Consumer complaint received 2024-11-14
Product: Vehicle loan or lease — Loan
Issue: Managing the loan or lease — Loan sold or transferred to another company
Company: BMO Bank, N.A. (NV)

I originally purchased a car using Bank of the West as the lender. At some point the loan was sold to BMO Bank. I did not know this until BMO Bank called telling me that they needed a payoff amount of {$1700.00} immediately or they would start reporting delinquent notices to my credit report. My payments have been {$550.00} for the term of the loan. I explained to BMO Bank that at the beginning of XXXX, Bank of the West called me and offered to defer payments for 3 months due to mass layoffs. My wife and I had just been laid off so I had them explain how the deferment would work. It was explained to me that if I took advantage of the deferment offer that it would extend my loan term by the amounts of months that I deferred payments for however it would not affect my loan amount or interest paid. I accepted the offer to help due to the strain of my wife and I both being laid off and my new payoff date would be extended 3 months. When I explained this to the customer service representative for BMO, they told me that it was 4 months but they had no record of it so I would have to pay the full amount. I told them that was not the agreement and that I would need to speak to someone that can help me resolve this issue. They put me in touch with a gentleman named Irony. He listened and said he would take my problem to the proper people and get back with me in what was 3 days. When he called me back, he said that they couldn't find the deferment paperwork and they wanted me to send them the deferment paperwork and loan contract. I didnt understand this since they told me that it wasnt 3 months like I thought but it was 4 months. Yet they know nothing about the deferment? Also when Irony told me that it would be 3 days before he could get back to me, I asked if they would be reporting any delinquency to the credit reporting agencies. He told me that he couldnt guarantee that they wouldnt but I could just have them remove it if it came to that. That seemed completely unreasonable and I now had no faith that they were willing and/or capable of holding up any bargain or contract so I chose to just take on the financial hardship and pay off the loan amount seeing as how I didnt feel I should be responsible for Bank of the West or BMO Banks purchasing/selling my loan. I had never been late on a payment ( automatic payments ) and I dont understand how this type of thing happens. I held up my end of the loan and BMO seemed to not want to honor the loan that they purchased. I feel deceived and taken advantage of by BMO Bank and this has caused significant financial hardship on my family due to no actions by me. There needs to be some accountability from BMO Bank to understand the loans in which they are purchasing. To force this upon me, although I had nothing to do with their transaction, is inexcusable. I will be speaking with legal representation due to the unnecessary hardship BMO Bank is forcing onto me and Im sure other customers due to no fault of the customer. Something needs to be done about aggressive collections like this when Banks like BMO are the ones purchasing these loans.