Mid Atlantic Finance Co bought my account from Texas Auto Brokers. My contract with Texas Auto Brokers did not have ANY fees negotiated in with the payments.
My signed contract and other forms say when my payments are due, how I can pay it and where I can pay it. For the last year I have been doing credit card payment by phone. It was fast and easy... And FREE.
I called about a month ago to make a payment and they informed me that my account had been sold to Mid Atlantic Finance Co. (based out of florida. I live in texas) and that all of my payments and contracts are going through them now.
I asked why I wasn't informed or asked if this is convenient for me and they answer was "We tried to call you but you didn't answer." Sure. Anyway I asked why and they said they have hit their funding limits so they sold most of their accounts so they can have more funding to sale more cars. That is good and all but it's really a pain in the ass for the customers.
The company they sold my account to has NINE consumer complaintss against them. Worst of all, they CHARGE FEES to process my payments. $2 per an "auto debit" system where they take out the fee 2 or 3 times per month depending on when I pay. "I can choose to pay monthly but the fee gets greater." I can do check by phone for a fee of $6. I can mail in Money Orders or Western Union Money Grams. (Money order is an additional fee for me, plus postage, plus time out of my day and also making sure I mail the payment out a week early so it gets to Florida on time... Cause if I don't my car won't start.) (Western Union. Well there again same fees.)
Strangely they won't accent checks mailed in. I guess because they don't get that $6 fee if you do check by phone.
I looked my contract up and down... Nothing they did was allowed or stated that it could happen. The signed forms that state my payment methods are now void, etc.
My next step is to let my company attorney view my contracts and see if I can claim this as a broken contract and give my car back w/o taking the credit hit.
I'm sure that in this market there are PLENTY of car companies out there that will be happy to take my money without me PAYING THEM TO.
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