Consumer complaint received 2017-08-15
Product: Vehicle loan or lease — Loan
Issue: Managing the loan or lease — Problem with additional products or services purchased with the loan
Company: FIRST CITIZENS BANCSHARES, INC. (SC)

I believe I have been the victim of predatory lending, and possibly that the bank lending officer that approved and implemented my loan was working with the car dealership to inflate my loan balance with unnecessary and unauthorized fees associated with warranties I did not know I had, nor had I asked for. I was also quoted a trade-in value of {$6000.00} higher than was actually factored into the loan. I have written to the bank and outlined these concerns ( see attached ), but they refuse to take any responsibility for their role in putting me into a loan product that was not only artificially inflated to begin with, but that was beyond my means. The deal described to me and shown to me on the auto salesmans work sheet, was quite different by the time several adjustments were made, and I was not informed of these changes, but was simply told to Sign on the dotted line. When the final documents were delivered to me, I went to the dealership to discuss the discrepancies from what I had been told would encompass the entire loan, vs. what was on the final documents ( which I can not be sure were not altered AFTER I signed them ). The dealership could not locate the salesmans work sheet that showed the numbers to which I agreed. When I realized that I would have trouble meeting the monthly payments, I contacted the bank to see if there were any options that would make it possible for me to keep the car. I was assigned to XXXX XXXX, XXXX XXXX XXXX ( NMLS # XXXX ) to apply for other options. When she informed me that I had been turned down for any asset retention options, she commented to me that, based on my amount of income and debt, had I applied with the bank directly, rather than whatever deal the auto dealer had with the bank, the loan should never have been approved in the first place. She was also the person that worked with me on the process and schedule to turn my vehicle back into the branch. I sincerely believe that I was taken advantage of due to my age and lack of knowledge of the loan process and that perhaps even additional charges were added to my loan after my signing the documents. I am on a fixed retirement income, and having to work 2 part-time jobs just to try to manage my bills. That was no different the day I applied for a loan, but I trusted the auto dealership and bank to accurately assess my income and debts to ensure that a loan offered would be manageable for me. A quick XXXX search also turns up reviews of the car dealership involved, that leads me to believe they could have had some arrangement with the loan officer who approved this loan that never should have been approved. I believe that is the only explanation as to why I was charged over {$3400.00} for warranties I never even knew I had, and that were, I believe, added AFTER the final total was shown to me by the dealerships financial manager who was working with the bank employee who approved the loan. I was also told by the dealership that the trade-in value for my previous car was {$10000.00}, and therefore the entire balance of the prior auto loan ( {$10000.00} ) would be paid off. However, when all was said and done, they only credited me with {$4000.00} on the trade-in. I now actually believe that the dealership was dealing with me mostly honestly, but when the bank lender got involved, all of a sudden the loan amount increased greatly. I believe the dealership and that the loan officer that approved the inflated loan amount, against bank policy, given my income and debt, were in cahoots to inflate the loan amount for some sort of commission goal by the bank employee. The XXXX XXXX case has illustrated the tactics by bank employees to enhance their commissions by such dealings, and I believe I was the victim of such. The bank indicates they have already sold the car for {$18000.00} ( if you can believe them, given that the XXXX XXXX XXXX resale value was approximately {$21000.00} ), yet they appear to still be coming after me for a much larger balance than is deserved. I will be happy to work with them, once they prove they only got {$18000.00} for the car, to settle the balance of what should be, after removing the inflated and unauthorized charges, somewhere in the neighborhood of {$3000.00}, rather than the huge amount they now say I owe. I hope you can intervene on my behalf and urge the bank to be reasonable, otherwise, the loan will be charged off as uncollectible, as I do not have the means to pay it off. If you believe I should also file a complaint against the dealership, I will do that as well, but I believe the bank has more culpability in this than they do, as they approved a loan that should never have been approved, as corroborated by their own bank employee, XXXX XXXX. Had these new totals ever been discussed with me, I would have refused the deal, but I signed on behalf of the numbers from the salesmans work sheet, that were night and day different than the final numbers on the documents I received later.