Consumer complaint received 2025-09-08 00:00:00
Product: Credit reporting or other personal consumer reports — Credit reporting
Issue: Improper use of your report — Reporting company used your report improperly
Company: AMERICAN HONDA FINANCE CORP
State: FL

Complaint narrative:
Please find below email communication sent to the General Manager of XXXX XXXX, XXXX XXXX. After several attempts to contact him for over two weeks he has yet to contact me. I even escalated this to their parent company XXXX XXXX and after an initial response saying they would inquire and respond within 5 business days they have not responded after 10 days. I am requesting my credit inquiry be deleted as the authorization to run my credit was obtained under false pretenses. 

Yesterday I went online, shopping for a Certified XXXX XXXX for my son ; his first car. I found a Certified XXXX  XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX that I was interested in leasing. There was an advertised lease program for {$20000.00}, {$2900.00} down, {$140.00} payment. I did read the program details and it said that there are other costs not included in these numbers like tag, tax and other dealer fees. 

After work I visited the dealership and my son test drove it. He liked it and we wanted to move forward in the sales process. Once we sat down the salesperson, XXXX XXXX, started to fill out the credit report documents. I told him that I had a high credit score and wasnt worried about being approved but that I first wanted to know which costs would be added before my credit was pulled. He agreed and left to speak to someone. After about 10 minutes he came back and said that the online price is from XXXX and they cant add anything else ; the only thing not included is the tax, tag ( which I could use my own to lower the cost ) and dealer fees. I asked him what the dealer fees were and he said it was {$1100.00}. So I repeated to him, its the {$20000.00}, plus sales tax, temporary tag and {$1200.00}? According to my calculations adding the tax and dealer fees to the lease would still put the monthly payment below {$200.00}. He said yes and based on that information I provided authorization to run my credit report. 

After several minutes I was sent to the Finance Manager. The first thing the manager said ( I dont recall his name ) was if I was sure I didnt want to get a new car because the price was going to be about the same. I was shocked to see that there were about XXXX in additional fees I would have to pay and it didnt even include the down payment ; XXXX for XXXX XXXX XXXX for permashield, XXXX for tag fees etc.. I told him I previously requested to know all the costs upfront before running my credit. He said he was sorry but they were required charge those fees on a used car. 

After some back and forth he was still trying to sell me a new car and told him that the {$400.00} payment he was offering on a new car was not what I was there for, so I left. 

At the end of the day, its your car and you can choose what to sell it for, I understand that. But, to deceive a consumer and hurting them in the process, I believe that is an unfair business practice. I work very hard to protect my credit rating which is almost perfect. I have a credit inquiry that was completely unnecessary had they honestly provided me with the information I requested. Now I have to go elsewhere and have my credit pulled a second time; further reducing my credit score.

I am requesting some sort of remedy. If you can not lease me the car as previously quoted ( {$20000.00} plus tag, tax and XXXX dealer fee ), then I would like for you to contact the credit bureau ( XXXX  specifically ) and have the credit request deleted.

Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation