Independent profile — not affiliated with America's Car-Mart

America's Car-Mart

America's Car-Mart is America's Car-Mart, Inc. of Rogers, Arkansas, a Nasdaq-listed buy-here-pay-here used-car dealer and auto lender that reported 94 dealerships on April 30, 2026. This page covers how to pay, exchange a car and complain, the BBB, CFPB and Trustpilot figures as displayed on 2026-10-20, the company's going-concern disclosure, and 23 archive complaints from 2000 to 2011.

COMPLAINTS23
VERIFIED PHONE866-819-9944
LAST CHECKED2026-10-20
Write a Review Jump to complaints ↓
CONSUMER ALLEGATION

Complaints & Reviews on USAComplaints

USAComplaints currently maintains 23 historical complaints about America's Car-Mart, published between 2000 and 2011. No approved complaints have been published on this site during the last three years. For a current reputation snapshot, see the independent sources below.

EDITORIAL

Complaint Themes

repairs, warranty or mechanical-problem complaints (keyword match)repossession, late-payment or payment-handling complaints (keyword match)sales conduct, advertising or customer-service complaints (keyword match)

Each tag reflects a complaint's single primary theme (not every angle it raised), and complaints outside any problem theme — a positive report, or one later retracted by its author — aren't tagged. Counts may total less than the full complaint count above.

EXTERNAL SOURCE

Independent Sources

Shown for context — not merged with USAComplaints' own numbers.

BBB: 76 reviews, 340 complaints
CFPB: 640 complaints
Trustpilot: 26 reviews,
VERIFIED

Contacts & Payment

VERIFIED

Locations

TypeAddress
Headquarters1805 N 2nd St, Suite 401 Rogers AR 72756
EDITORIAL

America's Car-Mart complaints: payments, exchanges, repossession and where to complain

This page was checked on 2026-10-20. Car-Mart's own site, car-mart.com, was readable. The points below come from its FAQ and Contact Us pages; confirm the terms in your own sales contract, which controls your account.

  • Contact. The company's two pages give different hours for Customer C.A.R.E. at 1 (866) 819-9944: the Contact Us page says 'Mon-Fri 8am-5pm' and lists a 'Message Us' email link, while the FAQ says 'from 9 a.m. – 6 p.m., Monday – Saturday' and ends with 'Chat with us or call (866) 819-9944'. The FAQ also says each customer has a dedicated Account Representative and tells customers who are late or cannot pay to 'stop by or call your local Car-Mart immediately' to see the Account Representative or the General Manager.
  • Paying. The FAQ lists payment in person at a Car-Mart location (no fee), Auto Pay by debit card (no fee), a one-time payment by phone at 1-844-809-2464, the online payment portal, and 'more than 85,000 retail locations nationwide ($3.95 per transaction)'. Online or phone payments need the full 12-digit account number (printed on the sales contract) and the primary holder's date of birth. Auto Pay can be turned off under 'Manage My Auto Pay'; the FAQ says this takes effect immediately.
  • 7-day exchange. The FAQ words the 7-day exchange two ways. Under Vehicle Exchange: 'You may exchange a vehicle for a like-priced vehicle within a full 7 days from the date of the purchase or less than 500 miles whichever occurs first'. Under its return or money-back question: 'we'll exchange your vehicle for another one of equal or lesser value'. It adds that a down-payment increase may be required for a more expensive vehicle, that 'You will be allowed to exchange your vehicle one time per purchase', that if the 7th day falls on a day the business is closed the limit is 6pm of the next day the business is open, and that the exchange is 'not available at this time in Illinois'. As the company describes it, this is an exchange for another vehicle, not a refund.
  • Credit reporting and repossession. The FAQ says 'America's Car-Mart reports all information both positive and negative'. On repossession it says 'At any time a car is parked on lot pending repossession, this information is sent to the credit bureaus', and that after redemption 'a special comment will be added to the credit bureau report stating, “Redeemed Repossession”'; it adds that negative information 'will fall off after seven (7) years from the date of the negative event'. It also says Colonial Auto Finance, Inc. reports accounts to Equifax, Experian and TransUnion each month, and that the name 'Colonial Auto Finance' appears on Equifax and Experian reports and 'Americas Car-Mart' on TransUnion. If a report is wrong, dispute it with the bureau and with the furnisher in writing and keep copies.
  • If your store has closed. The company's 10-K says it closed 60 dealerships in fiscal 2026 and moved servicing and collection of those customers' accounts to nearby dealerships or a central collections department. Keep your sales contract, payment receipts and the dates and names of every contact; if a payment is refused or not credited, ask for a written payoff or account history.
  • Complaint routes. The CFPB complaint page lists (855) 411-2372; Car-Mart's finance subsidiary is described in its 10-K as subject to CFPB examination. The Arkansas Attorney General's consumer complaint page (arkansasag.gov/file-a-complaint) offers an online form; other states' attorneys general handle purchases made there. BBB also accepts complaints through its profile (see the complaint record below).
EDITORIAL

