Drive Financial review: This company needs to be driven out of business! 169

I bought a car from my local dealer in 2008 for blue book value. Due to my recent divorce I had a hard time getting financing. Drive offered to give me a loan at a higher interest rate which was okay considering I was building my credit by myself. I have never had any problems making payments online or by phone. When my son was in the hospital a few months back my payment for that month was late, I called drive to make payment arrangements they were really great about it and they understood my situation. That was 5 months ago and I am never more than 5-10 days late and I have never received any harrasing phone calls or messages left on my voice mail. In the first year I paid several thousand dollars in interest and my balance goes down each month. I have never been charged a late fee even when my payment was 20 days past due because on my sons hospitalization. I pay extra on my loan when I can and it always goes toward the balance. I'm sorry that so many of you are having problems with Drive. All I can say to you is good luck and read all the fine print on any loan documents you sign. I went over mine with a fine tooth comb becasue I hate suprizes.

IF DRIVE OWED ALL OF YOU MONEY COMPLAINING ON HERE, THEN YOU WOULD TAKE THE SAME STEPS TO GET YOUR MONEY ALSO, WOULDNT YOU? PEOPLE NEED TO STOP COMPLAINING AND REALIZE IF YOUR CREDIT SUCKS YOU CANT GET A CADILLIAC OR LEXUS, ITS A HYUNDAI OR SUZUKI. ONLY IF CONSUMERS KNEW HOW THINGS WORKED BEFORE THEY WOULD COMPLAIN.

when you get financing through a secondary finance source, the dealer gets charged upward of 4, 000 just to get you a loan. so everyone stop complaining. i know its hard to get a loan but be grateful someone wants to lend the money.

Nothing but trouble from the "get...go". First of all, I didn't finance with them...they bought my account somehow without my knowledge. Because of the mix-up in who to pay, the first payment was held til i could find where to pay it...they would NOT help with this, and when i tried to move my payment date to get back on track, the screwed it up in the computer TWICE!...making us show late for the next 3 months...NUMEROUS calls per day (VERY UNPROFFESSIONAL IMHO)...have actually had representatives insinuate i should borrow money from family rather than wait 3 days to make a payment! DO NOT GET TIED UP WITH THIS COMPANY!

So you are ranting because you wont/cant pay your truck payment and they are trying to make you pay? Why do they need to give you an extension?
Sounds to me like you got in over your head and are now taking it out on the loan company.

I had a 2002 ford escort that I purchased a Courtesy Cheverolet in Phx. It was financed thru Drive Financial. The stories are true. I finally just saved about 4 payments, let them call, hid the car drove it untill I found a good deal on a privatly owned vehicle paid for it with the four pmts I had held back. Then I called them and told them to come a get the damn car. I am alot happier, even with the ding on my credit. They were destroying my credit every month any way as they report every late payment even if it is only a day late. The amounts they say you owe are never accurate. I had that car for 2 years and owed more than the contract said it cost when I gave it back. Give em back the car and pay cash for something else and you will be part of the solution.

Everyone in here is talking about how bad Drive Financial is. All you people wouldn't even be financed by any other company but drive. You sit here typing about how the dealer is the one that pushed you in the car. YOU are the one's that signed the contract. YOU have bad credit. Why do you think they start calling you? They have every right to call till they get their money. READ YOUR CONTRACT. There is no such thing as a grace period either. If your one day late you break your contract! They are allowed to call every day, once a message is left on your phone, correct, their should be no more phone calls. You think they are rude, but look at the people they have to deal with? People with terrible credit that are always late. They make their money by interest, because they know by letting you get the vehicle that you want they have to pay the price. IF YOU WERE SMART, YOU WOULDN'T BE SO BEHIND ON YOUR CAR PAYMENTS AND WOULDN'T RECEIVE ANY PHONE CALLS. THEY DON'T HAVE TO DEFER ANY OF YOUR PAYMENTS AND GIVE YOU TIME TO MAKE YOUR PAYMENTS, IT IS YOUR RESPONSIBILITY. DRIVE IS SMART, THEY MAKE MONEY OFF YOU OF PEOPLE WHO HAVE HORRIBLE CREDIT!

i got a new truck in 2007 i have pay them.1594996.still owe175000you. pay them off .iam tried trying to pay that munch.

