Consumer complaint received 2024-09-28
Product: Vehicle loan or lease — Loan
Issue: Managing the loan or lease — Billing problem
Company: TOYOTA MOTOR CREDIT CORPORATION (OR)

XX/XX/XXXX my husband and I purchased a XXXX XXXX XXXX from XXXX XXXX XXXXXXXX. We signed and were happy when driving off the lot. Before getting home less than XXXX miles away I noticed power issues I did not notice during our test drive. The check engine light came on and the vehicle lost power and would not accelerate. I contacted the dealership to inform them and was able to get it into the service department. They gave us a loaner vehicle for a few days and informed us nothing major was found. 
This exchange happened XXXX more times before XX/XX/XXXX. Being pregnant and having XXXX other young children I did not want to be worried about vehicle safety as this would be my primary vehicle and I was concerned. The saleman we originally worked with showed us other vehicles to trade in for and ultimately we ended up in the XXXX XXXX XXXX in question. During the " trade '' simply due to mechanical defect we were made to believe it would be straight across with no issues. We had previously looked at the XXXX we ended up purchasing and had been informed it was a little out of our price range but because the inconvenience the dealer and finance was able to help us by giving the value of the pathfinder as a " traded downpayment '' which in theory would have lowered our monthly cost. After a little back and fourth with finance sales and even the XXXX came in to chat with XXXX at XXXX point about the sale and financing options. 
After a very long day in the dealership with XXXX young boys we finally got the approval and it was time to sign. We quickly swapped vehicle info and signed away. We left happy customers and spoke highly of the customer service we received from everyone involved even with all the difficulties we had. 
The sticker price of the pathfinder was XXXX. The sticker price of the XXXX was XXXX. 
We were informed in the finance office with XXXX we would be getting the value if the vehicle as written on the contract " XXXX '' This information I will include in my uploaded documents. 
We were NOT informed we would be given negative equity for the pathfinder we were also under the impression that XXXX would be subtracted from the XXXX as that is how a typical trade works with the value of a vehicle. 
Now that would leave us to have a total of XXXX not including interest. That is not what happened. We ended up with XXXX in finance fees plus interest leaving us XXXX and change in debt with a monthly total of XXXX shown in the documents. 
Now it's been XXXX years since signing this contract. Being a busy mother who just had a great experience with what seems to be honest men doing honest work I had absolutely no reason to believe we would be lied to about how the sale was actually happening. 
I found this information out about XXXX week ago when I opened up a letter in the mail from XXXX XXXX stating I was XXXX behind roughly XXXX of that being late fees. XXXX claimed we were XXXX months behind however I had no information at that time stating which months were " missed '' and no knowledge of late payments as I was under the impression that had been resolved multiple times throughout the XXXX years with XXXX. This had caused my husband and I to do a deep dive into ALL of our documentation while also providing payment history to be able to prove I was not missing or late on payments. I also learned in this time XXXX had been reporting 30 days late and missing payments for XX/XX/XXXX and XX/XX/XXXX which was easily proved to be incorrect and also a problem with how XXXX financial handles customer problems internally. 

