I refinanced my car in September of 2008. I received notification in November that Insurance had been added to my loan balance because I failed to provide proof of insurance. Upon receiving notification I called my insurance company and asked that they provide my finance company with proof of coverage. I was assured by finance company once letter is received insurance would be removed. A week later I receive a call from my finance company stating that they have received proof of coverage but they are not listed as the leinholder so they can not credit my account for having insurance. I then call my insurance company again and have leinholder updated my agent faxes another letter. I call my finance company back and they state they have received letter from my agent but it shows policy effective date of 10/28/08 so they can only give me partial credit for insurance premium leaving a balance added to my loan principle of 630. Again I call my agent request declaration letter showing showing that my car has been covered without lapses since it was purchased in 2007. I follow up on the letter with the finance company they explain that even though they show I have been covered since 2007 they have the right to bill for premium because they were not listed as leinholder on my insurance until 10/28/08. They stated to me that they were not protected had I gotten into accident in September. I explain that they have the title to my car and are listed as leinholder on my title in addition I had full coverage on my vehicle in September. Plus it is now December they are retro billing for services they did not render.
When I asked if there is anything that can be done. They stated no since they were not listed as leinholder with my insurance they have the right to bill for lapse in coverage even though they recognize that my car was insured. Currently I am attempting to get my insurance to retro the lein holder but that is proving difficult as well. I live in the state of Missouri I was wondering if anybody has any advice on dealing with this situation what are my rights as the consumer ? Do I have any legal recourse? Due to the insurance the finance company just billed me an additional amount over my regular car payment ( my regular car pyment has been paid) . I was advised if I don’t pay in a week they will consider my car payment late and add an additional late charge. What should I do ? Any advice would be very helpful Thanks in advance.
Juan
Donald
Sounds like your finance company is a bunch of crooks..
That is not a surprise..
Is it even worth talking to a lawyer ?
Paul
Your insurance agent/company should be able to backdate this change to the date you obtained the loan with this lienholder. They should not have an issue on this since this change does not involving adding coverage but listing a lienholder that is already on your title. If your agent is having trouble getting this, ask him/her to speak with their Underwriter or a Supervisor. The change might take one to two weeks because it will probably have to be done manually since the effective date is more than 30 days old.
Hopefully once you get this information, i.e. the declaration page showing the change, your lienholder should be satisfied and that should be the end of the story. That said it looks like you have gotten a bad lienholder that is only out for money. The lienholder would in fact have been protected in case of any claim because in the event of a claim the vast majority of insurance company adjusters double check whether there is a lien before they issue a check for payment on a claim! If this lienholder still continues to give you trouble, I would contact the insurance commissioner in your state, the licensing authority that handles this lienholder’s license, the Better Business Bureau and even your local television investigative reporter! Sometimes a little bad publicity makes companies back off of this type of onerous anti-consumer behavior.
I hope this helps. Good Luck!
Micheal
There are only two words for this situation. Insurance Commissioner, Insurance Commissioner, Insurance Commissioner.
You need to call the Insurance Commissioner or Department of Insurance in your state and file a complaint against your leinholder. You might call them up first and threaten them with calling the Department of Insurance and that you will file a complaint if they do not take off the charge and refund your money ASAP. Tlhey get in trouble with the state when you file a complaint so a threatening phone call to the leinholder may do the trick. If not, call your Dept. Insurance and file a complaint against them. Since you had insurance they should not have charged you one dime for insurance whether or not they were listed as leinholder makes no difference.
Ricardo
first,you should collect some resource by searching the relevant keyword in search engine,if you got good luck there ,then your problem solved.however,if you are not able to find the ideal answer by doing that,here is the resource i recommend.
Lucy
You probably need to write all that out, and complain in writing to your state banking commissioner, who would be the regulating authority for the lender.