Has anyone been surprised by extra interest on a car loan?

Question

I recently decided to pay off a car loan and imagine my surprise to find that I owed another $4,000 in interest because I paid after the stated DUE DATE, even though I paid BEFORE the penalty date. I've never had to pay a late fee. I've researched my loan papers and in VERY small print it states that there is a penalty for not paying by the "due date" but no specifics are stated. I guess my complaint (other than $4,000! due) is that there is no statement on the coupon book about a late assessment between the "due date" and the "late penalty date" and.............I have never received a statement from the car company informing me of the growing interest charges. I have excellent credit and COULD have paid this on the exact date it was due but left it in an account to grow MORE MONEY. I think this practice is unethical. I just called my sis-in-law and she found out she was doing the same thing! Any ideas out there how I can get some money back...........short of suing?

Answer 1

I am not sure exactly what you are asking but it sounds as if you had a few late payments.

There is a Due Date and the date the assess a late payment charge. If you constantly sent your payment in on the due date there is a good chance they were not getting it until after the penalty date. It does not matter when you send the payment, it matters when they recieve and process it which could be an extra 7 days after you mail it.

If you are on a payment book, they do not send you a notice that you were late, they just assume you will add it in. I found this out the hard way in that I had a a couple of late payments and owed a few extra dollars at the end. Because of this I went to sending in the payments about a week before they were due just to be sure. All of the dates will be on your original finance contract.

$4,000 seems like a lot of missed payments or a lot of interest but it is one possibility if this was a simple interest loan. What you could do is ask them to send you a statement of all of the activity on your account, this will show you the dates they got the payments and how much late fee was assessed.

Answer 2

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Answer 3

Most state attorney generals office have a consumer complaint division.

This sounds pretty unethical. $4,000 is an awful lot of interest. Call the loan company first and tell them to give you something in writing showing you where you agree to that.

The problem is, you can't even just ignore it because I'm assuming they still have your car title and aren't going to sign off on it until you resolve this so you need to talk to them first and if you still aren't satisfied, call your attorney generals office.

Unfortunately, you many end up having to hire a lawyer to resolve this but if you do, I'd sure as hell sue them for attorney's fees.

Answer 4

If it is not a simple interest loan there is probably nothing you can do about it. That is something you should have asked when you purchased the vehicle. I am not sure you have a leg to stand on cause I don't have any idea what kind of loan you have and the amount of interest is a large amount, but you might want to call your lender and ask them to explain it to you if you haven't already.
Good Luck.

Answer 5

ANOTHER REASON TO DEAL WITH BANKING THAT YOU KNOW AND AVOID QUICK EASY DEALERSHIPS AND THEIR INSTANT FINANCING.