Now I'll go back and fill in the missing pieces. 
When we purchased our vehicle we told we had about XXXX months before our first payment was due and all we needed to do was change the date if there was a problem. I had called and asked for the due date to be the end of the month I was told that was fine. I made my first payment on XX/XX/XXXX. That was when I began being charged late fees. Some were reversed some not. Finally after months of back and fourth I spoke with a supervisor in XXXX of XXXX who explained my account needed to be current and I needed to put in a request for due date change that they would have to have approved. Not once had I been given that information and the other banks I had been with previously did not work that way. I was under the impression if a date needed to be changed as a consumer I had the right to do so within reason of course. Finally my date was changed to the XXXX of the month and my late fees should have been reversed on the account due to the error. 
In XX/XX/XXXX my family had an emergency where my husband myself and our XXXX children found our selves homeless. I made my XXXX payment on the XXXX of the month and around the XXXX of the month I called XXXX ( after getting housing for my family ) I explained our situation and explained all our funds that were available were used up and I was not sure how I would be able to make my XXXX payment. The representative I spoke with let me know I could give granted a financial hardship and that month would be added to our last payment. They explained the details asked me a few questions and the conversation ended with me feeling less stressed and appreciative of XXXX. I have continued my payments as normal for the last year. 
XX/XX/XXXX my husband took our XXXX in for regular service when I got a call asking if I was interested in having an appraisal done and if I was interested in selling the vehicle or doing a trade. I figured why not and with a growing family we needed an upgrade. We loved the sequoia and it has ALL the space my XXXX boys need. We test drove and went off to financing. We hit a stopping point when asked about a missing payment for XX/XX/XXXX. But I had proof of payments so that couldn't be correct. 
We left the dealership with the XXXX and I made phone calls and checked my credit. I found it had dropped significantly due to inaccurate reporting by XXXX financial. 
I called XXXX and once the rep did a little research they were able to find an error that was made and let me know it wasn't an issue on my side and it would be corrected. I lspoke with another rep maybe a month or so later who also informed me it has been corrected and according to the info they have I had no missing or late payments on my account. However they did note the problem with XXXX being reported and said they had the payment and on time so it wasn't an issue. Both reps had both mentioned XXXX financial hardship and how sometimes it can appear missing when it is not. The call ended with me being under the impression the errors were now being corrected and my credit would be repaired and going forward we wouldn't have this issue. 
Now this brings us to XX/XX/XXXX when I received the paper stating I was nearly XXXX dollars behind with nearly XXXX dollars in late fees. I had previously explained that info so I won't do that again but during the multiple phone calls those first few days lots of back and fourth and at least XXXX different reps all giving me different months I was missing all of them mentioning the XX/XX/XXXX hardship I had requested to speak with a supervisor as they typically have more access to the account and can more quickly get the correct information to be able to find what issues occurred and how to correct if. It wasn't until XX/XX/XXXX when I called again that I finally was able to speak with someone. He was able to explain to me the issues with my account. I had quickly given him the information about my account from the beginning from the issue with the pathfinder to that day. He explained the issue with the payment date was due to policies within XXXX and he expressed that reps from the beginning should have given me that information. They had not. 
He explained that a financial hardship is something that needs to go through a process a representative can not just XXXX that to any caller. 
He also explained that incorrect reports to credit bureaus and within accounts also needs to go to a different department and the consumer is responsible for mailing in the information that will help to complete the investigation. I explained to him how completely outrageous it is that only supervisors had been able to give me accurate information regarding how accounts work. I questioned why it was that XXXX years had gone by and this was the first time anyone had explained credit reporting errors and how " extensions '' work. I have previously financed other vehicles with different banks and this is the first time I have ever had issues like this. 
During our conversation he had asked if I was willing to do a " promise to pay '' I had said well yes that's if I do owe but that's not a conversation I think you want to be apart of '' and he said " I have all day '' so I went on to explain that in my research on my account I had found that when signing for the XXXX not only did they not give us any credit for the pathfinder but they also gave us negative equity for the pathfinder and they added the mechanical break down and additional fees to the XXXX contract. To make it simple what should've occurred with the deal we had made it should have been XXXX warranty/fees+ interest which would have brought our total to around XXXX and not the XXXX we ended up with. 
Now at the time of signing I do recall saying to my husband it didn't seem correct but neither of us had any reason at the point to not trust XXXX. I believe that a business man or women should be taken at word unless proven otherwise and they had been kind enough to " find a way to make it work '' I had no idea at that time how not reviewing the contract further would negatively impact our family financially. 
It is my belief that XXXX owes me for diffrence that we have paid that we should not have been responsible for. That total is somewhere around XXXX dollars on top of the credit damages my family was a victim to which has prevented us from buying a home, borrowing for personal loan, and even trading in the XXXX in XXXX of XXXX for something better for our family. 

XXXX XXXX XXXXXXXX and XXXX financial have successfully scammed yet another customer. They have destroyed our credit, tarnishing our names for future lenders, they made it impossible for my husband and I to qualify for other loan opportunities, including a home loan in XXXX, multiple times in the XXXX years we have been customers we have been denied simply because the information they report is completely inaccurate.