Get a copy of your payment history from the website www.drivefinancial.com and see a lawyer about the way the payments are applied. Check the internet for legal aid in your area. They were not applying my payments several times. I printed the info from the website and gave it to my legal aid paralegal and she is working on getting it straight. JMHO. X

OK, first if you had a loan with drive and they came to repo the car read this as it may help - http://myvesta.org/articles/articles/74/3/Repossession-Why-it-happens-what-you-can-do-and-your-rights-before-during-and-after-repossession/Page3.html - I financed a 2005 Chevy Cavalier LS sport coupe. I was in a position where I was desperate for a car and thought I had no other choice. So I got my loan with drive. I was making more than enough money at my job. When they closed my department and I was laid off, everything went to hell. I ofcourse fell behind on my payments and then I moved half way across the country. Drive did work with me, and for the most part they held up their end. I did talk to many rude people there and some were VERY nice. In the end I was never able to completly catch up and 9 days ago they came and got my car. I have been talking to them and told them that i would come up with the money to get my car back but i needed some time. I was told that I had 10 days to get the car from the repo lot before it was sold at auction. On the 8th day I hd the money and called teh repo lot to find out how late they were open. The repo lot told me that my car was gone. Drive had my car shipped to an auction in a different state on teh 5th day. When I called drive about this they said that "I had 10 days until it was sold and that they usually get the car from teh repo lot 24-48 hours before the auction". They got the car 120 hours before and now it will cost me even more to get the car. So I am not going to get it back unless i can buy it back at the sale for a lower price. I am banking on the fact that they have to notify me in writing of when/where the auction will be. If they do not notify me then legally they cannot collect the rest of the loan from me. so if i can buy the car back at a lower cost then I will actually make out better. This company is a terrible company and is filled with liars, HOWEVER...coming from someone that has worked in collections myself, most of the people that we all have talked to are just telling us what the company trains them to. So it's not that they are the liars, but the company itself. When you all talk to them please try to remember this and just stay calm it will only hurt you if you get aggressive.

just as another note: When I first got behind on my payments, I told a lady that I had lost my job couldn't even afford to put gas in the car so it was just parked for a bit and she actually said "Then why do you even have the car if you can't afford to put gas in it". I hope we can all get through to them and please do tell others to stear clear of drive, inless they know 100% that they can pay it off early. I was paying $320.98 a month with 24.99% interest. please contact me if you need any help or have any info that may help me. I can sure use it.
areber12@yahoo.com

it all depends on the type of loan u have and when u make ur payments. an option would to make your payment a securer way because payment can be lost in the mail

first it depends on the kind of loan u have and then when u are mailing the payments it depends when it has posted to ur a/c, the date payment was due and that is how interest and principle would be allocated

I agree, I have never been 30 days past due on my account, maybe five and they call my house, cell and my job constantly. I have counted on one day they contacted me at 15 times. At one point I have told them to stop calling my place of employment and they still continued. Yes these calls continued even after I made a payment arrangment or a post dated check.

