Consumer complaint received 2024-03-11 00:00:00
Product: Vehicle loan or lease — Loan
Issue: Managing the loan or lease — Problem with fees charged
Company: ALLY FINANCIAL INC.
State: CA

Complaint narrative:
To the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau Regarding : Ally Servicing LLC XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX, MN XXXX Agreement number : XXXX Vehicle : XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX : XXXX Dear Sir/Madam, My name is XXXX XXXX. I am XXXX and my family and I have had a host of fraudulent activity by banks and institutions primarily since COVID hit. Maybe it is a byproduct of the virus, who knows. I am well educated and have a XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX, so I can figure out quickly when something is wrong and usually handle the problem without having to go further than deal directly with the institution to correct there wrongdoing. I say wrongdoing assuming it is dishonest as it is always an honest error and it is always in their favor. 

I have come across a case where it is not only not an error, the dishonesty is very serious. I can not work it out with the company as they clearly do not care if they are caught stealing. The company is Ally Servicing LLC and what they did here is truly blatant and brazen in several instances. I will start with the most obvious and have full exhibits and proof of each instance. The total amounts that they have overcharged add up to {$1100.00} ( at the moment, however, it can change substantially without reason ), but the threat if I do not pay them is that they will repossess my car ( Exhibit 1 ). It is very important to note that I have paid them all 72 payments thus far and only owe late fees of {$260.00} and thus they have no legal right to repossess my car. They call me three times a day harassing me to pay them their false fees for months now. 

Case 1 : They charged me {$450.00} in interest on a total amount due of only {$1000.00} in just one month when they increased the amount due to {$1400.00}. Please view the text of the conversation with them on XXXX XXXX, XXXX ( Exhibit 2 ) - the quote came at XXXX of that conversation. Please examine Ally Auto payment due screen XXXX ( Exhibit 3 ) that displays the Total Balance of {$1000.00}. It is important to note that XXXX claimed at XXXX of that conversation that the total amount of {$1400.00} reflected the XXXX, XXXX and XXXX payments plus late fees. My loan was over and paid. There were no new payments due for XXXX, XXXX and XXXX Further, they appear to be adding new payments along with late fees on other created payments. 

Case 2 : They added fees that did not exist before on my account. I called about them on or around XXXX XXXX, XXXX on a tape recorded line. The gentlemen said they made errors in their system during COVID, but there were an extra {$600.00} in fees due as they failed to charge interest on the COVID deferments. No further explanation was given. At the time I decided not to contend, however, their application was showing that I had made 71 of 72 payments and that these were late fees and other fees ( unknown ) due for a total in the mid- {$900.00} range. I confirmed not only that I only had one payment left, but after I make the final payment that there would be no threat of a repossession, also that the total owed would have the APR of my car loan until paid in which I would receive my pink slip. Since, I have calculated the total interest of the four COVID deferments, which came to {$600.00}, which confirms the number the gentlemen gave me ( calculations on Exhibit 11 ). 

The problem here is that the interest was added after payments were already made and not accrued due to their error. They can not retroactively adjust as they see fit. They can only legally add this amount as an additional fee, not create new payments owed after all payments have already been made and recorded. Also, even with the additional fees the amount owed never added up to the amount they claim as I will go through below. 

Case 3 : They converted fees due to payments due restructured my loan to their benefit without my consent. I made the final payment in XXXX, after which I noticed that I now had three payments remaining instead of XXXX. They decided to covert these supposed fees to payments without my consent, which is highly illegal ( i.e., a loan institution can not restructure your loan without your consent and without compensation if the restructuring is to their advantage ). Proof of their restructuring is right on the Exhibit 3 screen itself when it displays more money due than total owed ( i.e., Total Payment Due of {$1100.00} is 14.4 % higher than the Total Balance. The Total Payment Due can never be higher than the Total Balance! Further, the sum of three payments is higher than the Total Balance. ). After I pointed this out to them they altered my loan page to remove all loan information ( Exhibit 4 ). 

Another obvious proof comes when examining the Ally Auto Payment History as of XXXX ( Exhibit 5 ) and adding up the total late fees still due, which also can be found in the XXXX XXXX text conversation ( Exhibit 2 ) at XXXX where XXXX stated that I owed {$430.00} in late fees ( interesting to note that their own accounting ( Exhibit 5 ) demonstrates a total of {$420.00} ). How can I owe three payments of {$350.00} plus {$430.00}, yet have a total owed of only {$1000.00} as of XXXX XXXX? XXXX does not lie, people do! 

Another classic example was in the form of an email ( Exhibit 6 ) yesterday now claiming that I owe 4 payments. Im sure next month I will owe five payments and so on. I feel like I am in a time warp where my payments are going backward and disappearing. The only problem is that the funds are not returning to my bank account. This company is radically out of control! This is further evidence that they are adding payments to the loan beyond the 72 payments as per the agreement. And if I do not pay these added payments they will ruin my credit and steal my car. 

Lastly on case XXXX, on the text conversation at XXXX on XX/XX/XXXX ( Exhibit 1 ) XXXX stated that my account had 3 months remaining due and is 70 days late, yet Exhibit 7 Ally Servicing LLC payment page - proof they restructured debt XXXX clearly shows that they were claiming as of XX/XX/XXXX that I was already three payments behind with a Total Payment Due of {$1100.00}. I believe the 70 days really marks the date when they illegally restructured my loan. Nothing else makes sense. 

