I purchased a car about three years ago and was financed through drive financial services. From the very beginning, there were problems.
I was told that I would be put on automatic bank payments, but that I would have to make my first payment manually. I made the first payment, then took additional measures to ensure that the auto payment was set up. I was told that it was and that I had to do nothing but ensure that the funds were in my acount on the date that my payment was due.
For over one year, every month, I was told the same thing, and every month, the payment was not withdrawn and five or six days later, I would receive a call from their collections department stating that I had late fees and additional interest added on to my acount as a result of the late payment. When I would explain that an agent of Drive Financial Servies had assured me that my account was set up for automatic payment, I was told that it was not drive's responsibility to ensure timely payment, it was mine... Help me to understand this... They told my I was set up for the payment, what more could I do.
I didn't just speake to regular associates during this period that lasted over a year, I spoke to management, sent faxes on request with my acount information, and was treated every time like a delinquent customer, and with no respect.
I think that this company is doing this on purpose to add a little profit onto their net income by way of late fees and additional interest.
I finally got tired of it and told them that they had my account information and I would not send western union payment any more due to the cost of sending them. I told them that I expected to have the payments drafted.
Two months later, no payments had been drafted and my car was repossesed. I got a call from an "account manager" a few weeks later who offered to let me have the car back for one monthly payment, and the balance would be added on to the end of the loan (this most likely because they realized that the loan balance was over $10,000.00 and the car was only worth about $2 or $3,000.
Of course, I took the deal. About 6 months later, I was able to refinance my loan with drive and extend the term in order to lower the payment. This was done and everything seemed to be going smoothly for a while. I even started automatic drafting for my payment succesfully. Then, it started again..
I relocated due to a job transfer and stopped my automatic payments for one month (at my request) so that I could transfer my bank to my new location. The draft did restart, but here is were the new problem is..
The payment that I made during the month that the auto payment was suspended was made by money gram. I sent it to the acount number that I had used for the entirety of the loan... When I went to the title office to get my title transfered into my new state and to get my new tags, I had to call drive to get their information for the state to request the title. When I did, I was told that my payment was not made. After about a half hour on the phone, I found out that, without notice, drive had reassigned new account numbers to all of their acounts. It was not until the following statement that the new acount number was written on the statement that they send out, but nothing drawing my attention to it.
I faxed the confirmation number to drive and contacted money gram who stated that the money had been claimed. Drive still states that I have not made this payment and claims not to have received the confirmation number that I sent now 3 times.
They have, again, tacked on late fees and more interest, and are calling my home between 3 and 12 times per day (this is no exageration). This is not legal acording to the fair debt collecions act that states that it is not permited for a company to repeatedly call a debtor with the intent to agrivate or annoy him/her. I'm sure that if you were to ask drive about this, they would state that the intent was neither of those, but to collect a debt (a little C.Y.A.). I don't think that this is the case. I have had to change my phone number to avoid this harassment. Legally I have the right to file a suit against them for harrassment, and possibly file an arrest warant for criminal harassment, but, unfortunately, I don't have the means to do this.
I recently decided to stop communicating with them alltogether. I don't want anything to do with this company. I am also stopping my payment to them. They can reposes the vehicle whenever they want to once they realize that they aren't going to get any further with me. I will not contribute to their dishonest "boost" of net operating income raised by their dishonest practices.
I will be purchasing a vehicle from a buy here pay here dealer. I'm sure that drive will try to come after me for the balace that will be due when they auction the car (if it comes to that) and only get $2,000.00 for it when the balace of the loan is over $8,000.00, but I will be filing bankrupt due to other circumstances and moving on to repair my credit so that I can deal with a more reputable and honest company and bank.
Just because someone is high risk, does not always mean that they are irresponsible. I personally never had anyone to guide me financially. I learned from my own mistakes having charged everything, everywhere as a lower enlisted man in the Army. That is why my credit is bad. I over obligated myself and was not able to make the payments. I did, however, within a period of about 4 years, pay out over $20,000.00 to pay off ALL of those acoutns... It did not, however, make my credit look any better. Filing bankrupt is the only way for my to truely start over, and giving drive a taste of their own medicine is like a fringe benefit of doing so.
If you're a lawyer in the Orlando/winter springs area, or know one who is willing to help me out with the bankruptcy, please contact me through this site.
I advise anyone to not do business with Drive Financial Services. I would recomend purchasing a vehicle from a member of the mob, or borrowing the money from a loan shark and missing the payment ONCE before doing business with Drive Financial Services. I'm supprised that they've been in business this long, but then again, when you have people who are in a position that they cannot obtain financing anywhere else, they have you between a rock and a hard place. So I suppose that you could say that desparity on the part of the consumer is what keeps them in business.
To all of the employees of drive, if they really do treat you worse that us, you have my sympathy.
Thank you for the opportunity to state my opinions on this company.
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