Who is America's Car-Mart?

America's Car-Mart, Inc. is a Texas corporation with its principal offices at 1805 North 2nd Street, Suite 401, Rogers, Arkansas. Its Form 10-K for the year ended April 30, 2026 says its operations run principally through two subsidiaries, America's Car Mart, Inc., an Arkansas corporation ('Car-Mart of Arkansas'), and Colonial Auto Finance, Inc., an Arkansas corporation ('Colonial'). The stock trades on Nasdaq under the symbol CRMT.

Per the 10-K, the business sells older used vehicles and provides financing for 'substantially all' of its customers, many of whom 'would not qualify for conventional financing'. As of April 30, 2026 it operated 94 dealerships 'primarily in small cities throughout the South-Central United States' and had about 1,500 full-time associates. The company's website says Car-Mart opened its first store in Rogers, Arkansas in 1981, was founded by Bill Fleeman, and now has 'over 90 locations' in 12 states; those are company statements.

Car-Mart is a dealer and lender in one: a customer buys the vehicle and finances it through the same group, and the 10-K says Car-Mart of Arkansas routinely sells its finance receivables to Colonial. Archive complaints on this page are about individual Car-Mart stores (for example 'Car-Mart of Tulsa').

Financing terms. The 10-K states that contracts carry 'a fixed annual interest rate ranging from 6.0% to 20.3% based primarily on the customer's credit score and applicable state usury limits' with a 'portfolio weighted average interest rate' of 17.7%, and that payment schedules 'may be weekly, bi-weekly, semi-monthly, or monthly'. It also says the company 'uses credit reporting and GPS technology to support its collections efforts'. These are the company's disclosures.

Recent corporate events. The 10-K states that conditions 'raise substantial doubt about the Company's ability to continue as a going concern'. In an 8-K filed 2026-10-15 the company reports that since September 4, 2026 its lenders (Silver Point Finance, LLC as agent) have agreed to a series of short extensions of the Scheduled Termination Date, the latest on October 14, 2026 through October 22, 2026, and that a special committee is evaluating strategic alternatives. The company says it 'has made significant progress towards a transaction' and that 'there can be no assurance' of a permanent waiver. Among the risk factors in its forward-looking statements the 8-K lists 'the potential need to seek protection under applicable bankruptcy or insolvency laws'. The credit agreement is described in the 10-Q for the quarter ended July 31, 2026 (filed 2026-09-09) as a senior secured term loan facility of $300.0 million maturing October 30, 2030; that 10-Q also reports 94 dealerships as of July 31, 2026. These are the company's own disclosures to the SEC; none of them is a finding about how customers are treated. Customers' contracts and payment obligations are set by their sales contracts; if the company's situation changes, watch for written notices about where to pay.

