Many complaints from borrowers with auto loans have an air of helplessness and defeat. One said a bank stopped accepting payments, started charging more than is owed after two years of a perfect pay history, and is now treating the customer ?like a scum bucket.? The writer wondered, ?So what can you do"? One thing you can do if you’re frustrated with the way a lender is treating you over a car loan is what that borrower did: complain anonymously online to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB).
Since 2011, when the agency began operations in the wake of the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression, the CFPB has gathered more than 1.1 million consumer complaints. And since 2015, it has been publicizing ?consumer narratives? on its website, accompanied by a searchable database. Reasons borrowers give for reaching out to the CFPB appear to vary widely, as do the complainants’ levels of coherence. The common factor is that consumers are upset with a financial product or institution. Some complaints acknowledge that the borrower has been late making loan payments, to a lesser or greater degree, but lament that lenders were using collection techniques such as calling their places of work to badger them over the tardiness.
?I am a few days late on a vehicle payment,? one complaint reads. ?It is scheduled to be paid electronically 10 days late.? The lender continues to call the borrower’s place of employment regularly, despite being ...