Consumer complaint received 2024-01-16
Product: Vehicle loan or lease — Loan
Issue: Repossession — Lender trying to repossess or disable the vehicle
Company: Bridgecrest Acceptance Corporation (FL)

In XX/XX/XXXX I purchased a car a XXXX XXXX from XXXX. The loan was made through Bridgecrest Acceptance Corporation. In XX/XX/XXXX I was laid off because of Covid. I made payments up until XX/XX/XXXX. In XX/XX/XXXX after XXXX cut everyone off unemployment rejecting federal payments I started to receive a small pension that I could use to pay the car loan. I called Bridgecrest and explained I was ready to start making payments again. Bridgecrest refused to accept payment. In all this time I never received a monthly billing statement. To this day I do not know how much I paid off, how much was owing. In XX/XX/XXXX again I tried to make arrangements to pay the outstanding balance. They screamed at me that because I was in bankruptcy? they could not make payment arrangements. I am not the only person who had multiple things going on lfor example five people in my family died between XXXX and XXXX. Not because of covid per se but because of stresses associated with XXXX..Ie my cousin a doctor XXXX  XXXX. So dealing with Bridgecrest was a bridge too far. In XX/XX/XXXX Bridgecrest filed a XXXX  action. I did not get served. I finally received a letter by mail that told said I was hiding the vehicle- I was not. I then filed a notice with the court that might serve as an answer. Bridgecrest did not request a hearing. They did not get a writ of XXXX. They did not post the bond as require by repleving statute. I started working again in XXXX as a XXXX XXXX  because all the XXXX  quit. It is not a lot a money but enough to get some outstanding debts paid, and to pay things like my car loan. Then without a hearing, without a writ, without any kind of accounting nothing they repossessed my car outside my place of work. I had parked on the street. I beleived I was protected because there was a pending lawsuit and that at some point I would get a hearing to present my side of the story. Bridgecrest filed the lawsuit. They filed it. Then without waiting for any kind of court order, or writ, they just took the car. I have not had any correspondence from them at all about even to collect my belongings from the car. I am XXXX. They took the car with my cane in it. Now without a car I am unable to work as most of the XXXX  I worked at are not served by public transportation. I am very upset. The emotional stress is too much. At no point have they ever sent me a monthly statement reflecting the balance of the loan. To this day I have no idea what I paid. To add insult to injury XXXX will sell me another car but want to add the loan balance to the price. The value of my car per the lawyers that they say I owe is the original balance of the car. They have never told me what the balance of the outstanding payments are. They have never told me what I need to reinstate. And now without a car I can not work. I am XXXX so there are very few options for me to make extra money. I can not be a barista or work at XXXX XXXX or retail or be a waitress. I tried calling the lawyer but that wasn't helpful. Per the 14th amendment I am entitled to a fair hearing.Bridgecrest decided to circumvent the whole thing by just taking the car. I did file an emergency motion to have the car returned and I filed pro se a counterclaim on conversion. I can not tell you how distressed I am as I was finally recovering, getting back on my feet after the XXXX of covid only to have Bridgecrest pull the rug out under my feet. One would think after the disaster of securitizing mortgages with all the abuses that entailed that the practice of securitizing loans would stop but no. Bridgecrest is acting like the low rent servicers that foreclosed on people. Securitizing makes some people on XXXX XXXX rich but what it does is XXXX over the consumer once again. They bailed out the banks but did not bail out the people. Then of course because Bridgecrest abandoned the loan for three years now they are coming back and telling me I have to pay up. If they had allowed me to make up the payments when I had money I would be current with no problems. Come to think of it, I have had three cars repossessed. As an XXXX  I had no idea I had recourse in any of the other situations. In all circumstances I was working. I was working until last week. Now I will quickly run out of money. The abuses with car loans needs to stop. It just needs to. Cars are essentential in most circumstances to get to work. I don't like having to buy cars. I don't like having to buy cars because most cities have really poor public transportation. Cars are killing the planet but there is simply just no other way to get to work. I can have groceries delivered now but without an income because of Bridgecrest I won't be able to survive.