ComplaintsforFinancial Plus Credit Union

• Initial Complaint

  09/07/2023

  Complaint Type:

  Service or Repair Issues

  Status:

  Resolved

  More info

  Car loan through financial plus. On September 4 2023 our car was repossessed by financial plus. Tuesday we called and asked financial plus why. We were told we owed$621 a late fee from may of 2023 and august payment of $463.12 (which was 12 days late), we talked to ***** she told us she had tried to contact us numerous times, we asked for the numbers she was calling, the primary number my wifes they had as ************. Which was wrong we corrected her with the right number of ************. So these calls were not getting to Us. Asked why was repoed for $621, she responded because no one answered when called on said wrong number. Asked what needed to be done to get our car she added up late fee and 2 payments and cost of towing came to $2233. We electronically paid this amount and was told they would release our car for pick up. Asked if anymore fees she said no. So today payment went through I called financial plus and ***** said we would have to pay a fee at the repo company. Also had no notice by paper of any of this. Also was told we made payments in July of 2023. Today Wednesday we called ***** because of the fee to get our car back and she stated we never paid julys payment and that she told us we would have a fee for the storage of the car. I dont feel we are in the wrong when they have been calling the wrong number. We could have resolved this a lot cheaper and easier.they could have sent Certified letter or at least a mail correspondence. We gave them the correct phone numbers they wrote them down wrong. . ***** did not know the cost of the towing fee could not get us an answer for that. But was able to add it all up for amount needed to get our car.

  Business response

  09/12/2023

  This was an indirect loan through a dealership and the contact information obtained from dealer was limited. The main borrower phone number was valid, but voicemaill was not set up and/or accepting messages. The joint borrower phone number was wrong, but that was the information we recieved from the dealer. We attempted several phone calls and text messages with zero response from the borrower. We sent the right to cure prior to repossession via Mail and received no response from borrowers to contact us. We also received notice that their auto insurance was canceled which is a requirement of the loan to have valid insurance. With the loan being 2+ months delinquent, canceled auto insurance, and no contact with borrowers we decided to repossess.

  The day after the vehicle was repossessed the members contacted us and wanted to pay to the get the vehilcle back ASAP. We told them we did not have the bill yet for the reposession so we did not have the exact figures needed to redeem the vehicle. They stated that was ok and would be fine with an estimate of total cost and paid the estimate as they wanted vehicle back ASAP. We also told them we would need proof of insurance as well which we received. We also told the joint borrower both verbally and through a text message that the repo agent will also charge storage/redemption fee and that needs to be handled direclty with the repo agent. This is a fee not charged to the credit union only to borrowers if there is a redemption. For that reason we could not tell them the amount.

  Details of amount collected on 9/6/23: $2,230.84

  Past Due *******s $967.72

  9/21/23 Good Faith ******* to redeem $463.12-Bringing the loan due for 10/21/23

  Repossession Fee $825 (only collected $800 from borrowers since this was an estimate)

• Initial Complaint

  07/12/2023

  Complaint Type:

  Billing Issues

  Status:

  Answered

  More info

  I have a late payment warning on my credit report that I believe to be a mistake. I have asked the company to please correct it with the credit bureaus and they refuse to do so. This will affect my credit for three more years. I had a credit card with this company that I rarely use, so I don't always get credit card statements from them when there hasn't been any activity. I had a charge from Amazon get posted to this credit card by mistake, and their statement never reached me because we had moved addresses by then. It wasn't until after 30 days of late status had passed before they called my phone and I paid the account immediately. It was a little over $100 total. I would have NEVER expected that years later I would still see this showing up on my credit report. Luckily thanks to Mint.com, this was brought to my attention and I've been seeking to get this corrected. I don't believe it is fair for the business to report this as a late payment for two reason - because I was not made aware that a charge was due and secondly because they didn't contact me by phone until AFTER they reported the late payment to the credit bureaus. If they had called my phone or email earlier this would have been addressed immediately. Instead this miscommunication will haunt my credit for years. Their response was that legally there isn't anything they can do, but reading online this is actually up to their discretion what to deem as an error. Attached, you can see a readout from my credit score where they note that this single late payment is classified as "poor" and that it has "high impact" on the rating. Also attached, documentation showing that the card had zero activity in the months before the charge occurred.It is a mistake to report these types of miscommunications to the credit bureaus, this is NOT what the late payments are meant to show creditors. If anything, it shows that FPCU is not able to resolve communication errors with its members in a proper fashion.

  Business response

  07/19/2023

  ******************** requested we modify his credit as a matter of goodwill, which we explained is illegal according to the Fair Credit Reporting Act. In his intial letter attached he acknowledged it was his error not updating his address with FPCU. As part of our membership agreement it ****** states that the responsibility of updating account information is with the member. We sent notices to the address we had on file as required by law. 

  Customer response

  07/25/2023

  Complaint: 20307263
  Regretfully I reject their response - not only did they not fix my issue, but it's apparent they are not bothered and have no intention on correcting this type of mistake for all members. 

  While it is on the member to update their mailing address, FPCU has our phone and email on file and they failed to use those methods until AFTER reporting to the credit agencies. And that is the mistake of FPCU. They have no problem using our email and phone for marketing purposes but when it is a matter of substance, they say they are not required by law. Eventually they did call my phone, but not until after the damage was done to our credit for 7 years. And they refuse to call that a mistake. Instead they continue to double down on their communication errors and admit that they aren't required by law to protect their membership, so they have no intention to do so. There are a lot of options when it comes to financial institutions and I find it regretful that FPCU treats it members with such disregard. 

  How is this good for business? How is this good for your members? Well, it's not, and I don't think this is how they would wish to be treated in this matter. 

  Business response

  07/31/2023

  While we are not obligated by law to make phone calls on delinquent accounts, we do our best efforts to call in addition to written communication. In this case we did call on July 17th 2019 and again the 18th and 26th, where we finally made contact with ********************. We then continued to call August 1st, 7th, and 8th. 

  I will reiterate that ******************** stated the reason for being late on the payment was his fault. He was late, it was not a credit union mistake and his credit is reflecting accurately. According to the Fair Credit Reporting Act we are required to report credit accurately and can only change records if there is credit union error. There was no credit union error and the delinquency is valid. 

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