Consumer complaint received 2017-06-05
Product: Vehicle loan or lease — Loan
Issue: Struggling to pay your loan — Denied request to lower payments
Company: CREDIT ACCEPTANCE CORPORATION (AL)

I have a car financed through Credit Acceptance Corporation, and it started in  XX/XX/XXXX . We went to a  XXXX , Alabama car dealership because we needed a car. They got us financed through  Credit Acceptance, be cause we have credit problems. We bought a  XXXX   XXXX   XXXX   XXXX , because it was cheap. When we got the car the payments were $  XXXX . We had never missed a payment nor was ever late, until  XX/XX/XXXX . My wife and I are both  XXXX  and live on a fixed income. I am a retired   XXXX   XXXX   XXXX   employee. We do not have a lot of money and barely have enough to survive each month. I contacted  Credit Acceptance a nd asked if we could skip the  XX/XX/XXXX  payment due to a hardship. They said, even though we had not missed a payment before, that we could not skip  XX/XX/XXXX  payment. They said if we could pay approximately {$100.00}, that they could extend the payment and that XX/XX/XXXX  payment would be {$210.00}  ( a pproximately ) plus the regular payment of  XXXX . We had no choice but accept these terms, or so we were told. I made the regular payment, on time, th at  XX/XX/XXXX , I made the  XX/XX/XXXX  payment on time, also. Some time, toward the  XX/XX/XXXX , I h eard a noise outside that sounded like someone had pulled into my garage. When I went outside to investigate, I saw a tow truck ( repo agent ) pulling out of my driveway, with my car in tow. We call ed Credit Acceptance an d they advised me that we did not make XX/XX/XXXX  payment on time. I knew I had made the payment. Upon further discussion with my wife, their agent  ( Credit Acceptance ) told her that the regular payment was made but not the {$210.00} amount  we agreed to pay with the regular payment and because we did not make it, we had not " lived up to our end of the revised payment '' plan. I had forgotten about making the extra payment, an honest mistake. They repossessed the car ( entered into my enclosed garage without my permission, which is considered burgla ry ( a felony ) in Alabama, and damaged the car and my garage, in doing so. I did not file a report because what good would it have done to help our situation? Besides, felonies in the State of Alabama have a three ( 3 ) year statute of limitations for burglary I took pictures of the garage. We were told we could get our car back if we made roughly a {$500.00} payment. My wife told the agent of our situation and she would not work with us. We were told if we made a {$500.00} payment to Credit Acceptance before the was auctioned off. they would let us continue making the payments and keep our car. We   skipped a mortgage payment to make this {$500.00} payment. We were given the number and address of the auction yard ( in  XXXX  ) and called them. I asked when we could get the car and they informed us that the car had fender damage when it came and t hat one of  their lot attendants had hit the car in the parking with a forklift. They also said that the car already had a dent in the front left fender and driver 's side door. I said there was not a dent on the car before it was repossessed. She told me that we would have to  wait ( it took 8 more days ) to get  our car and that they would fix the dent  ( s ) , for no charge to us. We got the car and and it was making a horrible noise in the transmission, the trunk would not close and the air conditioner and radio was not working. The auctioneer said it was that way when they got it and I said it was not. She agreed to waive some fee ( we did not even know that any other fees existed ) due to the problems we were having  XXXX  problems not of our doing ) I had to fix some other problems, once I got the car back. I had to fix a headlight, blinker and taillight radio and air conditioner, that was damaged by the repo agent and/or the auctioneer, costing even more money. The y ( Credit Acceptance ) sa id that our payments had increased to {$380.00}, due to the repossession and assorted fees. I made  XX/XX/XXXX  {$380.00} on time. It was  XX/XX/XXXX  when I remembered to make that month 's payment. I paid it, only being a day late and thought nothing else of it. Some time, around  XX/XX/XXXX , I heard a familiar noise around my garage. It was the repo agent and he had come to repo the car, again, from inside my garage. I went and talked to him ( begging him if front of our neighbors ; telling him of my wife 's medical problems and that we had to have a car to get her to her doctors appointments ) and I told him this was a mistake ; I know I made the payment this month. He said he was just doing what he was supposed to do. I got my camera and took pictures of the car and the garage and told him that he had damaged my car and garage last time and that it was illegal for him to enter my garage. He told me to take it up with  Credit Acceptance. He th en got a camera, after pulling the car partially out of the garage, and took pictures himself. I got him to wait until I go t Credit Acceptance on the  phone. I spoke to them and they advised me that because i had made the payment a day late that the previous agreement wa s null and void and if we wanted to keep the car we would have to negotiate new payment arrangements. They ( Credit