Complaint Rating:

I purchased a car from a private seller last week and went through Chase Auto Finance for my loan. Once I got to the closing I signed all my paperwork and then they asked for money to pay for the title transfer, tax and plates. I thought it was no big deal, because it was somewhat similar to what a dealer would do. However, after paying this money I was told that they would mail me my plates, but could not give me temporary plates. WHAT?

I asked how long it would be for me to get the plates in the mail and they said they could not tell me. It could be two weeks or over a month. So, I said that I will go over to the Secretary of State myself to get the plates, but they won't give me the title or paperwork to get it done. So foolishly I decided that if this is how it's always done, then that's what I'll do.

Of course I realized shortly after the fact that I do not have a garage, or even a driveway to park my car that has no plates on it (the girl I bought the car from wanted them back). As you can imagine, it's illegal to leave a car without plates on a city street, I don't have temporary plates, and I have nowhere to park it. What the heck am I supposed to do?

I called the Secretary of State today and they said they've never heard of such a thing. They checked and said the paperwork has not been submitted by Chase yet (it's been a week) and once it's received it can take up to 30 days to process. So it's conceivable I might not have plates for a month and a half after purchasing the car.

I called back to Chase and was told there was nothing they could do. The documents were shipped to the loan processing department, which is not in this state, and I have to wait for the loan to be processed before they will send my info to the Secretary of State.

The branch manager even said that the process was ridiculous and apologized profusely. Whatever you do, don't get your loan through them.