Consumer complaint received 2026-01-14 00:00:00
Product: Vehicle loan or lease — Loan
Issue: Managing the loan or lease — Problem with the interest rate
Company: PENTAGON FEDERAL CREDIT UNION
State: MO

Complaint narrative:
Please see attached PDF titled Complaint for the full description. I'll use this section for a brief summary sparing some details for an easier flow. 

XX/XX/XXXX my wife and I entered into an auto loan agreement with Pentagon Federal Credit Union ( PenFed ) to refinance my XXXX XXXX XXXX. This loan was to pay off the loan I had with XXXX XXXX from when I purchased the vehicle brand new just a couple months prior. During this application process, I informed PenFed employees multiple times that I did not have the title yet to my vehicle nor did I expect to get it possibly due to the purchased being made out of state and they registered the vehicle for me. 

In this loan agreement, PenFed states that if they are unable to place a lien on my vehicle by the XXXX day of the agreement, they may require payment in full on the entire loan due immediately or adjust the rate to that of an unsecured loan.

PenFed waited 116 Days to notify me that they were struggling to perfect the lien. The
reason for this delay was that they did not have a title. PenFed acquired two Power of Attorney 's ( POA ) for both my wife and myself during the loan acquisition process. I informed them multiple times both by phone and email that they could apply for a duplicate with those POA 's and they continued to claim they could not. I sadly could not magically get a clear title produced myself since XXXX XXXX would only provide a lien release to PenFed and PenFed would not forward said release to me. 

PenFed magically realized after countless attempts to aid them that they can indeed get the title and acquired it on XX/XX/XXXX. The free and clear title was sent to my residence and I immediately packaged it back up and forwarded it to PenFed unsigned and blank so they could use the remaining POA to fill out as they needed. 

At the end of XXXX, the XXXX placed a rejection on my title due to someone requesting my wife be removed from the title. The XXXX stated this request would have come from me or PenFed. Now if you recall from earlier, I sent the title to PenFed blank so its not possible this request came from me. 

PenFed forwarded the title back to me with " sign here '' stickers placed for my wife and I both to sign the title as sellers and just myself to sign as the buyer. They also included a Missouri XXXX XXXX which is just a XXXX XXXX. The instructions were to sign as instructed and mail to XXXX in XXXX, MO. My wife and I did so and assumed the matter was resolved. 

PenFed continued to send threats to hike my interest and each time I immediately called PenFed and was continuously told that they'd look into the issue and resolve and would call me if they needed assistance. 

XX/XX/XXXX I received another letter and after a horrible experience trying to discuss with a PenFed employee, I called the XXXX myself to just handle the XXXX thing. The XXXX stated PenFed just needed to send a payment of {$9.00} to get the XXXX perfected and confirmed XXXX received the title. I then called PenFed and spoke with a " XXXX '' who told me that if he doesn't call me back, I can consider the matter handled. 

XXXX rolls around and to my surprise, I get an email stating my loan was past due. The reason it was past due? PenFed had hiked my rate and my auto payment was set to the old amount. This email arrived at XXXX and I still made that payment before the sun XXXX that day. I then started the process to just leave PenFed entirely by refinancing my vehicle with another bank, even at a higher rate. Just a day later, I was informed by multiple banks that I was sadly out of luck on refinancing my XXXX since I technically was no longer refinancing it. My XXXX didn't have a lien on it and since it was no longer a vehicle purchase, banks would treat the loan more as a title loan and it'd carry a significantly higher rate. 

XXXX days later, I get a call from a debt collector that I answer through my car 's speaker as I was driving for my XXXX children and wife to hear a very unpleasant PenFed employee threaten legal action against me for failure to make my payment. To say I was irate is an understatement. My kids didn't need to hear that. Especially since I had already made the payment XXXX freaking days prior. 

After I'm able to get home and kids unloaded, I call PenFed and work through who all the employees I can until I can finally get someone ranked as high as possible. She at least agreed to provide an email so I could document the struggle thus far and finally feel like this had a chance to get resolved. Attached PenFed Emails XXXX is the correspondence with XXXX. 

To date, PenFed continues to charge me an interest rate somewhere around 19 %. The actual rate is nowhere to be found on any page when I'm logged into my account nor on any statement. PenFed might still be working to resolve, but I sadly have no clue as I have not had any communication from them since XX/XX/XXXX nor have they sent anything for my wife and I to sign. 

Attachment List : XXXX 's Complaint - the full and detailed complaint of the events thus far against PenFed Document - the original Loan Agreement with PenFed Document ( XXXX ) - my XXXX most recent account statements LP for CC - XXXX document PenFed emailed and mailed for me to sign on XX/XX/XXXX Images : ( all email screenshots ) email XXXX - dated XX/XX/XXXX PenFed notifying me on day XXXX that there was an issue with my title email XXXX - dated XX/XX/XXXX auto response survey that you receive after you call PenFed asking how they did email XXXX - dated XX/XX/XXXX me asking why PenFed didn't use POA 's to get new title already email XXXX - dated XX/XX/XXXX PenFed stating they only use POA 's for XXXX Purposes XXXX XXXX problem back to me email XXXX - dated XX/XX/XXXX Me reiterating I don't have title, but I'll try. Once again, explaining that they could have resolved easily with XXXX 's email XXXX - dated XX/XX/XXXX PenFed giving me XXXX additional days to resolve email XXXX - dated XX/XX/XXXX me confirming I'd like the XXXX additional days. 
email XXXX - dated XX/XX/XXXX me stating once again I do not have title, I can not get title without XXXX XXXX, and I can not get XXXX XXXX. I close with asking PenFed to help resolve ( hint : they didn't even bother to reply ) email XXXX - dated XX/XX/XXXX email from new PenFed employee stating they've requested a new title email XXXX - dated XX/XX/XXXX PenFed stating they got a new title and they need a XXXX XXXX XXXX signed. They emailed me the form and stated they mailed XXXX as well. 
email XXXX - dated XX/XX/XXXX email from XXXX stating I'd have a shipment arriving soon from PedFed Emails XXXX - dated XX/XX/XXXX through XX/XX/XXXX all correspondence with XXXX as referenced above.

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 non-monetary relief