I purchased a Advantage Auto Sales and Credit in Emmaus, PA. A buy here, pay here. Part of the reason I purchased through them, like J.D. Byrider, they report your payment history into
Transunion Credit Bureau. This was a part of my contract with them. I purchased car for $10,995, $800 down payment, and the car became faulty, breaking down a total of 9 times in one day. Altogether maybe 20-25 in the 2 1/2 years I have owned vehicle. Interest rate is high 18%, for the time of purchase my credit score was poor at 513. I have spent close to $2,000 additionally of my own savings to fix car in order to keep it on the road while continuing to pay loan. The loan is close to $400 per month. Along with purchasing a vehicle at a buy here, pay here to improve my credit score, I am linked to a credit repair service called Lexington Law in which has greatly improved my credit since 2011 as well. But it still seemed kind of low considering I had been paying on everything in a timely manner and almost three years would have gone by at this time. However, when my vehicle finally broke down again this past February 2014, my mechanic declared catalytic converter and transmission problems, grand total of another $2,000 cost for repairs. This time, the vehicle left me stranded for good, and I was out of work for one week without transportation, costing me to lose more money. A family member has kindly lent me there back-up vehicle to use temporarily. I was determined to have Advantage Auto help me out with this faulty vehicle because there was no way they did not know about the major problems this car had at the time of purchase in September 2011. Advantage would not help me, they offered to put me into another one of their vehicles which would mean taking out another loan for close to 15,000. I kindly rejected their offer and told them exactly what I was going to do which was to trade the vehicle in which still had a $3,000 loan left on it, coming down from $10,995 and to my surprise, no other dealership would accept the trade because the car was so faulty that it wasn't worth the amount of the loan. Another problem I encountered was that my credit score did not rise as much as I thought it would have since 2013. I pulled my credit report February of 2014 and neglected to read it carefully. As a car salesman brought to my attention that my score was only 630, I was baffled, there was no way. That score was from 2013. So again, I was determined to find out why and as I carefully combed through each credit bureau's reporting, I found that Advantage Auto stopped reporting my car payments after 8/2013. I went for five and half months without receiving credit for any of my car payments. That is over $2,000 worth of car payments I never received credit towards on Transunion-the bureau loan officers tend to look at first when checking your credit history. My credit score was at a stand still due to Advantage Auto. Payment history comprises 30% of your credit score. By not reporting my payments, this didn't negatively affect my credit score, but it did not help either in which in my case giving me credit for my payments would have in fact helped me increase my score. Therefore, I was not given credit where credit was due. $2,000 worth of car payments I did not receive recognition for paying on Transunion, which was in our initial contract. I explained the problem to Advantage Auto and again, they were no help. They wanted to either re-possess my car or have me come in and sign another contract with me, lowering my exisiting interest rate with them to come down from 18%. They did not want to talk about the fact that they did not report my payments into Transunion credit bureau. I feel like as a consumer, my rights and contract were violated and I feel like I was taking advantage of as well. It is not right that I kept up my end of the bargain and they did not do so on their side, and even worse, they impacted my chance at buying new vehicle with a better credit score. Do I have rights to sue?
Transunion Credit Bureau. This was a part of my contract with them. I purchased car for $10,995, $800 down payment, and the car became faulty, breaking down a total of 9 times in one day. Altogether maybe 20-25 in the 2 1/2 years I have owned vehicle. Interest rate is high 18%, for the time of purchase my credit score was poor at 513. I have spent close to $2,000 additionally of my own savings to fix car in order to keep it on the road while continuing to pay loan. The loan is close to $400 per month. Along with purchasing a vehicle at a buy here, pay here to improve my credit score, I am linked to a credit repair service called Lexington Law in which has greatly improved my credit since 2011 as well. But it still seemed kind of low considering I had been paying on everything in a timely manner and almost three years would have gone by at this time. However, when my vehicle finally broke down again this past February 2014, my mechanic declared catalytic converter and transmission problems, grand total of another $2,000 cost for repairs. This time, the vehicle left me stranded for good, and I was out of work for one week without transportation, costing me to lose more money. A family member has kindly lent me there back-up vehicle to use temporarily. I was determined to have Advantage Auto help me out with this faulty vehicle because there was no way they did not know about the major problems this car had at the time of purchase in September 2011. Advantage would not help me, they offered to put me into another one of their vehicles which would mean taking out another loan for close to 15,000. I kindly rejected their offer and told them exactly what I was going to do which was to trade the vehicle in which still had a $3,000 loan left on it, coming down from $10,995 and to my surprise, no other dealership would accept the trade because the car was so faulty that it wasn't worth the amount of the loan. Another problem I encountered was that my credit score did not rise as much as I thought it would have since 2013. I pulled my credit report February of 2014 and neglected to read it carefully. As a car salesman brought to my attention that my score was only 630, I was baffled, there was no way. That score was from 2013. So again, I was determined to find out why and as I carefully combed through each credit bureau's reporting, I found that Advantage Auto stopped reporting my car payments after 8/2013. I went for five and half months without receiving credit for any of my car payments. That is over $2,000 worth of car payments I never received credit towards on Transunion-the bureau loan officers tend to look at first when checking your credit history. My credit score was at a stand still due to Advantage Auto. Payment history comprises 30% of your credit score. By not reporting my payments, this didn't negatively affect my credit score, but it did not help either in which in my case giving me credit for my payments would have in fact helped me increase my score. Therefore, I was not given credit where credit was due. $2,000 worth of car payments I did not receive recognition for paying on Transunion, which was in our initial contract. I explained the problem to Advantage Auto and again, they were no help. They wanted to either re-possess my car or have me come in and sign another contract with me, lowering my exisiting interest rate with them to come down from 18%. They did not want to talk about the fact that they did not report my payments into Transunion credit bureau. I feel like as a consumer, my rights and contract were violated and I feel like I was taking advantage of as well. It is not right that I kept up my end of the bargain and they did not do so on their side, and even worse, they impacted my chance at buying new vehicle with a better credit score. Do I have rights to sue?
