I was, and still am to a lesser degree, one of those unfortunate, impoverished individuals who was never really taught about money management or credit when I was younger. I, like many others, had to learn these lessons (although apparently not all of them) through the School-Of-Hard-Knocks and my credit rating has taken a pretty severe beating in the process.
In the summer of I was forced, for the very first time, into purchasing a replacement vehicle for my 1990 Shadow for which I had paid cash in 1989. I didn't know a thing about vehicle loans or financing, so I decided to buy a used vehicle since it would be less expensive. I did so hoping that if I made mistakes purchasing another car it wouldn't hurt quite so bad.
I had just started in an electrical apprenticeship program so money was in very short supply. However, I lucked out and found a '96 Chevy S-10 Pickup with only 40,200 miles on it. The dealership got it financed for me for 6 1/2 years through a bank called First Security. The final payment on this note would be in January. The loan payments and insurance just barely fit into my budget but I worked diligently to ensure the installments were consistently paid on time and have continued to do so for the last 6 years.
A couple of months after I financed the truck, Wells Fargo came along and absorbed First Security. I got a chuckle over this when I realized Wells Fargo had originally denied me financing for the truck but now had to deal with me anyway. I thought I was finally starting to gain the means to improve my bad credit. I guess I should have known better.
Everything ticked along smoothly until the first of the "Payment Holiday" offers arrived. I thought I must be doing something right to be getting offers to defer payments until the end of the note. I read and re-read the offer to ensure I understood how this deferral would impact the note and how the payments would be made.
The language of the offer stated, "..., your December loan payment will be deferred without impacting your credit rating. The deferred payment, plus a $35.00 deferral charge, will simply be added to the end of your loan. This will result in an extension of the term of your loan beyond the current scheduled maturity date by one additional month. Finance charges will continue to accure..." I don't know about you but that language tells me the deferred payment will be added to the end of the loan and the loan will pay off a month later than originally scheduled.
A little further down the page and presented almost as an afterthought, the offer states, "If the payment holiday results in an increase to the final payment of your loan, you will have the right to refinance this payment without penalty on terms that are no less favorable than the terms of the original loan." IF... Such a big meaning for such a little word. It's a "might happen", a "maybe", not expected to happen but it could happen. Under these circumstances, the language states how the event would be handled. I understood it to say that the refinancing would go into effect with my signature which means they would have to send me paperwork to be signed.
I didn't see anything detrimental so I accepted the offer and skipped a payment for the first time in December. Additional offers came about once every 6 months and I took advantage 6 consecutive offers before I turned the last one down for June. I believed I had extended my note by 6 months and the new final payoff date would be in June.
I generally make my payments on-line since I only need to transfer money between accounts to make the Chevy payment and it's much faster than waiting for a check to clear. The paper invoice comes in the mail as well but I rarely open it since I know the payment has already been made.
I made the January payment (the old final payment date) on-line as I normally did. I noticed nothing out of the ordinary in doing this so I paid the paper invoice no mind when it arrived.
Three days after the payment due date I start getting strange unidentified calls without any voice mail on my cell phone when I was at work. I don't answer anything until break time or lunch and everyone who knows me knows to leave a message on voice mail if they need to talk to me. This goes on for a week or so until finally around March 10th one of the collection minions leaves a message and a phone number on voice mail. I call the number after work only to discover that she only works until 2:00P.M. I try the next day and find out that my truck note is now considered to be in default because all the deferred payments have been added to the original final payment and I didn't know anything about it in advance (no documents sent to be signed) nor was there any indication on-line that the bank had decided to implement it's "IF" statement without giving any notice that it was going to do so.
At this point, I start demanding answers to the obvious questions that anyone familiar with the loan's history would ask, such as, "Why weren't the primary terms of the payment holiday offers implemented?" To which little miss obnoxious, shrew, Nicole Swadling tries to sidestep by telling me that Wells Fargo isn't responsible for any offers put forward by First Security. Nevermind the fact that every single one of the offers has a Wells Fargo logo in the upper right hand corner of the page and the text identifies the sender as Wells Fargo... 1st stupid mistake. When I point this fact out to her she hums and haws around and ultimately cannot provide an answer. Neither can she provide answers to the other obvious questions of, "Why wasn't I notified in advance this was going to happen and where is the paperwork I am supposed to sign in this event?" The only thing she seems to know how to do is act obnoxious, demand payment, lie unconvincingly, display her stupidity and generally be an excellent example of a lousy excuse for a human being.
There's a whole lot more to this story but I'm too tired right now to tell it. I just thank God the paper trail is in place. Where's a good attorney when you need one?
Katherine
Modesto, California
U.S.A.
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