Consumer complaint received 2019-03-20
Product: Vehicle loan or lease — Loan
Issue: Incorrect information on your report — Account status incorrect
Company: ALLY FINANCIAL INC. (SD)

I had a auto loan with Ally Financial. My vehicle was totaled. I contacted the lender and asked them if I still needed to make a payment, since my insurance was going to be paying off the loan. They advised a payment was due, but that we had until XX/XX/XXXX to process the payment and confirmed that I could make the payment as I had always done, online. Upon subsequent contact made to the lender, they still confirmed that a payment was required, but not one representative advised us that we would not be able to make the payment online. I As we checked the account waiting for the insurance payment to post, we were unable to even login to the service on XX/XX/XXXX and upon being able to log in successfully on XX/XX/XXXX, the vehicle was no longer showing on the online account. We did not know if we needed to make a payment and could not contact their customer service as they were closed that day. On XX/XX/XXXX I received notice by credit bureau alerting that Ally Financial was reporting my payment as late, that no payment was received between XX/XX/XXXX and XX/XX/XXXX. I contacted the lender and advised them of what I had been told and that the vehicle was no longer showing online. They then told me that once a vehicle is totaled that you are no longer able to make a payment online, as the account is closed. This information completely contradicted the information provided by the original representative and subsequent representatives. I asked to dispute the late payment they were reporting, because we were provided wrong information by their representatives. After 3 unsuccessful requests, I began disputing the information with the credit bureaus. The payment history was still not updated. I contacted Ally again on XX/XX/XXXX and requested they send me a copy of the payment history. To my surprise, the lender provided me a payment history showing a payment was received on XX/XX/XXXX in the amount of {$2200.00}. I provided this information to the credit bureaus and they are still advising me that the lender needs to correct how they report the account. I contacted the lender on XX/XX/XXXX and asked how they could provide a payment history that shows there was no 30 day gap in payment history, and still report the account as late to the credit bureaus. The lender advised they did receive a payment credited as of XX/XX/XXXX for {$2200.00}, but the payment was reimbursement for the extended warranty protection on the vehicle and only reduced the principal balance. It is bad business to tell a customer that no payment was received and report a late payment to the credit bureaus, then later come back and say they actually did receive a payment, but it was the wrong kind of payment. The lender knew the vehicle was totaled. They knew the insurance was sending a payment. They received a payment far in excess of the amount due and still made the decision to negatively impact the consumer over a situation that could have been entirely avoided, were it not for the wrong information provided by their representatives to begin with.