ctolbertcst@yahoo.com

I just got screwed this is rediculous.I never got ahead on them people had been paying for 2 years and numerous amount of calls and threathing calls on my job I mean it got rediculous I had to change my phone and just go to one phone number they called me at least 20 times on my work phone 20 times on my house phone and 20 times on my cell phone every day.It got bad and I made a payment and they came picked up my car! I had paid them people over 7000 dollars over 2 years and my car note never dropped not once.I mean it is rediculous then I pay them and the come and pick up my car I am calling them early in the morning and I will tell them it is rediculous.Even worse the repo man told me it is better to let the car go now that is rediculous as well he say it ain't worth it cause he has so many people saying the same thing and he knows it true.Now that is screwed up the repo person says they are very bad.I hope they get what they deserve cause I think I will report them to the bbb. I am happy its over going get me another car.I mean your payments are going to be always late and they lie to you on the phone and the customer service sucks they talk to you like you in the streets like they don't care about you are nothing I mean down right nasty, What type of customer service talks to people like they are nobody and say real nasty things to you.I would run from them people If I was anyone who know what they are about to get into.Lousy and dirty.You will get what is coming to you drive believe me god does not sleep.

I have lousy credit and made a wrong and desparate move and was financed for over $13, 000 on a $7000 car. I was stupid and thought I had no other choice if wanted car financing. They were opportunistic at best and predatory at worst. Not too long after I got the car I lost my job and was not able to make the payments. They did work with me for a while (nobody in their right mind would want that POS back) and I was able to borrow and scrape together some payments. Finally, I got a job and called to arrange for regular payments to them again. THEY SAID OK TO THIS! Then 2 days before my I get my 1st check and my arranged payment date them they repo the car in the middle of the night! Goodbye car and goodbye new job with no transportation. To add insult to injury the repo a******* wanted 50 bucks before he would let me get my personal belongings. Now I have to file bankruptcy, so they can eat the POS car for all I care. It was falling apart anyway. Screw them and the boot they all rode in on. I wonder how well they are going to do in this crappy economy.

Did you ever consider how we feel at Drive., We too would like to talk to the customers in our books, We usually have a rapore with them as, the account is under one account managers control.They changed our system so we cant recive our own calls anymore .We have many new people at Drive, and we over hear the bad things that are said, nothing we can do they dont listern to there staff,
They have quality control that listerns to every call thats made, and we are scored on that call, up to the point of write up and termination .Personally I feel they score there friends high, The system dosnt work .If it did there would not be so many law suits .

There are many good people that work here that do do the right thing, and we do care .Its just the few bad that really hurt the rest of us.

To jump right to the point.. I cosigned a vehicle for my husband because he had just started a new job and of coarse you have to show another source of income which mines is way more than his so the payments are waaay higher, not to mention I had just purchased a new vehicle 4mo before him ( not thru Drive). So it's hard for him to keep current. Didn't know a financial co. had the choice not to do deferments( that sucks!) how can any one get caught up! They are overly rude! I thought it was against the law to call someones place of employment and discuss their personal business with coworkers. They do it all the time! Do anyone have info on how to stop the calls to our place of employment. Plz email @ cdkelly@zoomtown.com

I found out today there is a class action law suit against drive financial. Right now it only involves people who bought their car in March of 2007. If thats you, then call Englehardt law firm at [protected]. I hope this helps. I unfortunately bought mine in July 2007 so im not eligable right now. I also found out the dealerships are getting kick backs from drive for aproving people for a loan with one bank then calling them back and saying the loan wasnt accepted. Then you sign new papers without being informed that all the payment and interest has been changed to drive financial.

Re: Drive financial
From: Fed -up with their harrassment and tactics!
Why hasn't a class-action lawsuit been filed. These people do not know how to conduct bussiness! They lie to us, harrass us by calling as of 8:00 AM (which is illegal), they call up to 6 or more times a day, and insist we can make payments we can't make! They refuse to help us with a deferment even though we could get on track with that help. These people are idiots!

