Everyone knows that it is a common practice for banks to sell off individuals' loans from time to time. We should demand that loans require consumer consent prior to the sale of loans. This is my own personal horror story from this practice.
I originally received my auto financing through M&I Bank. After about 8 months, I received notification that they had sold my loan to SunTrust. I began making my payments to SunTrust as instructed by M&I Bank. Having received no communication from SunTrust, everything appeared to be seamless. I even have a copy of my credit report from August showing that my car payment was never late and was current.
On September 11th, my car was repossessed. I thought it had been stolen, having made all of my payments, in addition to having electronic copies of the cancelled checks. It turns out that SunTrust claimed to have no record of several payments. This could be believable, but my cancelled checks have their employee's handwriting on the checks referencing my account number. After I explained to their less than helpful repo department that I had copies of the cancelled checks, they informed me that even if it was an error on their part, I was still responsible for the repossession fees, late charges, etc., to the tune of about $2000.
I am about to pay the money to retrieve my vehicle, but I cannot wait to see if I have legal recourse against them. It is just another example of how we are no longer customers. We, and all of our possessions, are just numbers on an $8/hr employee's computer screen.
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