I sought council and a possible refinance of my vehicle. I came upon Auto Loan USA that brokered a loan with Drive Financial. I had a balance of less than 20,000$ with some credit hits from late payments. The loan officer told me I could refinance to a higher rate and fix my credit within 1 year — opening options of lower rates. What he didn’t tell me was that Drive Financial was going to slam me with hidden fees that would nearly double what I owed for the vehicle making it utterly unfinanciabal there after. I was hit with a 24.99% interest rate and fee that brought my total owed to 27,997.91$ even after placing a down payment. If I complete the entire 60 month lending term, I would end up paying 50,779.00$ in total — pretty much purchasing the car for a second time even though I only had a year left. Now, normally I wouldn’t have been able to qualify for these obscene terms of 829.65 a month, but my sales person falsified my income statements by sending in his own bank statements that claimed I was making 10,000 US a month. Now I’ve paid for 17 months at 829.65 a month and have managed to only pay 2,000 dollars of the amount owed leaving me with a balance of 25,525.10$.
I fell victim to predatory lending. The fees were never outlined or addressed and the consequences of this lending decision were not disclosed. If anything, they sweetened the deal and told me everything would be “okay”. But my story doesn’t stop there — I’ve tried to contact Drive Financial in hopes of renegotiating the terms — Not only are they unwilling to work with me, but they have also committed breaches of privacy laws by disclosing my personal finance information to unauthorized parties, harassing my references and myself with numerous phone calls daily, and have added disclosure authorization without my permission multiple times until I threatened to file a law suit.
As a student of 22 years old, I am left with little to no options. When I considered voluntarily defaulting after submitting a formal complaint to the Washington State Attorney General, Drive Financial told me they would auction my car off (With an estimation of 8,000 dollars as the sale price) and would sell my account to a collection agency for the rest owed with the maximum lawful interest applied. I can’t trade in the vehicle, I can’t refinance for a lower rate because they raised the price to above what the vehicle is worth, and I can’t default it without having judgment filed against me and collections haunting me for the rest of my life.
The consequences have been numerous. Not only has Drive Financial swindled me of my money and harassed me continuously, but the effects of stress have taken a toll on my emotional well being. I’m a student and in this failing economy, it’s already hard enough to live. Add a looming 829.65 a month and it becomes impossible. I can barely pay my bills, much less put food on the table. My income was no where close to being able to support this loan.