Sadly, I am also a VICTIM, yes i will repeat VICTIM of Crap Financial. Drive has been the worst experience of my life. I acually documented that they called me 76 TIMES in one day! I was in the hospital with my dying mother. I was out of the state. I tried to make arrangments and they claimed no arrangements were made. I asked why there was a need to call me 76 times and they said, "oh, your number is on an automated system. There's nothing we can do to stop it." It is absolutely rediculous. I wish I would have done my research before getting a loan with them. My intrest rate was crazy and I seemed to owe more on my loan in the end. They said they never recieved payments on time. They have no record of payments arrangements...It's non-sense.
After I was 2 months behind (due to the death of my mother) they charged off my account and put my car out for repo. They call & claim to be the sheriffs office. (I have called the Sheriffs office. They are the sheriff.) They claim they have reported my car stolen. (which for the record they CANNOT do) They claim that they are investigators and have a warrant for my arrest (AGAIN A LIE! I have checked) They are full of CRAP and I will be happy to return the car as soon as I get my moneys worth. They screwed my credit anyways so who cars if I keep the car for a few extra months at this point! I deserve somehing for the AGGRIVATION & IRRITATION that this FOUL company has caused me!

WELL CALL AND ASK FOR A MANAGER AND ASK THEM TO REMOVE THE NUMBER

Drive is out of control somebody should do something about how they are harrassing people unfairly. and have called my employer 13 times in one day and this is horrible. Whom can we contact regarding these people they should be sued regarding how they are violating the FDCPA especially when I am still within my grace period.

I am not happy with Drive at all. I bought a Mazda 5 in June of '06 for $17, 200, and I put $6, 000 cash down. I make my payments on time, so I never really looked into my loan, but now I want to pay it off, and found out my pay-off is over $15, 000. My amount financed was almost $22, 000, instead of the $11, 200 it should have been. That seems like a hell of a lot of money for TT&L. From what I have found out, Drive Financial charges a fee for giving loans to people with not so great credit. The dealerships are not supposed to mention this. The fee could be $2, 000-$6000, or more. Mine was obviously more. This fee is added on top of the amount of the vehicle. I am always able to get in touch with someone at Drive, and they are mailing me a copy of my original contract, so I can go over it and see what exactly the extra $10, 000 was added for. You all should go back and check the original amount financed, against you purchase price and down payment. Also, go to edmunds.com and input your vehicle price and apr, and it will tell you how much your payments should actually be.

I had got a defferment for my june and july payments. In june i sent 600.00, so i was to be caught up in august. I keep getting called all time of day and i be at work. They also call everyone you know looking for you like they are the f b i or the police. I sent them 400.00 in october, then turn aroun and sent them 500.00 in november, another 348.00 also, i payed this often cause they have cut hours and days at my job, so i figure if i sent it like this i should be caught up. But im still getting called saying i'm behind again. One of my money orders was through federal express they said they didn't get it. So i called the 800 number federal express give you on the receipt. They gave me the date, time, and also the person name who signed for it, i also gave it to them and they still trying to say they did not get it. The economy out here is bad i don't think anyone out here have anything extra to give we are trying to survive as it is. They also have poor unqualified people working for them, they don't know how to talk to anyone, and they need to take some kind of training to deal with customers. They are very unprofessional, so is anyone in the office qualified enough to deal with the public. We need help with this company all of their people need to go to a class on communicating with people.

Barber et al v. Drive Financial Services

Drive Financial Services, L.P. has settled a class-action suit with over 1, 150 Texas residents, according to Houston consumer protection attorney Richard Tomlinson.

The Texas residents – on behalf of Velincia Barber – had accused Drive of violating numerous federal and state consumer protection laws while attempting to collect debts.

Specifically, the suit charged that Drive sent threatening letters to Texas residents who fell behind in their payments. Said letters threatened wage garnishment and purported to be from an attorney or law firm, actions which violate the Federal Fair Debt Collection Practices Act and the Texas Debt Collection Act.

The settlement requires Drive to pay the class $250, 000 plus Tomlinson’s legal fees and court costs. U.S. District Judge Sim Lake of the Southern District of Texas ruled that the settlement should be approved as fair, reasonable, adequate and in the best interests of the members of the class.

Class members were notified of the settlement and entitled to submit objections to the court prior to the hearing before Judge Lake. Among the more than 1, 150 notices, however, no objections were filed.

