Complaint Review: Westlake Financial

First I would like to say a Thank You to Jim for posting what you did, it is rare in this format to see if anyone is actually looking at it.

As for the Original Poster, I really don't know what you thought I would have said to you.  Unlike others that post, you were paying On Time and weren't asking them for any special treatment because you think you are entitled to it.  In fact I would have pretty much said exactly what Jim had said.

Now, let me give you some suggestions that you can take or leave.  There are more ways to build credit than Auto Loans.  If he truly has no credit, there are many store credit cards that will give him a chance.  There are also secured cards that will give him a chance with a small deposit.  Now, of course he doesn't have to spend hundreds of dollars on credit.  A few dollars here and there that he CONSISTANTLY pays OnTime will overtime help him quite a bit. 

Also on a more personal level.  Since you are to be married(congratuations by the way), you need to take that "to the best of my knowlege" and make sure.   As you want to really know what you are getting yourself into.  Where if he did have an issue with Identity Theft when he was a toddler and had to get a new SSN, but is showing good credit habbits..great.  However, if that was not the truth and he truly does have old debts and he is just using that as a cover, this is something he has a duty to be up front with you.  I say this from personal experience as I have seen people hide credit issues only to have it come back and blow up in their face.  So if you have not already done so, perhaps you could ask to see a current copy of all 3 of his credit reports.

$9 is money and money is money!  You might see if there's a way he can pay on-line and avoid that fee.  In fact, I would suggest he abandon the paying thru the mail process completely because he has no control of the envelope once it leaves his hands!  There are some sub-prime places which will deliberately force the borrower into paying by phone.  For example, let's say the due date is the 15th. 

They may make it impossible to pay on the 13th or 14th on line even though it would be on time on those dates. I don't know if Westlake does this but I do know some of the sub-prime credit cards do.  As I see it, the biggest potential problem I see here is if he continues to pay by mail.  I would highly suggest he avoid that as I explained above.  As a subprime lender, they manage their accounts closer.  This is because of the large number of late payers they need to chase down. 

Some of that closer management of their accounts may include a reminder call.  There's no need generating excess stomach acid getting upset over this because it comes with the territory.  If he continues to pay on time then the next car will be via a prime lender.  Just like in military basic training...you need to go thru the garbage while looking beyond that to the day it will end and you excell as an enlisted person or officer!

I appreciate you replying, and explaining a few things. We are a young couple ( he 27, I 25 ) and whereas I have never had to finance, this is his first time.

To the best of my knowledge, he was given a new SSI number, because his aunt completely destroyed whatever he had as a young child. The issue has always been that while he did not have BAD credit, he simply had NO credit whatsoever, which always made things very difficult for him.

As for the numbers and vacation offerings . . . What worried me was that the number on their official site was nothing BUT these offerings, and the number than they gave for my area at the end of the recorded offerings of the first number, was again, nothing but more offerings. Nothing I tried got me to a representitive, which made me very worried, as I am sure you can understand.

I had read that Westlake will badger or harrass for payment, sometimes days or weeks in advance. My fiance has always been very good about MAILING his payment, but it seems from a great deal of these complaints I have read deal with them pressuring for over-the-phone transactions, and then charging a processing fee of $9. $9 may not seem like a lot to people with prime credit, but when he lives paycheck-to-paycheck, and is only going through this understandably difficult ordeal of building credit from nothing by paying through the nose for a 20 year old car, it adds up! There have also been complaints I've read where the accusers claim to have been on time, which worries me, and continues to worry me, but, as you said, he pays on time, so there should be no need for them to badger..

The GOOD news is that we finally did get ahold of some one in their customer service, who actually WAS polite and explained that they bought his contract from his first financing company as is, and can't change it. We used an unpublished number of theirs, one they included in the paper work they sent to us earlier today.

The bottom line is that I was very concerned with what I had read, not just on this site, but others, that painted Westlake as a predatory lender. As a director of a customer service based company myself, I still see the "vacation offer" messages on not one, but two, of numbers produced by them to be bad practice, especially since you have to get through them to just be told to call another number entirely. However, the very nice customer service rep we spoke to today did but some of those fears to rest.. So long as he continues his good practices, we should be fine, and paid off on time.

I appreciate you not shaming him for his "subprime" credit status, especially since it was something far beyond his control. You were very helpful.

If everything you said in your posting is true, there are some important points to be made.  The selling of loans from one company to another is done everyday in finance.  There is nothing illegal, immoral or unethical about it. The contract to lend a borrower money is NOT owned by the borrower and therefore the borrower has no say about the sale of the loan. 

You say your boyfriend has been the victim of ID theft since being a toddler.  If so, you are aware he can contact all three major credit bureaus and advise them as such and he can add a written statement to his records to further advise any lenders about that.

Westlake is a very large financial services company.  All such companies report to the credit bureau(s).  They may not report to all three but they do report.  The typical street corner buy here/pay here dealership doesn't usually report.

The complaints you see here about Westlake are typically from people who continue in their sub-prime ways of not paying on time, turning on the collections machine up to and including a repo.  Those who pay on time have nothing to worry about.  You claim your boyfriend has an excellent payment record.  What is the problem?  If he continues to pay on time, there will be no problem. 

We live in the USA and not Cuba.  There is nothing wrong with any company trying to make money.  One of the ways is to offer a very low price on some type of "vacation" or "cruise" but the catch is once you are on the cruise or at te vacation site, you must attend various sales pitches on time shares, so-called "vacation clubs" and the like.  Although these are usually a very bad deal, they are not illegal.

Now lets talk about Robert.  Many sub-prime borrowers come here to cry and whine because they themselves turned on the aforementioned collections machine.  People who pay on time never have these problems with the lender.  I've been hanging around these parts a long time and I've never read anything Robert said was improper or bad advice.  When he or anyone else hits the nail on the head regarding the complainer's whining, rather than taking a step back and considering his advice, they typically come back with some silly, sorry, very immature remark such as: "Who do you think you are?" or "You must work for them."  Again, if everything you say about your boyfriend having this excellent repayment record so far, then what is there to complain about???

Finally, you stated you did not co-sign for this loan.  That was an extremely wise decision.  Many, many people have been put into serious trouble by co-signing.  You are very smart in that regard.

The advice I can give you is you make sure he is paying on-time, everytime as you say he is.  If he hasn't already done so, have him contact the credit bureaus as I stated above.  The law is if the credit bureau cannot obtain 100% proof the debt is his, then by law they must remove it from his record.