Consumer complaint received 2022-03-05
Product: Vehicle loan or lease — Loan
Issue: Struggling to pay your loan — Lender trying to repossess or disable the vehicle
Company: VW Credit, Inc (GA)

On or about XX/XX/XXXX, I received an undated letter from Volkswagen Credit stating that they were going to repossess my car if I did not pay about {$1000.00} on my account by XX/XX/XXXX. I logged into my online account with Volkswagen and made the payment but the program for the site did not take the last two digits of my bank account and only included the first ten numbers of the account. This presented an issue when they attempted to take the money from the account. 

On or around XX/XX/XXXX, there were issues on getting help resolve this payment issue. This resulted in an argument with one of their representatives who repeatedly refused to transfer me to another agent for help once she accused me of being the source of the problem and not Volkswagen as if she was gaslighting me. I thought she had hung up on me and I did curse her but she did not hang up on me, insisted that there were no other people available to assist me from the office because they had gone home and I had to hang up to call back and get assistance from someone else. Each time I called, I expressed a fear of losing my vehicle if these issues with processing payments were not resolved. Indeed, about XXXX of last year, Volkswagen credit accused my ex-mother-in-law of using my account to make a payment - information that Volkswagen credit kept without my permission after I had used it in previous months to make a payment. At the time, my ex-mother-in-law was a victim of bank fraud and after Volkswagen was to take money from her account as they normally did- the check bounced multiple times until her bank fixed her account. Volkswagen was informed of this but still charged me late fees and returned check fees of which I had to spend thousands of dollars to bring my account balance current. 

These actions caused a great deal of emotional, mental, and financial harm due to a custody battle at the time and I was at risk for homelessness. The late payments were reported on my credit report and my credit score tanked. I attempted to salvage my credit score by making my account current and asking Volkswagen credit not to report my payments as late because I had no control over the circumstances that led to the late payments. Volkswagen continued to report my payments as late to XXXX and XXXX. The money I had spent to bring my account balance current due to the excessive late fees and returned check fees charged by Volkswagen caused me to fall behind in other bills and fall back in making car payments and why I was afraid of falling into this trap again. I tried to explain this to the representative at Volkswagen who continuously interrupted me, denied that this is what happened with Volkswagen by talking over me of which led to the argument between us. 

Once it was noted that there was a glitch on the computer system by another agent, arrangements for payment was made once again, except this time, the agent changed the amount of the payment that was supposed to be processed and even added an additional {$50.00} charge separate from the other two payments that were supposed to be pulled from my account. Those funds were not pulled from account even after I called back and was reassured that my account was fine. I called back again on or about XX/XX/XXXX and was informed that either I or my bank had stopped payment on the account. Neither my bank nor I stopped payment. In fact, the only stopped payment on my bank record for the month of XXXX is for a local tire shop. Still, arrangements for payment were made once again, and with the correct bank information given to them. 

Today, which is XX/XX/XXXX, I called my bank to check and see if Volkswagen Credit attempted to pull payment from my account, just as I had on XX/XX/XXXX. My bank has informed me Volkswagen has not attempted to pull payment from my account and again, that the only stop payment on my account for the month of XX/XX/XXXX, is for the previously mentioned tire shop. Today, on XX/XX/XXXX, I also received another updated letter from Volkswagen threatening to take my car if I do not make a payment by XX/XX/XXXX of which is this Monday. I attempted to log into my online Volkswagen account to see why they did not process my payment but they have denied me access to my account. I attempted to call them prior to attempting to log in to my online account but they are closed on the weekends. I can not even retrieve my documents with them because they have denied access to my account to me. 

I have acted in good faith to not violate the contract between Volkswagen Credit and myself. The money I promised to pay them was in my account the whole time except for one transfer to my savings account after the first attempt to payment failed and I was in the process of attempting to resolve payment issues with Volkswagen at the time. Also at that time, the previous check had been presented to my account without the last two numbers and had already been attempted and it was during the attempt to resolve this issue when I transferred the money and was told that Volkswagen does not accept payments from saving accounts. I then transferred the money back to my original account. I do not understand why after numerous attempts with numerous Volkswagen representatives to make payments to Volkswagen have failed even with the correct bank information given repeatedly to them, and even after repeatedly informing them that I needed them to pull this money from my account so that I do not lose my car. Yet, I can not get them to take payments that they consistently demand from me while threatening to take my vehicle from me if I do not make my payments. If they refuse to take my payments while insisting I make these payments to them so that they will not take my car, then how can I stop them from taking my car?