A repo lady showed up at our house in the pouring rain and said the bank had sent her to repossess our truck. I was only 3 days late on a payment and I had already had the check written out waiting to be sent out the next day. My payment is 600.28 with a late fee of $35.00. Her paper showed us owing $3300.00 to Fifth Third. I did notice on the paper however in Bold Letters saying auto cannot be repoed if the amount owed is $2500.00 or less. That got me to thinking they had added bugus amounts so they could take the truck.
It is a leased truck and the lease is up in 4 months. I called Fifth Third bank that night to find out why they were taking my truck and was told they could not talk to me I had to wait until the next day. I called Collections the next day and they told me I had a missed payment in March of 06 plus the current one. The money did however go from $3300.00 to $3800.00 in just a phone call. I had asked for a payment history back in 05 because they tried telling me I owed them a missed payment then. They never sent me the payment history and still have not to this day.
I got my checks out and all of 06 had been paid. I called back and told them what I had found so they put me through the leasing dept. He then said I had a payment missed in either Dec. 04 or a missed payment in Jan 05. He could not tell which month, but said the late payments started in Jan. 05.
I always send in the extra $35.00 if I think the payment is going to be late even though it might not be, just covering myself. He told me late charges were added to me everytime I mailed a payment no matter when because with this missed payment I was always paying a month late. They never told us this payment was not sent in.
We got 4 to 5 calls a day throughout the years, but when we answered the person always had some kind of money issue but never could pinpoint what it was and it was always a different amount and we couldn't understand them anyway, it was always someone from the phillipines.
I talked to a guy back in Jan 07 and he asked me where my Jan 07 payment was and I told him that it was mailed out weeks ago. He put me on a promise to pay and he did call me the next day and said it was there, but never once told me I was behind or a payment had been missed.
The guy in the leasing broke it down to me finally on what was owed after they took my truck. He broke it down to $2775.08. They had taken my $35.00 that I had sent in when I thought the payment might be late and put it toward the missed payment, but still charged me $35.00 in late fees anyway cause they say my payment was a month late throughout those 2 years after they say I missed one in Jan. 05.
I asked him about the repo fee being added and he said it will be tacked later on one of your payments not to pay it now. I got the $2775.08 from my savings and came home and called to make sure that if I went to my local branch and paid they would start processing paperwork to get my truck back.
When I told her the amount of what I had she said if I didn't include that $305.00 amount to that for the repo fee they would not give me my truck back. I told her what the leasing dept. Had told me and she said they were not authorized to tell me that I could pay that later. I told them to keep the truck and I wasn't paying them anything.
When they thought they were going to be stuck with the truck she told me she would let me go to my local branch and pay my $2775.08 and post date a check for the 20th on the $305.00 repo fee. This truck is sitting about 35 miles away from us now in Lexington, but was told that come Monday morning it will be sent to Louisville.
I asked them if they could put a hold on the truck so it doesn't leave Lexington if I got this paid right away and they said they would. I went to the bank and paid the $2775.08, made the local bank call the Cincinnati bank with a request receipt. I then came home and called back to collections to make sure they had started my paperwork. They said it was started but putting the truck on hold was the repo place's decision not theirs.
I called the repo lady and she said Fifth Third had not even called them yet but if they did she would hold the truck. I am supposed to call the repo lady in the morning to see if Fifth Third has put a hold on it. They want their money right now, but when you work your tail off to get it to them they are in no hurry to make things right. I feel I have been cheated.
If they had sent the payment history like I asked for a year ago so I could see if something was wrong I would have noticed right then one was missed and taken care of it. I know it is a holiday season and the payment could have gotten lost or shredded, I'm not saying it was there, I don't know that for sure, but they could have told me one was missing and sent me proof it was.
Now I am stuck with over $1,000 in late fees even though my payments have been on time throughout. I've also got repo charges, a storage bill and another repo retrieve fee on top of all this.
Will we get our truck back... Who knows
Jennifer
Berry, Kentucky
U.S.A.
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