Case 4 Ally Servicing LLC refuses to provide me with a copy of my loan agreement. I have moved several times over the course of this loan and can not find this agreement. I have requested my loan agreement 4 times with 2 of the 4 in writing ( Exhibit 8 Ally Servicing LLC - text conversation on XXXX and XXXX please refer to the XX/XX/XXXX call at XXXX and Exhibit 9 Letter sent XXXX to Ally Servicing LLC. They will only provide me with the payment history, but not my loan agreement. As such, I can not make a detailed complaint siting specific violations over several loan irregularities ( cases 5 through 7 below ), however I will cover them one-by-one. 

Case 5 : Ally Servicing LLC created late fees after all required payments were made. There is so much inconsistency with the late fee charges that they need to be broken into two separate cases. The first is the most egregious. There are 5 late fees charged falsely ( 4 after one, XXXX of XXXX, was reversed ). Important to note that it was reversed because I noticed the late fee posted and complained as I had proof it was paid on time. Another I missed was the XXXX of XXXX late charge. The payment was made on XXXX ( Exhibit XXXX ) and displayed in there accounting in Exhibit 5. Proof that the payment was made in full is demonstrated in the accounting they gave in Exhibit 5 where there was a normal payment made the following month and so on. No late fee was charged for a year and a half after that fee was assessed, as such the account total due was paid in full on XXXX. 

Three late fees were charged after all payments had been made and only fees were due, which were admitted to by both the accounting in Exhibit 5 displaying that the late fees had not been paid ( page 4 ) as well as the text conversation in Exhibit 2 at XXXX ( page 3 ). The total sum of all of these false late charges minus the already reversed charge is {$89.00}. 

C

ase 6 : Late fee charges are highly inconsistent over the life of the loan. As Exhibit 5 displays the range of late charges for one full month late is from {$12.00} to {$17.00}, a 43.5 % fluctuation. Not being able to view my loan agreement prevents me from determining what violations they may or may not have committed. I find it very unlikely that they can chose any amount they wish. Case 7 : Finance Charge Paid for each month is highly inconsistent over the entire life of the loan. As Exhibit 5 displays the range of payment from a single
months payment is from {$6.00} to {$350.00} ( the full payment ). There is absolutely no consistency at all, nor any math or rhyme or reason that can explain how this is calculated. I do not have the loan agreement, so I can not point to a specific violation ; however, this does appear to be used in some way to better their payout and seems illegal. I am relatively confident that this creative practice has led to me being further overcharged. 

Obviously cases 1 and 3 ( possibly 2 and 5 as well ) are fraud and are illegal. I believe case 4 is a serious violation. Case 6 looks very bad and case 7 looks terrible ; however, I do not know the specific violations as I do not have the loan agreement to review. 

As I do not have the loan agreement I can only extrapolate the total payments due during the life of the loan of {$25000.00} based on the simple math of {$350.00} times 72 payments. I suspect there are other loan violations within the loan agreement itself, but again, I do not have the agreement to confirm. My suspicion is based on the fact that I was loaned more than I needed with the first four payments being paid at the time of initiation, however, accrued over the course of the first four months meaning that the interest on those payments was most likely charged even though the money was never paid. Seems minor, but if you do it to enough people it will add up. Total late fees charged minus the one reversal were {$420.00}. The total interest on all six deferments ( all of which have been paid ) is {$770.00} based on the total months deferred and the interest rate on the loan ( all calculations for deferments can be found in Exhibit 11 and Exhibit 12 ). The grand total is {$26000.00}. 

During the course of the loan I paid a grand total ( according to their accounting which I took the time to verify with the exception of the first few months that were not made in actual payments, but in the origination of the loan itself as covered above ) of {$26000.00}. Considering the false late fees, I owe Ally XXXX XXXX {$260.00} ( only late fees owed- no principle ). I have attached an XXXXXXXX XXXX ( Exhibit 11 ) for your convenience as well as putting the information into a PDF file ( Exhibit 12 ) so that you can easily verify my math. 

Ally XXXX XXXX has also deeply hurt my credit by falsely reporting missed payments. I want them ordered to remove all the late payments that they have reported when absolutely no payments were actually due. 

If they are doing this to me you can be assured that they are doing it to thousands of other clients. This is stealing from the poor to give to the rich and greedy. I highly encourage you for the safety and good of the public to do a thorough and complete examination of all of their lending practices. These are not honest errors ; they are outright planned theft and extortion. Extortion is a very valid term in this case as they have ruined my credit and even worse threatened to steal my vehicle which I have fully paid for. In my opinion, criminal prosecutions should be made if this is not an isolated case, which seems impossible given the amount of fraud exhibited. 

There should be some kind of penalties for their behavior. I can not help to wonder how often they get away with this and how few people know how to fight them. The penalty should be strong enough to discourage them from this behavior. There should also be some compensation for those they have harassed, bullied, extorted from and abused by continual threatening phone calls. 

It is also important to note that this company is VERY poorly rated ( Exhibit 13 ). On a scale from XXXX the XXXX XXXX XXXX  average of XXXX XXXX Reviews rated Ally XXXX XXXX with XXXX registered complaints over the past 3 years and XXXX of those over the past 12 months ( the rate per year is increasing with 23 % more complaints over the past 12 months over previous two years! ). That is as close to the bottom as you can affectively get. Similarly, XXXX XXXX users who wrote a review rated them XXXX on a scale from XXXX. I can go on, but I believe the point is obvious. 

Please help me. Thank you in advance for your time and assistance! 

Sincerely, XXXX XXXX

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