Posted on 05/04/2017 9:22:10 PM PDT by nickcarraway
Luisa Aleman says she made plenty of sacrifices to make every payment on time after financing a used 2007 Honda Accord.
“I never missed one payment,” Aleman said. “I’ve never been late, always on time. Perfect record.”
Unpaid medical bills can hurt your credit. A Broward County woman called NBC 6 Responds for a second time after she got billed again for a test she thought was already paid.(Published Friday, April 28, 2017) Aleman thought she made her last payment with Nicholas Financial, Inc. in August 2016.
Aleman was expecting to get her title, instead months later, her car was repossessed. That's when she called NBC 6 Responds.
We called Nicholas Financial who told us she owed extra money for not following a condition of her loan that required her to always have auto insurance.
The agreement she signed when she financed the car said the company could “add the premium charge” to her account.
They said records showed she owed an additional $2140 for going 18 months without insurance spread over the five years of her loan. Florida Law Could Limit County Control of Businesses Aleman believes she was as perfect paying her insurance as she was paying her loan.
“How do you think I’m going to miss to pay 18 months without insurance?” Aleman asked.
She admits she changed insurance companies multiple times seeking out a cheaper rate and thought she was always covered. But she couldn’t provide proof to her lender. Dania Beach attorney Russ Lazega says this type of arrangement is common in auto loans. It’s called force-placed insurance.
“If there’s not sufficient insurance, then the lender can purchase the insurance on behalf of the borrower,” Lazega explained.
Still, he called Aleman’s case odd because she had a perfect record of paying her loan on time.
“Never in over 100,000 insurance claims that I’ve handled, I’ve never seen this in 20 years of practice,” Lazega said. Nicholas Financial President and CEO Ralph Finkenbrink says his company sent multiple notices to
Aleman telling her about the insurance premiums being added to her account.
In a statement, he said “It is very unusual for a customer to incur force-placed insurance charges yet make all of their monthly payments perfectly. This would indicate she was confused as opposed to having an intent to purposely drive her vehicle without the proper insurance. We became aware through NBC Channel 6, Luisa was taking care of her sick elderly mother during this period where she did not have a vehicle. There did not appear to be any attempt by Luisa to be misleading in anyway, as a result of all the circumstances surrounding this ordeal, we felt that this would be a good opportunity to provide her some charitable giving.”
Couple Runs into Snag Trying to Cancel Vehicle Service Contract that Didn’t Cover a Needed Repair[MI] Couple Runs into Snag Trying to Cancel Vehicle Service Contract that Didn’t Cover a Needed Repair
Days after her car was repossessed, it was delivered back to her home. She was not required to pay the additional money she owed for the force-placed insurance or for the towing and storage costs. Nicholas Financial said it will not be able to receive any reimbursements from the insurance company because the charges were valid.
Aleman now has her car’s title and is happy to own her car outright.
Finkenbrink also recommended that if a consumer receives a letter from their lender notifying them of the need for insurance information, the consumer should immediately contact their insurance agent to either purchase insurance or to confirm that the coverage they have meets the requirements detailed in the letter (and on their contract). They should then have the agent send the declaration page to the lender. By doing this the consumer can avoid additional costs and stay in compliance with state insurance requirements as well. Most important, Finkenbrink warned for people to not ignore a letter from your lender because you think you have insurance.
They are full chit.
The loan company would send notice to the customer during the time she “didn’t have coverage”.
She may have changed insurance several times during the course of the loan and there would be nitice filed at dmv and to tbe loan provider.
Tbey would also send notice of her final bill, make phone calls , etc.
Story ain’t right...
Always call your lender when you get a letter, even if you are sure you’re fine.
They tried to steal her car.
How many others did they steal from who paid their loan?
A lot of companies use pretext to close their file in you, because they resell your car again. You might only have one payment left, but their resale might get them 20 more payments on the same car.
The notice essentially said "Hey we bought your loan and you haven't told us who your insurance company is...so if you don't respond in 72 hours, we'll buy it for you (at quadruple the normal rate)." I have no doubt this company did something similar.
Happened to a friend of mine a few years back.
I recommended my insurance company and he changed insurance.
The loan company tried to tack on their insurance. He freaked.
I had our agent contact the loan company to provide proof of coverage and problem resolved.
This seems fishy. First, why can she not get proof of insurance? And doesn’t Florida monitor this and revoke license when insurance lapse?
Yes they do. If her insurance had lapsed the provider would have informed the state and a notice would be sent to her.
Well the article isn’t very clear.
She knew they were going to tack on the insurance payments on top of her car payment. This isn’t very smart, because the lenders aren’t in the insurance business. It does beg the question why the lender isn’t responsible for insuring their interest, but it is what it is.
So she knows there’s an extra 187.65 going out every month, on top of her car payment right? Did she make those payments, or not? If she didn’t, she would get nastygrams in the mail, right away.
If she WAS making her payment in full, why would she get another policy, but not inform her lender? This should be almost automatic by her new insurance company. Most people, even if they don’t understand insurance, understand all that money going out. Why didn’t she provide proof of insurance?
The story doesn’t make any sense. Good thing she didn’t total the car, or she would have really been upset to find out she still has to make payments on a car that is in the junkyard. A lot of folks think a collision is supposed to be just short of a winning lottery ticket.
Hmmmm. Always suspicious with these claims.
“I dindu nuffins and always paid on time...”
As Paul Harvey says, “And now the rest of the story.”
Exact same thing happened to me. By changing insurance bank only received cancellation notice. New insurance failed to send them notice. Ironically my car was in shop being repaired from accident when they tried to repossess. Cost me an extra thousand to get it back since they had to keep looking for it. Then the repo people stole everything in my vehicle including money. Yeah it happens. Btw I had 3 payments left on it.
Ping
This is a loan company scam and theft. There is no way she did not have insurance on a registered car. The state would have taken her license to drive within a month of her coverage having lapsed.
My daughter changed companies and the license bureau did not enter the change. Her license was revoked, not suspended, and she was arrested. She got it “straightened out” and the arrest “expunged” but when he applied for a job three years later she was turned down for lying about her arrest record because she said that she had no arrest on her record. Records are never expunged, no matter what your lawyer thinks tells you.
This sounds a bit like a certain real estate investment our former President and his fortunately never president wife were involved in.
You have to spend the time to manage every one you trade with. Just a fact of life. Get a notice - call, record name and date/time with everyone you interact with. Courts love that stuff and they do not like - “I thought I was ....”
uh oh. You’re in for it now.
In re: to insurance, I keep it simple and buy old cars nobody wants. Got my 94 Jeep with 110k miles on it. Now we’re up to 267k. Too emotionally attached at this point.
State of Maryland came after my wife this year for hundreds of dollars in uninsured fines on a car she sold prior to the dates they insisted that it went uninsured - ten years ago! They corrected the mistake, but a big pain getting all the documents from the insurance company, etc.
State of Maryland came after my wife this year for hundreds of dollars in uninsured fines on a car she sold prior to the dates they insisted that it went uninsured - ten years ago! They corrected the mistake, but a big pain getting all the documents from the insurance company and through the state bureaucracy.
Had a similar nightmare w/ our HSA account — made an overpayment to a doctors office and it took 3 months — really — to get the refund and then 3 more months to get the refund to the right office and back on our HSA. Then, of course, this means a change in IRS filings b/c it impacted the prior year’s outlays.... Truly, this is a theft of precious time, which is a theft of liberty. They never consider that when they set these rules and regulations.
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