Consumer complaint received 2024-02-26
Product: Vehicle loan or lease — Lease
Issue: Problems at the end of the loan or lease — Problem with paying off the loan
Company: ALLY FINANCIAL INC. (OH)

On XX/XX/XXXX, XXXX XXXX ( me/my/I ) and Ally Leasing ( they/company ) agreed upon a lease-end purchase price of my XXXX XXXX XXXX of {$13000.00}. This price was agreed upon via virtual chat was Ally Leasing assistants ( chat image uploaded - Images 1.1 and 1.2 ), and included the final month 's lease payment ( XX/XX/XXXX ) rolled into the payment. Ally stated that it would take them 1-2 weeks to process the payment, and then they would send paperwork to XXXX to transfer the title of the vehicle. A check for this amount was written by XXXX XXXX ( XXXX 's father ), and mailed to Ally. This check was cashed on XX/XX/XXXX ( account status image uploaded - Image 2 ). Following this, on XX/XX/XXXX, via chat with Ally virtual assistants, they confirmed that the account was upgraded to remarketing since the vehicle had been successfully " bought out '' ( chat image uploaded - Image 3 ). Additionally, the account status of the lease was reported to all major credit reporting agencies as fully paid off/closed ( credit image uploaded - Image 4 ). Ally Financing failed to initiate any further contact until XX/XX/XXXX. On XX/XX/XXXX, Ally called XXXX XXXX ( also on lease with XXXX ) to inform her that Ally could not accept the payment that had already been cashed as it was a check written by a " third party. '' Ally stated that they would be refunding this payment to XXXX XXXX, and that XXXX would need to re-issue a check to Ally. XXXX informed XXXX of this call, and XXXX called Ally back. On a recorded line with Ally, XXXX confirmed multiple things : 1 ) what types of checks Ally could accept, and why this was unacceptable. XXXX also explained that the third party clause was not disclosed to him, to which the Ally agent agreed that they had not disclosed to him since they failed to issue a buyout document. 2 ) that there would not be any additional fees incurred due to Ally 's error, to which the Ally agent agreed. She stated that if the monies were reprocessed immediately to Ally, no account fees would generate. 3 ) that there would not be an impact to XXXX or XXXX 's credit due to Ally 's error, to which the Ally agent agreed. She stated that the account was in good standing, and we were working towards a buyout. Ally 's app shows that they refunded the check on XX/XX/XXXX ( account image uploaded - Image 5 ). This physical check was not postage-marked until XX/XX/XXXX, and did not arrive until XX/XX/XXXX. XXXX proceeded to issue a new bankers check on XX/XX/XXXX, and USPS first-class shipped ( image uploaded - Image 6 ) the check to Ally with a confirmed delivery of XX/XX/XXXX ( image uploaded - Image 7 ). Ally did not cash the check until XX/XX/XXXX per their app ( image uploaded - Image 8 ). Almost immediately upon the check being refunded by Ally, XXXX and XXXX started receiving threatening phone calls from Ally stating that they were trying to collect on a debt that was " overdue. '' XXXX answered one of the phone calls, and gave a full description of the situation. The account agent stated that he would annotate on the account, and it should prevent negative credit reporting as this situation was unique and caused by Ally. On XX/XX/XXXX, XXXX received a letter in the mail from Ally stating that they had reported negative credit information to the credit reporting bureaus ( image uploaded - Image 9 ). Additionally, on XXXX 's credit reports, it states that his XXXX lease payment was late ( image uploaded - Image 10 ) despite the fact that 1 ) there was no XXXX payment, XXXX was the final payment 2 ) all of the reported information above about how they would not report negative credit, and 3 ) this has been resolved and is fully paid off now. Additionally, it is worth noting that the account is showing a balance of {$2.00} ( image uploaded - Image 11 ), despite the fact that the agreed-upon lease payoff amount was cashed. Also, as of today ( XX/XX/XXXX ), the title of the vehicle is not transferred into my name, despite the original 1-2 week timeline ( also lapsed from XXXX ).