2003-02-26 - 7:59 p.m.
OKay, I've had it up to here...and so, I'm going public.
NOONE, EVER, EVER, EVER take out any sort of loan from TranSouth Financial Services. , also known as Arcadia Financial. They will screw you blind, and when you call to prove to them that you are right and they are wrong, they will hang up on you rudely and report you to the credit companies
Allow me to explain.
About 2 1/2 years ago, we needed to buy a truck. We had virtually no money, and our credit rating, although improving, was still in the dumper. So we didn't qualify for the "0.9% financing, $5000 cash back" offers...in fact, we didn't qualify for the "4.9%, $2000 down" offers.
We ended up taking what was essentially the only loan offer on the table, which was 18.5% from Transouth.
Yeah, it's usurious...but we were desperate (we had no working vehicles at all), so we signed on the dotted line.
All was well for a while. We had our payments scheduled to be mailed by our bill payment service (Yahoo! Checkfree) every month, a week before they were due, for $9 over the amount due (mostly to round it up to the nearest $10).
Then they lost a payment. I know they lost it, because Yahoo sent me the records of it having been sent, and it's an electronic transfer, so it couldn't have gotten lost in the mail, and it never cleared my bank.
So, we were late, at least according to their system (which so far as I can tell is three drunken Tibetan monks and clay tablets). So the "Collections Department" calls. And accuses me of being a deadbeat (exact words) because I said I had the bill payment service send the check 3 weeks ago, and no, I wouldn't make a payment over the phone with my checking account number on demand, because until I knew what in the heck was going on, I wasn't gonna do that.
Eventually (after two months of calls every three days), the payment was declared lost, resent by Yahoo!, and all was well (except, of course, for the fact that Transouth charged me interest for the loan being anywhere from 1 to 28 days past due during all this time). Fortunately, we never went 30 days late, simply because the next payment in the sequence was sent, as usual, 7 days early by Yahoo! and went through like butter.
So, eventually, all that was in the past and forgotten...until December.
See...we underpaid our auto insurance by $0.17. Literally, the bill was for $90.17, I sent $90 (thinking it was $89.17). Ordinarily, that would be a situation where they send a "Umm...you owe us 17 cents" message, and all woudl be well. Except that this was the first payment on a new year's policy (which was why I had the amount wrong, it had gone up), so underpaying the intial premium is an automatic cancellation.
So Keystone Insurance sent us a "Your insurance was cancelled on..." note. And, as is right and legal and proper, they sent a copy to Transouth, since they are the lienholder and have rights to that.
Immediately upon receiving that notice, I called Keystone, and as soon as they realized the amount was $0.17, they reinstated the coverage, with no lapse at all, and all should have been well.
Well, it wasn't. 30 days later, we get a note from Transouth, saying essentially "since you aren't insured, we're taking the liberty of taking out a policy to protect our interests. Oh, btw...you aren't covered, just us...but it's 3 times more expensive than any Insurance you'd buy yourself...and you are going to be stuck with the bill"
Lovely.
The note also said "If your insurance has been reinstated, you may disregard this notice"...well, it had, so I did (to the extent of tossing it).
And three or four days later, I got a phone call from "Rodney at Transouth", basically saying "This is a courtesy call,the insurance policy is not a problem, it's been taken care of (click)"
I figured Keystone sent Transouth the same reinstatement notice they sent me. Seems to be a logical conclusion from the facts presented.
Well, Transouth's collections department claims they have not received it...and as such, my account is past due by the $117/month for the policy.
Yes, the one someone FROM TRANSOUTH told me was not a problem.
So I called Keystone and spoke with my agent there. She then called the Insurance Processing Center and informed them of the noncancellation of my policy.
Didn't help...I'm still getting dunning calls. And they start out accusatory, and when I say "This is being worked out by my insurance agent, I do not owe you the money, I am not paying it", they accuse me of lying.
Seriously, I was accused on the phone of lying.
I think I need a lawyer...this has *got* to be a violation of the collections laws. And in the meantime, I'll be doing my part to make sure they don't get any loan business from anyone who knows me.
On more positive notes, the job is still good. I've almost caught up the behind schedule I started with. This is good :)
�
Random�
