Consumer complaint received 2024-02-29
Product: Vehicle loan or lease — Loan
Issue: Managing the loan or lease — Problem with fees charged
Company: CREDIT ACCEPTANCE CORPORATION (ME)

On XX/XX/XXXX, I purchased a XXXX XXXX XXXX vehicle with XXXX miles from XXXX Auto Sales in XXXX, NJ. At this time I was a full-time student and was receiving unemployment under XXXX relief. A major part of the reason I decided to finance a vehicle instead of buying XXXX outright was that I was determined to build my credit. I had no idea financing through Credit Acceptance, a company I'd never heard of at the time, would cause me so many problems in the long run. At the dealership, while looking at the loan agreement in front of me ( which I will attach here ), I specifically remember asking the man at the dealership, " why does it say the amount financed is around $ XXXX but my total financing cost ( appears on contract as " total of payments : the amount you will have paid after you have made all payments as scheduled '' ) shows $ XXXX? '' The man said that the only reason it said $ XXXX was that that would have been my final cost at the END of the loan IF I had only paid the minimum payment for the ENTIRE LOAN TERM, and that at that point every payment I ever made would have equaled $ XXXX. I trusted that he was being honest, and that the company I was financing with, Credit Acceptance, would be honest. The man at the dealership suggested either refinancing the vehicle in XXXX year to cut down on interest or selling it after a year so that I have it long enough to build my credit up, so I intended to wait a year and sell the car. I paid every payment on time, then just over a year later, I started exploring my options to sell the car, including getting offers from companies like XXXX and XXXX. When I accepted XXXX of their offers ( in XXXX or XX/XX/XXXX ), I would have been able to pay just a few XXXX on top of what they offered me, and would have gotten out of my loan with better credit than when I started the loan. However, when the time came for either Credit Acceptance or the dealership I bought the car from to produce the title for the company that wanted to buy my car, they " couldn't find it. '' I dealt with this for months ( I believe this lasted from XX/XX/XXXX to XX/XX/XXXX ), and even involved the XXXX, who eventually gave them a time limit to either produce the title, or to cancel my loan, refund me all the money I'd paid toward the car, and come pick the car up ( I believe they were given 30 days ). On the LAST day they were allowed to produce the title, I called the XXXX and told them that I still had not received word that the title had been found. By this point, I had of course realized that the " lost title '' was just them stalling to try to keep me stuck in the loan for as long as possible, and to get as much money out of me that they could, probably hoping I'd give up and say " it's ok I'll just keep the car. '' But miraculously, the title was " found '' .... on the last day they were allowed to produce it. I remember saying to the XXXX agent on the phone that it seemed suspicious that the title was found on the last allowed day ( after I'd been trying for months to get this issue figured out ) and asked if there was any way to make sure that the title wasn't forged or something ( something like this never would have crossed my mind if the whole situation hadn't been so odd ) ; I believe the agent agreed that it was pretty odd and that the title must have been confirmed valid. Unfortunately, since the company that had originally wanted to buy my car had already waited months and used car values had changed, their offer had also changed and I was offered significantly less for my car. I decided that at this point ( summer XXXX ), I should probably just keep the car until used car values went back up ; Credit Acceptance had succeeded in keeping me stuck in their horrible and predatory loan agreement. By XX/XX/XXXX, my financial status had changed, and I was no longer able to make my car payments on time regularly, and the value of my car had only gotten lower. After the company calling me countless times per day ( if I remember correctly, it was usually over XXXX times per day ), even after XXXX at times, from multiple different phone numbers each day, and almost taking the car XXXX  unless I paid them in front of the tow truck driver ( expecting payment to stop the repossession process is understandable of course ), I decided a voluntary repossession would be in my best interest, I gave the car back to Credit Acceptance ( my account history shows that this happened in XX/XX/XXXX ). Now, in XX/XX/XXXX, I'm trying to build my credit back up and pull my credit report ; I notice that numerous accounts are reporting inaccurately, including this auto loan through XXXX XXXX. I saw that they were reporting a different Date of Last Activity to each credit bureau, and a different payment history ( I will attach this section of my XXXX credit report ). I also saw that they were reporting that I owe {$18000.00}, which I thought was suspiciously high since the total of all monthly payments I made equals about {$11000.00}. I disputed these inaccuracies a few times with the credit bureaus, and contacted XXXX XXXX by phone on XX/XX/XXXX to request that the account information and the amount that they say I owe be mailed to me. During this phone call, the agent I spoke with offered me a settlement amount of " 80 % off '', or {$3600.00}, which I requested also be mailed to me so that I had it in writing -- he said it would be, but I did not receive the settlement offer in the mail, only the account balance and payment history. ( I did record this phone call and can send it to CFPB if it would be helpful at all ). A couple days ago I received the information I requested in the mail ( I will attach it here ) ; It says that my " INITIAL BALANCE '' was actually {$32000.00} and not the {$18000.00} that my loan contract stipulated, that my " remaining balance '' is {$16000.00}, and that my auto loan is {$18000.00} past due ( this last amount is not indicated anywhere else ). I am horrified that a company would do this to people. There is absolutely no way I would have ever taken that loan if I'd known they'd try to force me into paying almost {$32000.00} for that car, I never agreed to that and never would have agreed to it under any circumstances, and it was indicated ( both verbally and on my loan agreement ) that I would only ever pay that amount if I'd kept the car for the entire loan term and only paid the minimum payment for the entire term. So to me it appears that XXXX XXXX violated the Truth In Lending Act, the FDCPA, and FCRA. They hid costs in my loan agreement and completely misrepresented the loan terms, used predatory and illegal debt collection practices, and refused to produce the title to the car when it appeared they'd lose out on more money from me if I had been able to sell the car. They reported XXXX different dates of last activity to each credit bureau and XXXX different payment histories, and reported an incorrect balance owed. Judging by everything I have read about XXXX XXXX, I believe each XXXX of these deceptive and predatory acts were done completely intentionally. It's heartbreaking knowing that I took this car loan thinking it'd be an opportunity to improve my credit and finding out the hard way that doing business with XXXX XXXX ultimately only hurt my credit, prevented me from pursuing certain job opportunities, and made my financial situation worse. I truly just want to be done with this predatory company -- - I want the loan to be completely removed from my credit report and blocked from ever being reported again. I tried disputing the account 's information with all XXXX bureaus for the severity of the errors/inaccuracies and inconsistencies, both by mail and online dispute, but nothing has been done by the bureaus as a result of any of these disputes.