I'm scheduled to pay my last payment on the L the 25th of this month. I have always paid my note online and noticed the payoff is $164.93 more than the final payment. All payments but maybe the first one were paid online through Ford Credits site by me not my bank.

I called to see what the deal was and got transfered to a couple of different people with no real answer. The first lady said I had a returned check back in June 2004 and I said no way. It so happens that I have online banking and immediately went back on my account to find where they took money out of my account twice within an 8 day period. On the second withdraw they credited back the same day. I came back to me then that they had a computer program screwup that did this and they sent an email apologizing.

I finally talk to a guy named Jim and he says he can't get all of my information right then (BS, it's all computerized). He got my phone # and said he would call the next day. Translation on that was he had to have time get his story straight.

Jim called today to let me know that the majority of the extra money owed was extra interest accrued at the front end of the loan because not every payment was made by the 25th of the month (the actual due date). That's not a surprise since I don't get paid until the 25th of the month and that's when I would pay it. Their site says it might not post for up to 3 days which I find amazing in an electronic world where they would send me an email the next day thanking for my payment and my online banking would usually show it debited the next day unless it was a weekend or holiday. As far as I know none went past the last date (10 or 15 days) where they charge a late fee.

I'm sure most of you know that on a APR loan most of the interest is paid up front. So what they are doing is for every day past the 25th that the payment is not posted they are charging me extra interest that is tacked on at the end of the loan. They were already getting 9% APR out of me but I guess that wasn't enough.

I've paid off two trucks with a payment book going to the bank to pay them. I can tell you that on neither one of those was I as punctual as this loan and when the last note was paid that was it.

I know Ford is in financial trouble but this is get pretty desperate. If I had late fees I wouldn't mine paying them but this is worse than a credit card company.

This is a heads up for anybody financed through them. I know I'll never use them again.

 

Credit card companies, cel phone companies and banks are all pulling this baloney. Keep fighting, they will give in eventually if there is no stipulation for the extra charges in the original contract or they can't find them!

 

If interest is compounded daily, then paying one or two days late several times in the life of the loan will result in a very big difference. Remember, the eighth wonder of the world is compounded interest.

My truck loan is with Capital 1 and the interest is compounded daily. It's currently almost $2 per day so if you multiply that times 2 days per month and a couple dozen 'slightly late' payments, it could easily be over a hundred dollars.

(I pay early and round the payment up so I'm paying an extra $40-$50 per month. I'll pay off my truck a year early this way)

 

I've used and are currently using ford credit with no problems. They have usually given the best rates. My experiance with online banking on the other hand is not that good. If the bank is not set up to pay electronically to Ford Credit then the bank will do a paper payment. With my bank when I pay online and it goes out paper, it takes usually eight days for the recipient to get paid eventhogh your account will show it debited. I would go deeper into your bank account and compare the debits to the actual postings. The damn bank is making saving money by taking it out of your account and not paying you interest, even if it is next to nothing. Now imagine the bank doing this to thousands of people and millions of dollars. It adds up.

In other words don't be so quick to blame Ford credit. It could very well be your banking doing it.

 

I'm sorry you have had a bad experience with Ford Credit.

I, however, have had great experience with them. For a while a couple of years ago, I was having to rob Paul to pay Peter. Doing this got me almost an entire month behind on my truck payments. Ford Credit called and asked what the problem was. I told them I was robbing Paul to pay Peter, and they offered to "extend" my lease by two months to help me get back on my feet. The terms were to be exactly the same. They said the new lease expiration was two months to the day later, I wouldn't have to make a payment for the next month and last months was "forgiven". I did, however, still acrue interest on the leased amount during those two months, but that's expected.

Now that I'm back on my feet, and Ford Credit financed me again in a lease (when no one else would, mind you) I will always try to go through them.

I'm about $200 ahead of my payments now, just by following the same method as Rocky.

 

I had to take Ford Credit a few years ago because they tied it to the rebates. Something like 7.25% when the credit union was 3.75%. Refinanced it two months after I got it.

 

MHMCGILL,

It is not my banks fault. My bank is a major player in this whole region and any other online payments are very fast. I've been trying to get an answer from Ford Credit for two days so I wasn't quick to blame them.

heybeermantx,

Up until two days ago I would have said Ford Credit was good too. They make more money out of you paying interest than going through the whole repo thing. It's just good business for them to extend the payments. They made even more money off your loan. You can bet they looked hard at your past credit history and if you had ever defaulted on a loan they might not have made the same decision.



You can bet I will find my contract tonight and read it thoroughly. I will be very careful in the future about signing any auto loan contracts in the future. I have over a 700 credit score and people have been beating my door down trying to lend me money which means I don't have to put up with this kind of crap if I catch it before it begins.

 

any of you long island guys. i highly recommend you open an account at bethpage federal credit union. they crushed the rates of everywhere i shopped including Ford credit for my mustang. beat everyone by at least .75%

 

Jan. 23, 2004

To all low-level loan officers

Confidential memorandum

Ford Motor Company

We are in financial trouble. New policy: Don't worry about state or federal regulators or abiding by the written terms of our loan agreements -- engage in unfair business practices on all loans. Despite the fact that they can be easily disproven and we can get hit for millions in class action suits, make up false charges and post them to accounts. Especially that guy in Olive Branch. If we can clip him for an extra $164.93 on his $35,000 loan, our troubles are over.

 

 

I used to work for Ford Motor Credit! I could tell you about some of the ***** I pulled. I was a skip tracer. I found the people trying to hide from Ford. I found them all. Sometimes legally.

 

I had an "enlightning" experience with a particular bank many years ago. T that time I worked afternoons and was paid on Thursday night. I usually stopped at this bank on way into work the day, Friday - and would deposit my check into the checking account - I have this "receipt" they give you in my pocket. I "niavely" thought since they had my money, surely they posted it to my checking account that day. Until one time, after depositing my check on a friday, my "ex" wrote a couple of checks well below the amount I had deposited on a tuesday of the following week - and they bounced! Turns out that this bank didnt "credit" deposits into checking accounts until 3 days later! I came to understand at that time that this was pretty common practice among many banks. So this bank, back then, had my money for 3 days - but "I" couldn't access it. Now, I suppose that in the "checking account" agreement there was something written to that effect, probably in "magnifying glass" size. So back then I learned that just because you put money in a bank - don't mean you can get it for awhile. But I'd guess they used it for their purposes. And credit cards - I use them on occasion for "convience" - and pay the balance off every month when the bill comes in within a couple of days of receiving it. They send these notices out all the time(in font size I can barely make out with a magnifying glass) and they usually say the same things; you get less time to pay the bill - and the penalty is higher if you don't. If you use credit cards; pay the entire balance and do it immediately or you can really get clobbered.

 

Do vehicle loans determine interest on a daily basis? I've never had this experience. Myabe I'm not seeing this clearly. Maybe they charged you extra interest each day your payment was late.

 

The technology may have been different back then. Until recently, paper had to be delivered before the bank got a credit on its interbank account. So your assumption that the bank had use of your money before you did may be false -- until your employer's bank cleared the check, your bank did not have the money in its account. The piece of paper you deposited was not money -- it was only a piece of paper purporting to obligate another bank to pay your bank soem money. Until your bank was actually credited with the money from your employer's bank, the check was worthless to anyone.

Now things happen electronically and interbank transfers are much quicker.

 

What do you all think about Dell Computers....they are on my hate list...I have never dealt with a bunch of thieving ba$tards like that.
Dale