When I originally purchased my car last November, I financed it through the dealer, and my loan was assigned to SunTrust Bank. I was unhappy with the terms of the loan (5 year/8.5% APR), so in January, I decided to refinance my car loan through Chase Auto Finance, which offered me better terms and a lower APR.
After my new loan was issued through Chase, the original loan with SunTrust was paid off, and I began making my car loan payments to them. About a month later, Chase contacted me and told me to send the vehicle title to them. I had not yet received my title from the DMV, so I told them that I would send them the title as soon as I received it. When I finally received my title, I noticed that SunTrust Bank was listed as the lienholder. I called up Chase, and they told me to send the title, along with the lien satisfaction letter from SunTrust Bank, back to the DMV to have the old lien removed. They told me to forward the duplicate title with the lien removed to them so they could add Chase Auto Finance as the new lienhold.
I agreed to do what they said, but since my state charges a $20.00 fee to remove a lienholder and issue a new title, I asked Chase to pay, as I had previously paid a $75 title acquisition fee to Chase at the beginning of my loan. They refused to pay the $20 fee, so I told them that I would not submit the title to the DMV. I continued making all loan payment on time.
A few months later, I received a letter from Chase Auto Finance that my loan was going to be put into default status because I did not send them the title. I called up Chase Auto Finance, and after being kept on hold for almost 20 minutes, I was told that there was nothing that can be done to avoid my loan being put into default status. My only option was to pay off the loan in full.
Since I didn't want my car repossessed and my credit ruined, I decided to dip into my savings and pay off the balance of the loan. I just sent out my loan payoff check this morning, so I hope that by the end of the week I can finally be rid of Chase Auto Finance and their heavy-handed tactics.
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