Consumer complaint received 2024-01-23
Product: Vehicle loan or lease — Loan
Issue: Repossession — Lender trying to repossess or disable the vehicle
Company: Heritage Financial Group, Inc. (IN)

There is reason to believe that Heritage Acceptance Corporation predatorily preys on the vulnerability and lack of knowledge of their clients with continuous deceptive acts and practices during consumer credit transactions. MULTIPLE violations of TILA were found in my Retail Installment Contract that I do not believe to be mistakes at all, but intentional acts & practices of deception breaching the material contract established during my vehicle purchasing experience with XXXX ( the dealership ) & Heritage Acceptance Corporation ( current contract holder ). 
Stated below are just a few of the TILA violations that Heritage Acceptance Corporation are found to be in breach of regarding the Retail Installment Agreement. I have documentation of the evidence supporting the violations ( signed agreements, disclosure, oil change paperwork, and XXXX XXXX reports ). 
XXXX. Falsification of odometer. 
Upon signing the contract, I was provided with falsified odometer statements stating that on XX/XX/XXXX the true vehicle mileage was XXXX miles & XXXX miles. Both of which were completely inaccurate as I found that the odometer on the vehicle was rolled back roughly XXXX miles. There is evidence from consistent oil changes done at XXXX XXXX over the last year and a half that has logged what the technicians found the odometer reading inside the vehicle to be. I also have odometer readings from a few different XXXX XXXX  '' reports after XXXX XXXX XXXX devices were hooked up to the vehicles actual computer system that read the TRUE mileage of the vehicle. Which at the time, found the odometer mileage to be over XXXXXXXX XXXX  miles while the visible car odometer is reading XXXX, XXXX  miles. The odometer on the vehicle was rolled back resulting in the vehicle not being sold or purchased at the correct value. This also means the vehicle can not be sold or traded in. Rolling back an odometer is illegal and can incur criminal  charges and fines. This a deceptive act or practice that could potentially cause unforeseeable harm to myself or my children and has already caused me emotional damage as I now worry and fret daily about how long the vehicle is going to last, and how much financial debt I would be in having to purchase another vehicle and still continue to pay this one off unable to trade it in due to mileage discrepancy. Heritage Acceptance Corp. failed to comply with 16 CFR 433.2 and is in violation of 15 U.S.C. 45 ( a ) ( 1 ).

2.Collection of an Undisclosed Cash Down Payment.

According to the Retail Installment Contract a down payment of {$4500.00} was paid in cash by the buyer ( me ). This {$4500.00} cash payment was not included in the Finance Charge and did not take away from the overall {$17000.00} cash price of the vehicle. According to the finance company when recently asked over the phone Heritage Acceptance Corporation stated that they DO NOT require down payments. There was no disclosure presented for the initial {$4000.00} cash down payment paid to Heritage acceptance by the buyer : XXXX XXXX on XX/XX/XXXX. 

However, ONLY a disclosure for the DEFFERED REMAINING DOWN PAYMENT balance of {$500.00} to HERITAGE ACCEPTANCE CORP was included in the contract, and it only mentioned that the " remaining down payment balance of {$500.00} '' disclosure was not required to be signed to obtain credit. However, no disclosure was provided stating that the initial {$4000.00} down payment was not required to obtain credit. Therefore, Heritage Acceptance Corporation completely misrepresented the amount financed since this charge was not included in the Finance Charge, but was collected by the bank according to Heritage Acceptance Corp paperwork. Heritage Acceptance Corporation also violated TILA by accepting a cash payment in CONSUMER CREDIT TRANSACTION in which cash payment is not allowed. Heritage Acceptance failed to comply with 12 CFR 1026.2 ( a ) ( 18 ) ( 3 ) ( i ) and is in violation of TILA : 15 USC 1638 ( a ) ( 2 ) ( a ) and 15 USC 1662b.

3. Extreme Misrepresentation and over charge of Finance Charge The finance charge was found to be MORE than double what it should be according to the 18.9 % APR on the {$16000.00} loan amount that was financed. The APR is stated to be 18.90 % PER YEAR on the remaining balance of the financed amount of {$16000.00}. That would mean an 18.90 % APR on a loan balance of {$16000.00} with the terms of the loan being 91 payments biweekly resulting in a 3.71 year time span would make that Finance Charge {$3100.00} TOTAL on the financed amount.

The Retail Installment contract states that the actual Finance Charge is {$6400.00}. Which is over 2 times more than that of what it should be if it was calculated correctly. By making the finance charge {$6400.00} this made monthly payments {$250.00}. Which means the buyer is paying XXXX towards the principal and {$71.00} towards interest bi-weekly making the true APR 39.2 % instead of the documented 18.9 %. At the rate of 39.2 %, it should also be noted that any interest over 25 % APR in Indiana is a violation of IN Code 24-4.5-3-201 ( XXXX ). Being that the company approved to finance the amount of {$16000.00} with an extremely inaccurate finance charge that was calculated into the payments is another violation of TILA, and given the above actions mentioned this is seeming more like a pattern of nefarious, dishonest & deceptive business practicing versus honest mistakes made by the seller/ contract holder. Heritage Acceptance failed to comply with 16 CFR 433.2 ( b ) / 16 CRF 1026.18 ( d ) and is in violation of 15 USC 1605 ( f ) ( 1 ) ( a ).