I started a lease with GM Financial back in August 2017, and like every other car I've purchased or leased previously, I immediately set up the auto pay function. Payments were being deducted as expected up until August 2019. When I logged into my GM Financial account in September, I noted that I had a late payment. Needless to say I was surprised given that I had set up an autopay at lease initiation. When I called customer support, they mentioned that the prior auto pay function had an end date of August 2019 rather than through lease end. I mentioned that I didn't change anything when I set it up, and much like any other auto pay with an automotive financing company, assumed it would have defaulted to the lease end date. Needless to say, I made the payment and was told to wait 48 hours to set up the auto pay again.
Oddly, though I went through the same process to set up the auto pay, it didn't stick. Distractions of having two young kids prevented me from confirming that my payment was being deducted from my account (which I fully understand is my responsibility) and I was subsequently left with a 30 day mark on my credit report. I called GM Financial to again discuss the technological issues with their autopay feature and was told that because the payment was late it was an accurate report to the bureaus and they wouldn't be able to remove it. I stressed once again that I did not make any modifications to the end date of my initial auto pay set up and that I have never had a late payment in my life (credit score has been 800+ prior to this issue). They also mentioned that due to customer complaints (I'm assuming others had a similar issue), they removed the option to change the auto pay end date.
So now I'm left with a "good" credit score due to one 30 day mark on my record from the prior month (outstanding payment that should have been auto debited has been made, so account is in good standing again). I have asked to speak with a supervisor in their servicing department and left a voice message this morning. I've read countless posts about goodwill letters, though it sounds lke GM Financial is nto amenable to this approach. Also unsure whether filing a complating with the bureaus directly, or filing a CFPB complaint, will have any impact on my ability to get this mark removed. I'm tempted to dig into this autopay technological issue as it seems it has impacted other consumers negatively as well.
Are there any downsides with filing complaints with the credit bureaus and CFPB and taking a more aggressive approach with GM Financial vs. writing a friendly goodwill letter and getting the boiler plate response back? Understood this falls on me for not checking that the payment was properly debited, but it never should have come to this if GM could properly do what every other financial institution I've worked with over the last 25+ years has been able to do regarding autopay functionality.
Thanks in advance for your thoughts and any suggestions.
