Here is a letter that was sent to the Executives at The CIT Group/Consumer Finance, Inc. This is getting to be quite common amoung mortgage companies as a way of generating more income. If you have had a similar experience please let me know.

Dear Sir:

The CIT Group/Consumer Finance Inc holds the mortgage to a property I purchased. The contract states that I must maintain insurance and pay my taxes. In July (2007) I purchased a policy from another insurance company other then the one I had been using and my insurance agent sent CIT the required notice. You contend you did not get it. About 2 months later my agent again sent the notice. Again you contend you did not get it. CIT then placed lender purchased insurance, at three times the cost (CIT owns the insurance company), on the property and charged it to my account. Again the insurance agent sent the required notice.

I have called and called the customer service 800 number but they just tell me to pay the amount for the lender placed insurance. The customer service people will not listen and talk over me when I try to explain. The calls are turning into a shouting match. I try to explain and try to give them the number to my insurance agent for a three-way call. But they just keep on talking and never listen. I have yet to finish a sentence while speaking to them. They are rude, patronizing pompous arrogant demeaning belittling supercilious and snooty. Of more importance is the fact that every time I have called there is no supervisor available to take a call. This means that the front line staff have no direction or leadership. Could this be the reason they dare not offer simple solutions? Could this be the reason they are rude, patronizing pompous arrogant demeaning belittling supercilious and snooty?

There appears to be no one else I can turn to for help. The monthly invoice lists only that one customer service number. I have called many time but the personnel there will not allow me to speak, they just want the money, which I do not owe. Each and every time I have asked for a supervisor, but none is available. What this really amounts to is fraud and deceptive trade practices. It is also a form of extortion: “Pay us for something we are not entitled to or we ruin your credit rating and foreclose on the mortgage”. I have never missed a payment on this loan. My payments have always been on time. However, now that I am refusing to pay for two insurance policies you are tagging my payments as delinquent and adding a late payment fee even though the contracted payment has NEVER been late.

If you are having problems with your internal information systems, then that is your problem. I cannot solve your information systems and personnel problems. If you cannot address your staffing problems then maybe you should not be in the business you are in. As for not receiving the notices from my insurance agent; I cannot go into your company and correct the deficiencies of your system. All I can do is offer your staff the telephone number to my insurance agent.

Until a resolution is reached, I will make my payments to an ‘escrow account’ I have opened at my bank for this purpose. I had hoped to avoid the expense and trouble of going to court, but your customer service has made this impossible. When and if The CIT Group/Consumer Finance Inc decides to foreclose on my property then, we will let a judge and jury decide if The CIT Group/Consumer Finance Inc has the legal right to extort it’s customers into purchasing insurance from its family of companies at three times the price simply by saying we have not received your insurance information EVEN AFTER BEING ADVISED OF THE FACTS AND THE OFFER OF A SURE METHOD OF VERIFICATION. In the mean time I have two policies on this property, the one I purchased and the one CIT placed on it. Hopefully, you will file for foreclosure under some anticipatory breach of contract as soon as possible and we can get this resolved.

As a debt collector you have an obligation to make sure your information is correct. More so since I have complained to your customer service department. I do not know if the actions taken by your staff violate the Fair Debt Collections Practices Act, but rest assured I will find out soon enough. Additionally, you owe me for the insurance payment you took from me under false pretence.

Moreover, and to the point you have not sent me any information regarding the insurance policy. I have no idea who the insurance company is. I have no idea what is covered and what is not. I have no idea what the policy number is. You have not sent me a declaration page. If I should have a need to contact the insurance company, I have no name of the company or telephone number or website or fax number. In other words I am being charged over eleven hundred dollars for WHAT? I have called but customer service cannot give me any information except to say that I need to pay for the policy.

It is my personal belief that because The CIT Group/Consumer Finance Inc. is having financial problems you are trying to force all your customers to purchase insurance from your family of companies at an inflated price. I will not continue to allow CIT to steal from me. I have always made my payments on time and have always kept my insurance up to date. Now because I refuse to pay for two insurance policies you have taken to reporting me as delinquent in my payments, even though I continue to make the payment as agreed AND continue to carry insurance.

Please have your legal department get in touch with me as soon as possible. This issue needs to be cleared up. Customer service may not mean much to you but to your customers it means everything.

Customer service creates the image your customers have of you. Customer service reflects back to the customer the culture of your corporation. Customer service speaks volumes about what you think of your customers.

According to the above, customer service is telling me that I am doing business with an undesirable company. Customer service is telling me that I am doing business with a company that is less than honorable, untrustworthy, dishonest and unprincipled among other things.

Sincerely,

name available upon request