“The fact, ” said Tomlinson, “that Drive has to write a quarter million dollars in checks to the Texas residents they harassed should send a message to other debt collectors who use abusive, unethical and illegal techniques to apply pressure.”

One Night I Got A Phone Call From Drive Financial For My Mother And The Woman Was Very Rude She Said To Me And I Quote "Mrs.Craig Quit Playing Games You Owe Us Money You Need To Pay It." And My Mother Had Just Paid $450 To That Company For A Car Payment. They Need To Stop Harrising People And Need To Stopped.All Their Employees Are Very Ignorant And Rude

I have all the same problems as the rest of you. They call my house day and night starting at 8am. I have never missed a payment. I am late from time to time and when I am they call to harrass me! They have now tacted on 109.00 in late fees. That is alomst half of my monthly payment. How can they do that and get away with it? Customer service is a joke and I can not even make a payment online or over the phone with out having to talk to someone. They say my account number does not exsist lol. I laugh and say then stop calling my HOUSE! This company sucks and they need to go DOWN! I get so sick of them and I dreaded calling in my payments every month DREAD! That is not right its not right!

Oh I forgot to tell you how Great there Customer Service was, the customer service rep. first called me a dead beat. when i was trying to explain about the car dealership and then when i flipped out on the Rep. she backed off...dont they understand our loans pay there Salery? All i was trying to tell her was that they are allowing Car dealerships to pull fraud on there customers...Also about the price i went back to the dealer and had them adjust my loan. i was told it was there Error...so watch out for there Errors! i GUESS EVERYONE WANTS TO PAY MORE FOR THERE CAR THEN THE STICKER PRICE AND TOP IT OFF WITH MY TRADE IN.

I have a Loan from this company and the car dealerships are pulling the fraud with Drive, My car stcker price was $20, 000 i had a trade in and they offered mye $5, 000...well at the end of the day they tried charging me for a $28, 000 loan. Why would i offer more money then the sticker prices was? i must me a real fool. then the car dealer tells me my payments will not start unil Sept, i started paying in Aug. they kept telling me i was late. this company SUCKS.

This too happened to me where the vehicle that was financed was actually financed for more than it was worth. Our salesperson at Team Ford in Navasota, TX actually listed equipment to calculate the worth on the vehicle that isn't even on our vehicle. We signed the contract almost a month ago and then they came out to our house and had us sign a different contract, becauuse we needed a co0-buyer listed. We haven't gotten our payment booklit or our license plates. It's been a mess. So much so that we are considering getting our lawyer involved. So anyone who is considering purchasing a vehicle and hears the words Drive Financial, whatever you do, don't use them, there are other companies that won't cheat you out of your money. Also, whatever you do, don't use Team Ford.

Dude,
In all honesty it is your responsibility to make sure the payoff gets to the bank (or finance company, or whomever holds your loans). When you sign the contract you are agreeing to pay a certain amount each month, on time for the length of your contract. If that happens as you agreed, then you own the vehicle. When you decide to do something other than that (like sell the car before it is paid off) then it is up to you to follow through to make sure that the payments are made or a payoff is received on time.

Think about it as though you were the lender. For all practical purposes, they own the vehicle since they put the cash up for it. So they expect a monthly payment. You think that because you tell them you sold it that they should wait for how long to get their payment? They have no proof that you really sold it. And car dealers know the importance of sending a payoff quickly, because they want to title to be released to them so they can re-sell it. I bet that 99% of the time, a payoff check is sent immediately to the lien holder from the dealer. So when your finance company sees that your account is past due and they don't get a payoff check, it is logical that they would call you. And since you signed the contract to pay them (not the dealer you sold to), they can only contact you. It isn't up to them to track down the vehicle or payment -- it is yours to get it to them.

It sucks that you had a problem, but sounds like there may have been more to it if your dealership wasn't sending them the payoff.

"The dealership told me to accept the higher car payments and then I would be able to refinance later."

Never agree to something that is not in your interest unless they give it to you in writing. As soon as they DON'T want to put it in writing you will know they are lying.