EDITORIAL

Complaint record: BBB, CFPB, Trustpilot and this site's archive

BBB (profile for America's Car Mart, Inc., Rogers, AR, covering headquarters and corporate-owned locations; other Car-Mart branch listings exist and are not added here), as displayed on 2026-10-20: not BBB accredited; BBB Rating F, with the reasons 'Failure to respond to 49 complaint(s) filed against business' and '38 complaint(s) filed against business that were not resolved'; '340 complaints in the last 3 years' and '88 complaints in the last 12 months'; customer reviews '1.17 /5 stars, Average of 76 Customer Reviews'. BBB page data give a file-opened date of 1995-04-25, a business start of 1981-01-01 and incorporation on 1989-10-02.

CFPB Consumer Complaint Database, company name 'Americas Car-Mart, Inc.', as displayed on 2026-10-20: 640 complaints in total, the first received 2014-09-09 and the latest 2026-09-26; 223 were received in the 12 months since 2025-10-20. By product the database shows vehicle loan or lease 245, credit reporting or other personal consumer reports 188 and debt collection 147; the issue counts it displays include incorrect information on a report (129) and repossession (110). Company responses shown: closed with explanation 636, closed with non-monetary relief 2, untimely response 2. The CFPB publishes complaints as submitted and does not verify them.

Trustpilot, as displayed on 2026-10-20: 1.8 from 26 reviews; unclaimed profile; Trustpilot states it does not fact-check reviews.

These figures come from different platforms with different rules and are shown separately; they are not added to each other or to this site's archive.

This site's archive. 23 approved complaints from 2000 to 2011 name a Car-Mart store as the subject, most of them in Arkansas, Oklahoma and Missouri. They are individual, unverified accounts and all are more than ten years old. By keyword match, 16 mention repairs, warranty or mechanical problems, 15 mention repossession, late payments or payment handling, and 17 describe sales conduct or customer service (a post can be counted in more than one group). Other posts that use the words 'car mart' for dealers in other states or other businesses were not linked.

EDITORIAL

Court and regulator record

No CFPB enforcement action and no Arkansas Attorney General page naming Car-Mart was found: on 2026-10-20 the CFPB enforcement actions search for 'car-mart' and for 'colonial auto' returned no results, and the Arkansas AG site search for 'car-mart' found nothing. Other states' regulators and the FTC were not searched. The 10-K's Legal Proceedings item says the company is 'a defendant in various types of legal proceedings' in the ordinary course and does not expect the outcome of any, individually or in aggregate, to have a material adverse effect; that is the company's statement.

A CourtListener search of case captions containing 'Car-Mart' on 2026-10-20 returned 115 dockets. The ten most recent (filed 2024 to 2026 in federal district and bankruptcy courts) carry captions beginning with individuals' names; we did not review their claims or outcomes and list no case here. Searches of state regulator databases were not completed, so this section does not say that none exists. A court filing is an allegation, not a finding.

EDITORIAL

Is America's Car-Mart Legitimate?

America's Car-Mart, Inc. is an SEC registrant (Nasdaq: CRMT) whose Form 10-K lists a Texas corporation at 1805 North 2nd Street, Suite 401, Rogers, Arkansas, operating 94 dealerships as of April 30, 2026. BBB data show the business started in 1981 and the headquarters profile is not BBB accredited. The same 10-K reports substantial doubt about going concern, and the 8-K of 2026-10-15 describes extended lender waivers and a strategic review (see Company background).

BBB, CFPB and Trustpilot counts are shown once in the complaint record above. Complaints and reviews on those platforms and on this site are consumers' statements; they are not findings against the company, and store-level experience differs. No CFPB enforcement action and no Arkansas Attorney General page naming Car-Mart was found in searches on 2026-10-20; other states' regulators and the FTC were not searched.

VERIFIED

Company Relationships

  • Affiliated with: Colonial Auto Finance, Inc.
  • Affiliated with: America's Car Mart, Inc. (Arkansas)
EDITORIAL

Frequently Asked Questions

Who owns America's Car-Mart?