Acceptance ) a lso spoke to the repo agent and he told them he had already " hooked-up '' the car, which, at that time he had not attached the car to his boom. My wife worked out an agreement where we would have to pay {$500.00}, again, but we would be able to get our car from the repo lot in  XXXX  and our payments were once again increased to {$380.00}, this time. I have made every one of the payments on time, since. This mon th (   XX/XX/XXXX  ) I had forgotten the payment but remembered at about  XXXX  cst on  XX/XX/XXXX , to make it. I worried about a time zone difference but remembered that Michigan  ( where Credit Acceptance is  located ) is on central time. On  XX/XX/XXXX , we received a call from a young lady w ith Credit Acceptance. They  said that because my payment was late, I had defaulted on the previous payment arrangement. I did not get upset or raise my voice but I told her that I had made the payment on the third, just like we had agreed to do. She stated that I did make the payment on the third but that the payment did not post to my account until the fourth, I was considered in default. I became furious and asked her to speak to my wife, because I was worried I would lose my temper with the caller. My wife was told the payment did not post to our account until the fourth. She ( my wife ) asked the caller how we could rectify the situation and was told if we made another payment of  XXXX   XXXX  and change on our account, everything would be fine, no repossession this time. So, I went back into our account and paid {$26.00}  ( al so, we pay the note through their website using  XXXX   XXXX . It costs us an extra {$3.00} each time we make payment, for using this service, on top of the {$380.00 } ) becau se my wife said it was  XXXX  and could not remember the exact amount and I did not want our car taken again. I got to stressing last night about the whole ordeal and advised my wife that we had been through this wi th Credit Acceptance t wice before, made the payment on time, only to have the car taken anyway and that I was not going to let them, for lack of a better word, "  XXXX  '' us over again. I filed a complaint with the Better Business Bureau, on line, last night. I was still worried about them coming to get our car so my wife said I should c all Credit Acceptance, to  ease my worries. I called and spoke to a young lady and she advised me that she would have to transfer me to their legal department. I asked why are legal handling my call and she said because of the complaint I filed with the BBB. I told her I was not concerned with talking to legal and that I just wanted reassurance that our car was not going to be repossessed again. She said she could not make that promise because the payment was " late ''. Once again, I went through the trouble of explaining that I had made the payment on the third and once again they said that it showed I made the payment on the third but that it did not post until the fourth ( yesterday ). I asked her why, if she could actually determine I did make the payment on the third, did I have to worry about my car being repossessed? She started telling me something so I gave my wife the phone. She told my wife the same thing. My wife told her we had made a {$26.00} payment, on the fourth, and were told that the car would not be repossessed. This young wom an ( toda y ) then told my wife that because I had filed a complaint with the BBB, she could not guarantee the car would not be repossessed. My wife told her what the young lady had assured us of yesterday. She said she did not know why that young lady told us that and that she ( the woman I spoke with today ) could not make that promise, since I had lodged a complaint ( basically extortion or coercion to keep us from filing a complaint was what I took this statement to mean ). She then transferred my wife to someone named "  XXXX  '', in the legal dept. My wife went through the whole spiel all over again only to be told that "  XXXX  '' could not talk about our account because of the complaint. My wife then stated " Why did she transfer me to you if you can not talk to me about my account? ". She was told that since I had filed the complaint she (  XXXX  ) could not discuss our account unti l our Credit Acceptance " account manager '' ( I was not aware that we had an " account manager '' ) had contacted us. My wife inquired how long that would take and was told 72 h ours or more but the car would not go into repossession mode until the " account manger '' had spoken to us, and advise us what will be the course of action that they will take. My main complaint is : How do they get away with this practice? It is immoral and should be illegal. I am hoping you can help us with this and maybe recoup some of the money we have had pay for this car. The finance price was over {$12000.00}  ( twic e the blue book value ) but when you are poor with credit problems, you have little to no choice, when it comes to the predatory lending companies. Also, because we had to miss a mortgage payment to make these payments to get our car back out of repossession statu s ( twi ce ), our home has gone into foreclosure and we are probably going to be evicted, before this matter is resolved. We have many illnesses and our bills are plenty. We seem to not be able to catch a break. Thanks for any advice or help you may be able to provide us.