Complain about a product or service

American General Finance

Melissa of Clark, NJ May 28, 2009

I have a loan with this company. I sent my payment which was returned because my bank cashed it against the wrong account. I came home from work and found the Branch Manager's business card in my mail box. Apparently they appear at your door instead of waiting for you to call back. I called and spoke with JR the Branch Manager who told me I wasn't returning their phone calls.

I explained what happened with the bank and he said he will send someone to my house on Friday to pick up a money order because five checks have bounced. I do not believe, and have evidence that I did not bounce five checks. I have been a victim of identity theft and had to change banks because someone had my information and was debiting from my account. (Proof can be provided. I would also like to add that my boyfriend is a police officer and said that it is illegal to come to someone's house to collect a bill. I would also like to add that in the past, if you are one day late, they leave five messages per day on my house phone and cell phone. To the point that I had missed an emergency message from a family member because they left so many messages on my phone. I do return their phone calls unfortunately they do not keep a record of calls received.

I intend to file a complaint with the BBB and NJ Dept. of Banking and Insurance. This company is a subisdiary of AIG - need I say anymore. I would also like to know how they get away with their exhorbant late fees and NSF fee which I do not understand. THESE PEOPLE NEED TO BE STOPPED. If any employee of this company comes to my door again I will have them arrested.

Robbin of Chicago Park, CA April 27, 2009

We paid them in full in October 2008. They kept calling my husbands office phone probably 10 times a day. They also called his cell phone about the same amount of times. They would not leave a detailed message. They just said this is American General we need to speak with you. We thought they wanted us to get a loan or other things. I finally answered his phone and asked why they were calling. They said we owed them more money. I don't believe we do. I asked them to call my cell if any questions.

Well they started calling my office phone. I do not know where they got the number, but they started on my front office many times a day as well as my cell phone. I sent them a money order certified mail to keep them from calling. But I still believe we do not owe them. To this day they are still calling me and harassing me. I feel that this is pure harassment. There is no need to call people at work when they have cell numbers. I want them not to do this to other customers as my husband and I were lucky we did not lose our jobs over all the time the front office spent answereing the phone. I feel I overpaid them.

Rosario of Stockton, CA April 23, 2009

I loan in the American General Finance services but i was not able to pay for it because i did not have enough money to pay for it. Now, it's been 3 months and i still haven't pay for it yet.

One of their workers cam in our home twice already and enter the house without my permission. Now, they are threatening me that if i dont pay 200 dollars a month, they will have to bring me to the court. I feel harassed. I hope you can help me solve this misunderstanding.

Ice of Kingman, AZ December 4, 2008

They still want high interest in this economy while they beg the federal reserve and get billions. Perhaps if they would lower mortgage rates to 4%, they might save some homes from foreclsoure and help Americans; that is unless their goal is to grab land. They are like a credit card co. for homes.

Karin of Rogue River, OR March 25, 2008

I paid my last payment on time, but they state they received it late, and thus, they are charging me a finance charge. They offered to give me 50% off the finance charge but since I paid it on time, I don't feel I owe anything. A G Finance says that consumers should expect it to take 8 to 10 days to process a check, but that seems unreasonable. Also, it seems as if this is the way they make some extra money

Susan of Columbia, TN March 21, 2008

Susan of Columbia TN (03/21/08)
I have been making monthly payments toward my loan, when I asked for a statement of my account. This is so I can see how much interest I have paid and what amount went to the principal. They said that they do not send out statements. I asked for something telling me what I have paid, etc. All I was told is that they do not do this. Is this not against the law?

D of Pensacola, WA February 23, 2008

The amount of charges are greater than the amount to be paid. When we initially made the loan I made an early payment, every payment was always before the due date and I always paid more than the amount of the required payment.

Two times they took every penny for interest. I would have thought that at least the amount made over the payment would have gone to the balance, if only 4! So they tried to explain that because my early payment was so early that the even though the next payment was still early the interest charged all meant that everything I paid them went to interest. OK, I let that slide--Now here it is several years later and AGAIN I paid 500 instead of the 416.68 that my payment should be and they took out 425.42 in interest!

The thing that gets me upset is that how can they take out in interest an amount greater than the payment I was supposed to pay. Especially when I have always paid more than the required amount!

