I've been a Triad Customer for 6 years now. (Unfortunately) and have quite a bit of advice I can give to everyone dealing with them.
Triad is Predatory Lender - the practice of a lender deceptively convincing borrowers to agree to unfair and abusive loan terms, or systematically violating those terms in ways that make it difficult for the borrower to defend against
Triad charges huge interest rates on a simple interest loan and they can not or will not explain their amortization schedules on the loan. You can not pay off a loan early with Triad with out severe penalty if you borrow $15,000 over 60 months at 15% and then decide you want to pay off the loan the first month then you will have to pay them $21,411 which includes all of the interest that has not yet accrued. Triad applies almost all of the payments the first few years to the interest. Once you have pretty much paid the entire $6,411 in interest, then you may see your principle start to go down.
If you make only the monthly payments, you will likely owe more then the car is worth for the duration of the loan. You will be upside down. If you always owe more then the vehicle is worth, you will never be able to refinance with another company and if the vehicle is wrecked / totaled, you're stuck with the difference in the value of the car and the remaining balance of the loan.
If you are late on a payment, Triad places your phone number in an illegal Auto Dialer. This is direct violation of Fair Debt Collections Practices Act. This is key people and this is a major area Triad is breaking the law. This Title VIII statute added to the Consumer Credit Protection Act in 1978 protects you the consumer from abusive and deceptive practices when attempting to collect a debt (even a late payment). They pretty much violate all areas of this Act with the hours they call, continuous calling, harassment and reporting false information on your credit report. And if the auto dialer is calling your cell phone 10 times a day the violations become particularly interesting as this is point blank against the law.
Along with the FDCPA listing above, the second federal laws that Triad seems to think they are above and free to break is the Fair Credit Reporting Act. There are legal requirements people Triad doesn't adhere to regarding issues where you dispute the accuracy of the debt. They have to send you letters in the mail and give you a right to dispute prior to listing any negative information on your credit reports.
I've read a number of postings on this site and would love to be involved in a class action suit against this company but it doesn't seem anyone is moving forward with it. It seems we have a number of legal issues that would hold up in court that are repeated over and over. I personally have incorrect information on my credit reports Triad refused to remove. I've had my rights violated with constant harassing phone calls and I have had my vehicle repossessed when payments were current.
The advice I can give for dealing with then right now if you are a regretful customer for getting involved with a company that is so obviously corrupt is to send them a cease and desist order in writing from calling you. Even with this in place they have put me back on an auto dialer and further broken the law causing me to threaten them with legal recourse again and again.
Also they seem to be very very very shady with lost payments, payments posted late, adding on late fees and interest they make up out of the blue at the very end of your loan and then refusing to provide you with the title once it;s paid off. The simplest solution to this is only pay then your monthly balance using western union. They can never loose it or deny it was received and it creates a perfect paper trail for you if you need to get into a class action lawsuit like I am hoping I can be a part of.
Constantly ask them for payoff quotes in writing and constantly ask them to provide all of your account information via certified mail.
This is by far the lowest, sleaziest, most unethical and unprofessional company I have ever dealt with in my life. I refuse to talk with them and get everything in writing in the hopes I can get involved in a class action suit. I think they should be held accountable for their illegal practices and made to pay untold millions in punitive damages to all their customers they have harassed, abused, mislead and violated and I'll be the first witness on the stand and will sign the first affidavit in my efforts to find justice.
Please contact me if there is a lawsuit!!
0 comments