American General Finance Holds Back Payments to get late charges ripoff Maple Heights Ohio

My husband and I have had a similar issue recently. For over a year we had been sending the payments on our loan (we chose to pay weekly rather than monthly to match DH's paycheck schedule) to the post office box for the local office-this is being done thru the BillPay service at the bank where our checking account is. The bank sends out the physical check four days in advance so that it arrives in time to be cashed on the day the bank withdraws the funds from our checking account.

Last month we received a notice with our billing statement that the payment address had changed to the Ohio payment center so we updated the address in BillPay. However, we were dismayed to see that it took AmGen a FULL WEEK to cash the next check once they had received it at the payment center. Had we been making monthly payments instead, and set up to have the funds withdrawn on the due date, this would have pushed it past, thus allowing them to collect a late fee for a payment that they had in-house on the due date. In our situation, in the meantime, we're still accruing interest charges while they are sitting on the check.

I called the local office to inquire and they were nice enough to assure us that if we went back to paying at the local branch instead of the payment center, the payments will be applied to our loan on the day they are received. Oh, but now these are to be sent to their physical branch address---the "local" post office boxes for each branch are being shut down in an effort to save money. They have apparently received a LOT of complaints regarding the amount of time it takes the Ohio payment center to apply a payment once it is received.

And, of course, you can't find them on a "direct payment" list with any bank you have a bill-pay service setup with (where the payments are sent bank-to-bank so they have to be credited upon receipt). Nor can you pay them online (or even view your account, for that matter) via their own website. Archaic payment method options or ingenious revenue-generating scheme? You decide.

Keep an eye on your payments to this company and read the other reports on them!!