Soooo Frustrated

[mb257310]

Need to vent. Any advice would be appreciated as well.

So, we have an auto loan with Cap 1. Made 2 years worth of automatic payments, on time. Then in January of '14, we had a hiccup where our payment method was declined. We honestly never caught it, and I can't believe we didn't. But, for whatever reason, we didn't. February's payment came out and was fine, but it actually applied to January. And March for February. And so on... UNTIL we applied for a refinance in December. We were denied because of ELEVEN consecutive 30-day late payments. We quickly got "caught up" and we were told erroneously (or we misunderstood) that it would clear up on it's own or we'd simply submit a challenge and we'd be fine.

Fast forward to March, and the 11 negative items still on there when we instead tried to apply for a mortgage on a building lot, and I again called in. This time, I was informed I would need to submit the letter, and there was a "good chance", given the scenario: we'd actually made payments and thought we were fine - never received a letter (paperless billing) or notification.

Suffice it to say, we just today opened a letter from their dispute department that they wouldn't budge. Technically, they are correct, but those negative marks don't reflect our creditworthiness. Our lender has told us that those 11 negative items have killed our score and we're going to need to get them removed or wait a couple of years until they're further back in history. DEVASTATED, to say the least.

This has been a lesson learned, but at such a tremendous cost. I am beside myself. The irrational person in me wants to say, "screw it," and stop paying them all together. I mean, how much lower could our scores go? We've worked so hard to get to this position financially, we've made mistakes, but aside from this issue, our payments have been stellar and we were convinced this was our time to have these credit issues behind us. And now, well... It's demoralizing. It's humiliating.

Again, this wasn't their error. We fully understand it was ours. But we never knew about it. It's my wife's responsibility to pay and it comes out of "her" checking, and she feels awful about not catching this. She's gotten physically and emotionally ill over it. It is a strain on our relationship, and something that feels overwhelming to us all at this point. 

I wish I felt better after venting. But I dont. 

[gdale6]

They have a responsibility to notify you either with a letter or their monthly billings that would clearly show it late. They also should have notified you your payment was denied. If they did not do any of these things file a complaint with the CFPB   http://www.consumerfinance.gov/complaint/

[ojefferyo]

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@gdale6 wrote:

They have a responsibility to notify you either with a letter or their monthly billings that would clearly show it late. They also should have notified you your payment was denied. If they did not do any of these things file a complaint with the CFPB   http://www.consumerfinance.gov/complaint/

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Take a look at what gdale6 posted in the link, although it can be challenged it may be hard to prove that they didn't send anything out. Kind of like a he said she said. I can only imagine how you feel right now about the whole thing. I'd be pretty frustrated also, I know it may seem there's no end to the madness but just remember it WILL get better. Don't give up now, you've worked hard for what you have, just keep fighting for it. Good luck to you.

[mb257310]

Just an update: submitted a CFPB complaint because we were never notified of the missing payment... We'll see where that goes!

[Anonymous]

What a terrible thing to happen. I sincerely feel really bad for you. Whatever you do, do not give up on trying to clear this situation up, it is obvious that there was a mistake and you were never made aware of it. Hang in there and don't give up!!

[Anonymous]

Hang in there.. That really sucks!!

[RobertEG]

The Fair Credit Billing Act requires monthly billing, but only for revolving accounts, as their balance by definition can vary.

Had it been a revolving account, there might be basis for asserting lack of billing or a billing error.

However, the account is an installment loan, for which monthly payments are clearly set forth in the installment account agreement, and monthly billing is not necessary to estalblish due date, and thus delinquency.

You appear to have good basis for obtaining a good-will deletion.  I would pursue that path rather than becoming confrontational by way of complaints to the CFPB over what appears to be accurate reporting.

[Anonymous]

To the OP: there is nothing, absolutely nothing, humiliating about this. From what you described, it was an honest mistake. People have made much worse mistakes, and people have bounced back from them, too. As someone who has let money issues get in the way of perfectly good relationships, please do everything you can to not allow this to affect or destroy the thing that truly, truly matters. We all know what that is.

Credit scores, missed payments, the shrill, empty, and false fury of a FICO score mean absolutely nothing compared to what is truly important and what else you could lose. There's good advice given here to address the score issue, but here's hoping you preserve the thing that truly matters.

[Anonymous]

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@mb257310 wrote:

Just an update: submitted a CFPB complaint because we were never notified of the missing payment... We'll see where that goes!

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Keep us updated. It's good you see was your fault, however, the CFPB will give them a bad taste. IF they fix it, be sure they wont help you in the future if you fall on hard times. I agree with the previous post that a GW letter could have been a better position since the information is accurate.