Consumer complaint received 2026-01-12 00:00:00
Product: Vehicle loan or lease — Lease
Issue: Managing the loan or lease — Billing problem
Company: HYUNDAI CAPITAL AMERICA
State: VA

Complaint narrative:
Since XX/XX/year>, I have repeatedly contacted Kia Finance America to correct an error involving Personal Property Tax billing caused by Kias incorrect garaging address information. Due to Kias error, I was improperly billed for property tax in the wrong jurisdiction and billed by multiple counties. 

Throughout this process, I contacted XXXX XXXX multiple times ( XX/XX/XXXX, XX/XX/XXXX, XX/XX/XXXX, XX/XX/XXXX, XX/XX/XXXX, XX/XX/XXXX, XX/XX/XXXX, XX/XX/XXXX, XX/XX/XXXX, XX/XX/XXXX, and XX/XX/year> ). During these calls, I was repeatedly advised by XXXX representatives not to make payment on the disputed property tax while the abatement was being processed. I relied on these instructions. 

On XX/XX/year>, Kia Finance admitted in writing that misinformation provided by its customer service department caused the late payment reporting on my account and stated that the late credit reporting would be removed once payment was confirmed.

Despite this admission, Kia Finance later informed me ( for the first time, mind you ) that it applies an internal and undisclosed payment hierarchy that prioritizes Personal Property Tax over lease payments. Therefore : any payments made between XXXX and XXXX were not applied to my car note, leaving me with a past due balance. This hierarchy was never disclosed at origination, never communicated during servicing, and directly contradicted the payment instructions I was given by Kia representatives. 

Since XX/XX/year>, I have paid {$2900.00}. Kia now claims these payments were applied to property tax. However, the correct property tax owed is {$1900.00}, which I have now also paid. Even accounting for this, Kia continues to assert a {$960.00} past-due balance, which does not mathematically reconcile with the payments made or the confirmed tax amount owed.

Kia has failed to provide a clear, itemized payment application ledger showing how my payments were applied and has refused to release call recordings without a subpoena, despite the fact that those recordings would confirm the misinformation provided to me. 

Additionally, Kia repeatedly missed its own promised timelines for resolution, failed to proactively follow up, and delayed applying confirmed credits to my account, prolonging the issue and compounding the credit harm.

As a result of Kia Finance Americas servicing errors, misinformation, and failure to timely correct known issues, I have suffered inaccurate and damaging credit reporting, improper assertion of delinquency, and prolonged uncertainty regarding my account balance due to misapplied payments. I have spent significant time and effort over several months attempting to resolve errors that were not of my making, repeatedly following Kias instructions only to have those same actions later used against me. The ongoing delays, missed resolution timelines, refusal to provide transparency into payment application, and continued reporting of an unresolved balance have caused substantial stress, frustration, and emotional distress, as well as concern over the long-term impact to my creditworthiness and financial standing.

Company public response: Company has responded to the consumer and the CFPB and chooses not to provide a public response
Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation