Consumer complaint received 2024-11-06
Product: Vehicle loan or lease — Lease
Issue: Problems at the end of the loan or lease — Problem when attempting to purchase vehicle at the end of the lease
Company: U.S. BANCORP (SD)

The lease on my XXXX XXXX XXXX ended on XX/XX/XXXX. This was also the date of my last lease payment. I was exploring whether to buy out my lease or have a dealer lease buyout. Every time I would contact US Bank Leasing, the buyout amount would be different. Even times where the I'd talk to two different representatives on the same day ; the buyout amount would be different. After multiple phone calls and a lot of mixed results, I decided it would be easiest to just deal with a dealership buyout, even though this was costing me extra money ( US Bank Leasing likes to charge dealerships more than they do the consumer ). 

In order to move this process along faster, I paid off my lease on XX/XX/XXXX. However, as I later found out, US Bank Leasing would not apply my early payment until the XXXX and if I terminated before the XXXX, I would be charged an 'Early Termination Fee '. I then decided to wait to turn in my dealership buy out on XX/XX/XXXXXXXX XXXX XXXX They provided me with a lease buy out quote and applied this to my deal on a new vehicle. Upon signing documents, I then learned that the lease buy out through the dealership did not include sales tax, whereas my own personal buyout would include this amount. This would be another {$1500.00} lost. Since the deal was all but done, I decided to sign the deal and be done with US Bank Leasing. However, apparently this was still far too simple.

US Bank Leasing decided to remove another payment, that was not owed from my checking account for {$610.00}. I called them about getting this overpayment refunded, to which they told me they would submit a request for a cashier 's check be sent to me. This could take up to 7-10 business days to receive. After waiting 10+ business days, I called to check on the status of my refund check, to which I found out that they reversed the refund check because it was needed to satisfy my lease buy out. The lease buyout number they provided to the dealership INCLUDED my own personal overpayment so they would now need to use that money to satisfy my lease buy out. Essentially, allowing the dealership access to the refund on my account. No contact attempt was made on US Banks behalf to find out if this was acceptable, this refund amount was not provided to my dealership, US Bank Leasing just took it upon themselves to quote the dealership a lower buyout amount using my money.

After talking with three different representatives today, XX/XX/XXXXXXXX XXXX I'm told this is something that happens frequently. They just give their costumer 's money to dealerships and hose their customers. I asked them why a simple policy change to NEVER provide dealership a customer 's credit/refund would be so hard, to which I received no response. Now, I am left receiving no vehicle sales tax credit, paying US Bank Leasing more for my trade in, and they took it upon themselves to take my refund of {$610.00} and provide it to the dealership I traded my truck into. 

US Bank Leasing is a terrible company to do business with and as such, I will also be closing my checking and savings accounts with US Bank.