Consumer complaint received 2021-02-09
Product: Vehicle loan or lease — Loan
Issue: Managing the loan or lease — Billing problem
Company: TD BANK US HOLDING COMPANY (NC)

On XX/XX/XXXX, my wife and I purchased a XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX and entered a loan contract with TD Auto Finance to complete the transaction. At the time of purchase, we had also opted to buy the extended warranty and pre-paid maintenance plan for a total of {$3300.00}. After getting home and thinking over the purchase, we opted to exercise our right to cancel the warranty and maintenance plans by contacting the warranty company. The warranty company promptly issued a refund directly to TD Auto Finance which was received on XX/XX/XXXX. 

When we received our XXXX statement, it accurately reflected the {$3300.00} as a payment. XXXX XXXX classified this a normal payment and pushed ahead our due date by 5.5 months, as I expected. In order to pay off the loan ahead of schedule we determined to keep paying monthly. On XX/XX/XXXX, I sent in a payment of {$610.00}, of which {$290.00} was applied to satisfy the extra half month paid ahead, and the remaining {$310.00} was applied to principal. Note that this was unintentionally short by {$.00}, but I didn't bother to correct it as the due date was 5 months in the future and it was inconsequential at the time. 

All was well and payments of {$610.00} were made for XXXX, XXXX, XXXX, and XXXX without issue. All statements received showed {$0.00} due and an account current. 

When I logged in to pay on XX/XX/XXXX I noticed that the web site showing my account as past due, despite the previously mentioned statements showing a XXXX balance. Also, when I went back to look at my payment history, I noticed that my payments from XXXX, XXXX, and XXXX had been retroactively noted as late and a {$15.00} late fee was charged against each one for a total of {$45.00}. 

I immediately called TD Auto Finance 's customer service in order to find out what was going on. The first customer service representative immediately noted my account was overdue, asked why, and after I explained my situation she said she would transfer me to someone else who could help, the agent did not give me her name. The line was then disconnected. I called back and spoke to a second representative, who again did not give a name, with the same result except this time I was transferred to a different company who was in charge of processing payments. They could not help me. The third representative, XXXX, was finally able to explain what was going on ; apparently the cashiering department at TD on XX/XX/XXXX had reclassified the {$3300.00} payment from XX/XX/XXXX as a principal payment. This reclassification had caused my XXXX payment to be short by the {$310.00} principal payment I had made. This shortage, plus the {$.00} error on my part had cascaded throughout all of my payments, turning payments tendered ahead of time, to actually late. The explanation made sense, but XXXX was not able to resolve this issue and due to technical issues was not able to transfer me to a supervisor. She said that she would notify them and have them call me back. 

On the same day, I wrote a secure message to TD Auto Finance through their website explaining the situation. I received a response on XX/XX/XXXX directing me to call their customer service line as they were unable to resolve the issue in writing. On the XXXX I responded that this was not acceptable as I had tried that path and asked for someone to contact me directly. I was not contacted any further via writing or phone and am now reaching out to the CFPB for assistance.