paid all my fees to them before to get the car back, so they know there is a good chance I'd be willing to do it again. I beg you to look into this as an unfair business practice. I admit the title document should have been completed sooner, but they are still the leinholder, and should be on the title! Not updating it was probably a bigger problem for me to not have matched registration than for them!! Please help me. I want my car back, but if there are exorbitant fees associated with getting it, that is not just unfair, but is creating a major hardship. Also, I am sincerly concerned that if I am able to get it back I will be looking at possible damage to it from the way it was dragged.

Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation