Consumer complaint received 2022-05-31
Product: Vehicle loan or lease — Loan
Issue: Problems at the end of the loan or lease — Problem with paying off the loan
Company: BMW Financial Services NA, LLC (NV)

I had a 5 year finance plan called " XXXX XXXX '' through BMW financial. It was not a lease but was structured like a lease. At the end of the 5 years I would need to pay off, refinance or sell the vehicle to take care of the bubble payment ( remaining balance ). As this date was approaching I made my final payment on XX/XX/XXXX. I Called them to see what my options were because I knew we were planning to sell trade in our vehicles for a larger car. We had a baby on the way. I knew my payment plan was up and I didnt want to take out another loan on the car knowing I was going to be getting rid of it in a few weeks. It wouldn't make sense to do that to my credit then have to run my credit again when getting the new vehicle. I asked them if I could make 1 more payment to buy a little more time since we were trading in the vehicle the 1st week of XXXX. They told me I could not but that I wouldn't be considered past due until 2 weeks after the next payment due date. The balance due was on XXXX so I had until XX/XX/XXXX to get rid of my car or refinance. they also said it wouldn't be reported until it was more than 30 days past due. I didn't like that I couldn't make another payment but I knew we were selling the car in the 1st week of XXXX so continued with the transaction. My husband also did not like this so he had me call back to make sure. BMW financial should have on record that I called probably close to 6 times in XXXX and XXXX. We traded in my vehicle to XXXX XXXX XXXX in XXXX XXXX on XXXX. I have a letter attached showing it. I told them about my situation with the balance due and they assured me that the payoff amount would be overnighted to BMW financial within 7-10 days at the very most. I called BMW several times to see if they had it. They said they didn ; t but that they would notate my account. I let them know the car was no longer with me and that I was concerned about it affecting my credit score. They assured me they notated my account and it would be fine. There were some errors with the paperwork on the part of the dealership and I had to return and sign a few more pages that they left out when we were there initially. They didn't say anything about this delaying my pay off when I asked. They said the check was sent already. So I called BMW again to see if it had arrived to which they said they still didn't have it. In the meantime I wasn't receiving any emails, letters, calls texts or any communication from BMW about a late payment so I assumed everything was fine. Toward the end of XXXX I pulled up my account on the mini owner lounge website and it said it still wasn't paid off. I called the dealership, they told me the check had been mailed 2 weeks prior. I let them know BMW said they don't have it. When I reconfirmed with them in the email confirmation they sent me, I received a long email chain between their departments about my payoff and my husbands pay off ( we were trading in 2 vehicles ). One person admits that he didn't realize there were 2 checks that needed to be sent, not just one... oops. At this point I am panicking because I have done everything in my power to try and make sure the necessary steps were taken so that this won't affect my credit score and it seems like other people have missed steps in their duties to complete the transaction properly. They apologize for the mixup and overnight a check then. It is now XX/XX/XXXX. I call BMW for the millionth time to let them know an update on the situation since I provided them with a check confirmation number before that was not correct. They said they will notate my account but that they have already reported it it to the credit bureau. This is devastating news to me. I have never been late on payments on anything before and aside from a fluke missed payment with BMW in XX/XX/XXXX when I lost my job during covid. I tried to work with them on that issue as well and they chose to not offer and grace even though they were openly advertising covid assistance for those who couldn't pay. Because my husband and I are both on the loan, the " missed '' XXXX payment resulted in both of our credit scored dropping XXXX points each. My husband is furious because he had no control over this. He doesn't understand why when we traded the car in on the XXXX and let BMW know and then errors out of our control happened and they still reported it to the credit bureau. I have disputed it 3 separate times through experian since BMW themselves have a rudimentary system where you can not talk to, email or submit anything online. You have to type a letter and snail mail it like its XXXX. I have attached a letter from the dealership stating that they took over ownership of the car on XX/XX/XXXX.