Consumer complaint received 2024-03-05
Product: Vehicle loan or lease — Loan
Issue: Getting a loan or lease — Changes in terms mid-deal or after closing
Company: ALLY FINANCIAL INC. (OR)

When I went to the dealership to trade in my current vehicle, I was approved for a different car with lower-ish payments, a brand new car. They called next day and said that I wasn't approved for the first car, but they could put me in an older car for a little bit more in payments. I told them that I think it should be fine and signed all paper work. This was in XXXX of XXXX. The 45 days went by before the first payment should've been made and I had not received anything from the finance company. I called the dealership and they told me that the original finance guy had been let go for creating shady loan deals to get kickbacks and that I should not have been approved for the loan, but they were going to make it work. This should've been my first clue to pull out of the deal. I said okay, and went out to sign all new paperwork. Fast forward to 2 years ago, XXXX. My husband lost his main source of income and was working a very part time job, even though he wasn't on the loan, I depended upon his income to help with paying, and the dealership knew this. Got back on track, but still had issues with getting the payment in on time. I tried to set up auto pay which was going fine because my bank account was set up that they would overdraw me regardless of how much was in my account. I had to close that bank account and get a different one but unfortunately they didn't have the same rules. My pay date fluctuates, and I understand my responsibility in making sure that the money was there, I'm not disputing that, but I had to make hard choices of food verses car. I choose food for my family. I don't qualify for assistance as they say I made too much money. My husband gained back his source of income, but by this time things were in a spiral. We were playing catch up for several things. I tried to several time to talk to Ally and arrange a payment plan or putting a couple payments on the end of the loan, however when I would try to set up my account to do this, even though I asked several times about setting it up through my debit card, they would send me a notice a few days later stating that I removed the account from the plan, which I never did. I knew I have since been promoted at my job just about 35 days ago and attempted to call and try to make a payment and set up an arrangement to get back on track and they refused to take my payment. I calculated that I was approximately XXXX payments behind, they stated I was XXXX payments behind, plus late fees ( which I tried to dispute months ago but no one contacted me regarding it ). This past XXXX, the XXXX, my car was repossessed. I'm not disputing that I was in the wrong with payments being behind. What I'm angry about is that they knew that the setting up of the loan was illegal, yet they proceeded with it any way knowing that it may cause a financial hardship for me and my family. Ally actually questioned it in the beginning but XXXX XXXX persuaded them to go ahead with the loan anyway presumably to keep their commission and possibly because they had already sold my previous vehicle and paid off that original loan, which I never defaulted on. If they had stated they would give me my original vehicle back and rework that loan, I would not be entering this today. So, this is really a XXXX part issue. XXXX XXXX was dealing shady deals in XXXX ( that person was terminated ) and Ally Financial accepting it despite knowing there could be a potential issue later on. I take responsibility for my actions and have accepted that my car is gone, but I feel that this all could've been avoided and I would not be in this situation, now contemplating bankruptcy, and/or other financial hardship tools, if they had just told me in XXXX that they couldn't complete the loan and just gave me my original car back.