2008 has been a horrendous year for our family. In the past three months my mother died, my aunt died and my brother-in-law died. With travel for business and all the planning for the funerals and memorial services we didn't get to our bills. Toyota Motor Credit Corp d/b/a Lexus Financial called us to remind us that we were late on a payment. We sent them a check later that week, which the woman said was fine.

What she didn't tell us was that they reported the late payment to two credit bureaus; Experian and Equifax. Not a single other creditor, not Chase Mortgage, not Visa, not Mastercard, AmEx, or Verizon reported this single late payment. The ones we contacted were sympathetic and understanding.

Luckily we have a very good credit rating so I expect this one black mark on our credit record should not be a problem, but given the way that banks and other credit agencies are turning down people without perfect credit, I just suggest you be very careful when dealing with Lexus Financial. I could have gotten a better rate at my bank, but used Lexus Financial, because of the convenience.

Are other car companies doing this or just Toyota/Lexus

 

Welcome to CL and so sorry to hear about your losses.

How late were you for LFS to call you?

I've been a couple of days late once (past the grace period to include a late charge) so I'm wondering if I got hit with the black mark

 

welcome to clublexus and i am sorry to hear about your losses

but at the same time, with all the recent tight credit market, i can't blame toyota for being tight on reporting this. i have friends whose credit line got reduced, and i have heard stories left and right as well. i don't know if it's random or on some basis.

my experience with lexus financial have been very good for the past few years

 

Welcome to CL!

This is certainly unfortunate. I am sorry for your loss.

However, I don't see this as a problem with Lexus Financial. Should they be more understanding? Yes. Are they required to give you leniency under the terms of the contract you signed? No.

My dad died in October, my mom has had serious health problems, and my businesses have suffered massive losses in the bad economy. 2008 has been the worst year of my life. I never missed a payment. These credit companies are just too strict and can ruin your credit life with a stroke of a keyboard. Life circumstances have no place in the harsh, cruel world of finance. It is incumbent on you to protect yourself from them and not blame them when they follow their normal procedures.

I'd try to fight it, however. Write letters. Make calls. Good luck.

 

FYI... Lexus Financial is only the REPORTING mechanism... that's ALL they do... according to LF, my DEALER was the financial institution. ANY issues I had, I had to deal with the dealer directly... first time I had EVER heard that

 

This what they do. If you are late then you are late and your credit report shows it. You certainly can't blame them for doing their job (irrespective of your personal situation).

 

It is a good idea to enroll in the automatic bill pay program to avoid such situations. Your monthly payment will be deducted from your checking account each month.. Once your late you are deemed late as luxury1 pointed out.. Good luck.

 

Sorry to hear about your losses. Most companies won't be sympathetic.........they have the Good Fellas mentality........."F*** You Pay Me"

 

Sorry to hear about your lost. Honestly that would upset me too if my bank did me that way. If I was you I wouldn't deal with them after you pay your car off. Yes you were wrong but a week late and a company mess up your credit report for what the next 3 to 4 years.

 

The reason for the warning is that Lexus Financial reports you faster than any other creditor that we deal with. No other creditor did this. It appears they reported us to Equifax after thirty days and to Experian after 60 days when we had told them payment had been authorized in our online bank account. Do they have a right to do this. Sure we entered into a contract. Did any other creditor do this, no.

I was motivated to write because Toyota's reporting us late really upset my wife. I usually pay off my credit cards every month. We've never been late on a mortgage payment.

Anyway just be careful when dealing with Toyota Credit. My experience is that they will report you to credit bureaus when other creditors will cut you some slack. They also don't appear to accept ACH's so if you do online banking it may take 10 days before they credit your account.

I paid a premium to buy the RX-400 the first month it came out. Among my father and brothers we own 5 Lexuses, but all in all a shoddy experience with a company that makes a good car.

 

Welcome to CL.

And there are two sides to every story. It really depends how late you were. Maybe you paid the others bills just in time before they reported you and maybe you were just a bit to late on the car parment.

Late is late. I highly doubt you were 5-10 days late and they reported you, you were more than 30 days late and in every right they should have reported you.

 

Sorry to hear about your losses. A couple of months ago I purchased a Subaru Tribeca for my wife and left her VW GTi as a trade-in. Subaru took so long to send the pay-off to VW Credit that I was really worried. I checked online every day the VW account to see if the payment was made, and since the due date was already over I had to call VW Credit and explain what happened. They said that they don't report anything to the credit bureaus unless the account is past-due 30 days. I think Lexus is doing the same thing as other financial institutions.

 

If it is past your due date/grace period, you should be paying a late fee. It should not be reported late until 30 days past due, plain and simple.

 

you cant use a CC to pay your car payment either. well you can but you have to use western union plus a 45 fee.

 

they should have worked with you, all these posts that say the OP should have been given the late. wait until you are in this situation and then think twice about what you posted. If the OP had great credit the Financial Institute should have taken care of this as the others did. If the OP had a history of bad credit then I would be surprised if they did anything for them. I come from the banking industry.

Sorry to hear about all the loses

One hit like this if your credit is good isnt going to do much to it. Just make sure you keep everything clean from here forward. May I suggest the EFT payment program so you never have to worry about sending the payment.