I really agree with you all because the did me the same way and they gave me a rude ### account manager name Laneka Edwards . That rude ### even told me that she didnt care about my conditions that i was in because hell she didnt care what happened to me she just wanted me to make the payment so that she could get her bonus. I explain to her that i was trying to finish school and that rude ### laughed at me and said that good for me, hell she admitted that she dropped out of school and never graduated; and bragged of how she was in control of me.

Drive Financial just repossessed my car yesterday. I completely understand how you feel. I still owe them over $20, 000 on the car that I financed through them 2 and a half years ago. I called them when the tow truck showed up to ask what I could do and the rep said I could pay them $1700. I explained that if I had $1700 I wouldnt have had my car repossessed. She also said that had I even tried to pay them $100 that would have helped. Anyone knowing this company knows that you cannot just pay them $100 whenever you can. They charge you all kinds of fees and I even get charged $10.95 everytime I paid them a payment. I asked once about refinancing through them and the rep was very rude saying that no one would refinance me and they are not a company that does refinancing. They continuously called my job...my home and my cell phone and were very rude to anyone that answered the phone. This company is the reason Americans cannot get out of debt. Rediculous and lousy. Anyone let me know if they file a class action lawsuit against these jerks.

My husband and I financed a 2002 dodge durango thru drive financial in 2004. We were told our payments we going to be 225.00(not the case they are 400). Number one we never got a payment booklet. number two we paid our first payment by check thru the car dealership when we purchased the car THE SAME DAY! A week and a half later 15 days before our due date they called my husband at work my mother (co-signer) and every other contact person we had put down telling them we were three weeks late with our payment. We had purchased the car 1 and a half weeks earlier!I called the dealership where we got the car and asked them about the payment and they told me that they send it electronicaly and they get it right then. I called drive back and told them what the dealership had told me and they said that they had not recieved anything and that they were sending out a repo warrant for the car. My husband went to the bank and sent them another cashiers check. Long story short its now 2008 we still have not paid off the car yet they still say we are two payments behind and have over 8 g's in late fees. THATS almost what the asking price was for the car in the first place. I had worked for 5 years to get my credit back to where i could get a car and they have ruined it for the most part beyond repair.If i could go buy a new car i'd drive this durango up their [censored] sideways! They suck at customer service.we have even sent them proof that they cashed the checks but they still say they didnt get them because they were not posted to my account.what a crock!

I spoke with a rep 2 weeks ago to see if my recurring payments were canceled. She said no, they will only be cancelled if I submitt to them in writing a notice to cancel. Therefore, I was under the impression the payment would be made for the month of Sept and there after. To my surprise the payment is now late.

I call in today to see what's going on and am told the recurring payments were cancelled and if I don't pay today I may recieve a late fee and in order to make the payment today there will be an additional $10.95 charge. This is ridiculous. I asked for the $10.95 fee to be waived they said no. It is not there fault the payments were cancelled. I asked if I sent the payment in by mail would i still recieve a late fee they say, "YES". I am disgusted. I was placed on hold for exactly 47 min. to speak with a supervisor (my phone shows how much time passes while your on a call). The supervisor would not talk to me unless I gave her my ssn, which is not something I live to give out over the phone. She said there is nothing she can do and there's no way I can contact her supervisor. This is ridiculous. Is there some way I can have my auto loan taken over by a different company?

This is the worse finance company I have ever had to deal with.

If any consusmers have noticed any unusual charges on your original contract you may have a claim. There appears to the potential for an illegal extraction claim on many contracts. Fell free to contact me @ gniblock@niblocklawfirm.com or [protected].

I agree, how do we file a legal report without having to pay lawyers. I'm not getting a layer over 17.00 that Drive is trying to make me pay.

LOL...It's really silly to hear yuo say something like this...Loan sharks? Your the one who wanted the loan to get the car...remember!? All you need to do is make your payments on time...LOL