Maria of Pacoima, CA November 2, 2007

Maria of Pacoima CA (11/02/07)
American General Finance has continuously harassed, tried to intimidate me, and has disclosed loan information to anyone who answers my home phone. On Thursday November 1, 2007 one of their representatives, Ismael Arreola, left a message on my voice mail stating my payment had not been made; I had to call back the next day before 5:00 PM, otherwise my car would be repossessed. I know that creditors are not allowed to disclose any loan information nor make threats on any type of voice mails or disclose information to an unauthorized party.

My home life has been affected as information that should not have been disclosed has been causing family disputes, almost got me kicked out of my home. I am stressed, can't sleep worrying about losing my car, and from family problems caused by disclosing information.

Leah of Fairview, TN June 28, 2007

A contractor was hired to build an addition onto our home. The contractor led us to his "finance" guy, who would refinance our home with enough to build the addition.

I went to American General to sign papers with my husband, and was told by more than one person at American General that there were no pre-payment penalties after one year.

I now work for Fifth Third Bank, in Tennessee, and it has been two years since we signed said contract with American General. I asked the mortgage department at Fifth Third to do a re-fi on us, and we would be able to escape Amercian General and their ever-increasing rate on the loan.

It has been a couple of days since the refinancing with Fifth Third has been enacted, and I received a call today from Beth, at American General. She stated that there would be an 8000.00 pre-payment penalty, and the contract they have in house states that there would be a penalty. My husband and I had no idea, and felt as if we had been "baited and switched", so to speak.

I want to report this company as a fraudulent one. Since all of this has transpired, we were told that "Robert", said loan officer, was fired due to unethical practices.

How in the world is a consumer supposed to know the terms of the loan, if they were told one thing, yet signed another? Please get this message out to all consumers. Alert them as to the fishy practices at American General Finance.

Barbara of Altamonte, FL June 16, 2006

On June 15, 2006 I went into an American General Finance office in Altamonte Springs, Florida to discuss what I believed to be false information on my account. The Branch Manager, Eric Assenheimer was totally disrespectful. He constantly interrupted and spoke over me. Eric then lied about several previous incidents that I brought to his attention to prove the errors in my account. He also continually evaded my request for a supervisor. As a result of my persistence, he eventually, gave me a contact number for the Casselberry branch and told me to "Get out of his office!"

The following day I spoke with the Area Manager, Carole Jameson and tried to explain what happened. I made sure she understood that after rethinking the chain of events that lead up to this disagreement, I was confused with Eric’s reactions. I also told her that the only explanation I could think of for Eric's negative behavior towards me was perhaps an incident that occurred during the month of April. I am not certain, but I do believe that Eric may have been angry at me for refusing to redo a loan with him back in April of 2006. Please note that redoing the loan would have put me further in debt with the company. Additionally it should be stated that I have also rejected offers from Eric and other members of the staff on numerous occasions to accept additional loans with the company. American General attaches extremely high interest rates on their loans that make it difficult to repay within a reasonable time. I made the mistake of taking out a loan with them once, but vowed to never do it again.

Unfortunately Carole Jameson, the Area Manager, not unlike Eric was also rude and tried to talk over me. She told me that she had already heard his side of the story. That's when it became apparent that she had no intentions of being objective. She was unwilling to acknowledge any wrong doing or ill treatment by Eric. Apparently his behavior was not only acceptable, but common practice. Of coarse, this only led me to feel attacked a second time by her.

Ms. Jameson’s solution to the problem was to simply transfer my account to another office. While I did agree that it would be best, I am not pleased with her condoning improper behavior of employees. As I stated to Ms. Jameson, I was not looking for any monetary compensation or credits to be added to my account for Eric's lack of professionalism. I simply wanted her to understand why I accused him of being deceptive and unprofessional. I also informed her that I was not pleased with the way she handled the matter and would probably pursue my complaint further.

I'm now turning to you to hear and advise me on this matter. I don't know what else I should do. I will be in the position to pay off this loan in a couple of months. However, this is a matter of principal for me. I don't think that it is fair or even ethical to mistreat customers after they are locked into a contract. I refuse to comply with unprofessional conduct or incompetence. Neither will I ever acquiesce to audacious, insolent, nor cynical remarks from anyone to whom I bring my business! Thank you for taking the time to hear this matter.

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