America's Car-Mart, Inc., a Texas corporation listed on Nasdaq as CRMT, is the parent. Its 10-K says operations run through two subsidiaries: America's Car Mart, Inc. (Arkansas) and Colonial Auto Finance, Inc. (Arkansas). The FAQ on car-mart.com says the company was founded by Bill Fleeman (company statement).

Can I return or exchange a car bought at Car-Mart?

The company's FAQ describes a 7-day exchange: under Vehicle Exchange the vehicle may be exchanged 'for a like-priced vehicle', while the return or money-back answer says 'another one of equal or lesser value', in both cases within 7 days or less than 500 miles, whichever occurs first. A down-payment increase may be required for a higher-priced vehicle; one exchange per purchase is allowed; if the 7th day is a closed day the limit is 6pm of the next open day; and it is 'not available at this time in Illinois'. The page describes an exchange for another vehicle, not a refund. Check your contract.

How do I make a payment to Car-Mart?

The FAQ lists in person at a location (no fee), Auto Pay by debit card (no fee), a one-time payment by phone at 1-844-809-2464, the online payment portal, and retail locations at $3.95 per transaction. Online or phone payments need the 12-digit account number and the primary holder's date of birth.

What does Car-Mart say to do if I am late or cannot pay?

The FAQ says to 'stop by or call your local Car-Mart immediately' to arrange an appointment with the Account Representative or General Manager. It also says the company has 'worked one on one with customers' on late payments since 1981. Repossession terms are in your sales contract and state law. On credit reporting of repossessions the FAQ says 'At any time a car is parked on lot pending repossession, this information is sent to the credit bureaus' and that a redeemed account gets a comment 'Redeemed Repossession'.

Does Car-Mart report to the credit bureaus?

The FAQ says accounts are reported to Equifax, Experian and TransUnion each month by Colonial Auto Finance, Inc., and that on-time payments can help a credit score. It says the name 'Colonial Auto Finance' appears on Equifax and Experian reports and 'Americas Car-Mart' on TransUnion. To dispute an entry, contact the bureau and the furnisher in writing.

What if my Car-Mart store has closed?

The 10-K says the company closed 60 dealerships in fiscal 2026 and transitioned servicing and collection of those accounts to nearby dealerships or a centralized collections department. Customers should keep their contract and receipts and get any payment instruction in writing. Customer C.A.R.E. is 1 (866) 819-9944 (Contact Us page: Mon-Fri 8am-5pm; FAQ page: 9 a.m. to 6 p.m., Monday to Saturday).

Is America's Car-Mart in financial trouble?

The company's 10-K (fiscal year ended April 30, 2026) says conditions 'raise substantial doubt about the Company's ability to continue as a going concern'. An 8-K filed 2026-10-15 reports a series of lender extensions since September 4, 2026, the latest through October 22, 2026, and a special committee review of strategic alternatives; its forward-looking-statements risk list includes 'the potential need to seek protection under applicable bankruptcy or insolvency laws', while the company also says it 'has made significant progress towards a transaction'. These are the company's disclosures; no outcome had been reported in the filings read on 2026-10-20.

What do BBB and CFPB show about Car-Mart?

BBB shows an F rating, not accredited, with 340 complaints in three years and 88 in 12 months, and reviews of 1.17/5 from 76, as displayed on 2026-10-20 for the Rogers, AR headquarters profile. The CFPB database shows 640 complaints for 'Americas Car-Mart, Inc.' as displayed that day. The two are separate counts and are not combined.

Where can I file a complaint about Car-Mart?

Start with Customer C.A.R.E. (1 (866) 819-9944) or your Account Representative and keep written records. You can also file with the CFPB (the complaint page lists (855) 411-2372), the Arkansas Attorney General's online form for purchases made in Arkansas (arkansasag.gov/file-a-complaint), your own state's attorney general, or BBB.