Question regarding setting up electronic payments

Factual Questions
1

Somewhat convoluted background facts:

Just after the New Year, kaylasmom and I spent the afternoon and evening at a car dealership getting a Prius. All in all (time consumption aside), it was a quite satisfactory experience.

A couple of weeks ago, I got my first bill in the mail. Nothing unexpected, but I wanted to set up an account so I could make my monthly payments online. I went to the website for Toyota Financial services and began my registration process. Put in the account number, the last four of my SSN, my login id, password, security questions, all the usual stuff, and hit “submit.”

The page returned an error message:

We were unable to locate this account. Please check the accuracy of the information.

Huh. Well, I checked it for accuracy, and re-entered everything just to be safe. Submit.

We were unable to locate this account. Please check the accuracy of the information.

Well, this isn’t good. I called the customer service number provided; when I finally got to a live rep, she investigated and told me that the last four of my SSN had been entered with an incorrect digit (a “4” had been keyed in as a “9”).

I faxed over a copy of my Social Security card as proof that my SSN was what I said it was, and she told me she would submit a request for a change to the SSN associated with that account.

I waited six days, and today again attempted to register for online payments. I still get:

We were unable to locate this account. Please check the accuracy of the information.

So I called customer service AGAIN. It seems that the rep I spoke to had annotated my file (good), and had received my fax (also good) but the request for changing the SSN on the account was still lacking the copy of my Social Security card necessary for establishing a basis for authorizing the change (bad). Fortunately, she still had a copy of my fax, and re-sent it to the documents department. Faced with another couple of business days before I can set up online payments, I made my first payment over the phone to my CSR.

I still have knowledge of the incorrect digit that was keyed in with my document packet, btw. My question is:

If I let my impatience get the better of me, and resubmit the registration WITH THE INCORRECT DIGIT THAT THE SITE APPEARS TO WANT, is it likely to screw up efforts to get my documentation squared away? Is it likely to screw up efforts to complete a registration at all?

2

Hard to say specifically, but in general doubling down on a mistake is a bad practice.

I wonder why you are creating this account in the first place. Are you setting up a mechanism for Toyota to suck money out of your checking account every month? If so IMO that’s a poor idea.

While I have no fears about Toyota’s underlying honesty, I am much more comfortable having my bank’s e-payment system send a vendor money than I am with allowing the vendor to suck money out directly. All the consumer protection legislation works in your favor when your bank sends. Substantially none of it does once you authorize <whoever> to suck money from your account.

YMMV.

3

I agree with LSLGuy. Why don’t you just set up a recurring payment with your bank’s online payment system, that you have control of, vs. creating a draw on the account with the finance company, that you don’t have control of or apparently much influence with as evidenced by your situation?

4

We bought a new vehicle from the dealer in September. Our credit rating said we could finance the entire sale at zero interest, no fees and no penalties (in effect, a free loan). Since we could have purchased the vehicle outright, we took a partial loan and I kept the rest of the cash to make money in my own account. I was never asked for proof of my SSN during the loan application process. I just gave them the number. When it came time to set up the monthly payment system, we did it at home with our bank (unrelated to the loan). For us it’s a simple bill payment that we must authorize monthly, just like a utility bill.

Sounds like your dealer hasn’t entered the 21st century yet.

5

Actually, lots of companies much prefer that they pull the money from your account vice trusting you to send it to them every month. The Toyota way is very much 21st century. All the risk is on the consumer and very little is on the corp.

6

Be aware that when you give a company permission to electronically take money from your account, you often give them permission to take any amount at any time. Rarely, if ever, does the agreement say “We can draft X dollars from your account on Y day each month”. The agreements usually read something like “We can debit your account for the amount due”. I wholeheartedly second the suggestion that you skip their process entirely and set it up through bill pay with your bank.

7

Indeed. Especially since this is a finance agency that has already demonstrated (A) inability to accurately transcribe information into an account, and (B) broken internal document flows for correction of account information. With all that, I’m not sure I’d trust them with “take whatever you think you’re supposed to take, whenever you think you’re supposed to take something.” :confused:

8

For just this reason we set up two checking accounts – one for auto deposit/auto payments and one for other activities. It’s my understanding that you can’t give an organization access to your bank account for making deposits without also giving access for withdrawals.

People think we’re paranoid by doing this, but we are limiting the amount any organization can suck up by “accident.” One of Mr. Middon’s former employers got into financial difficulties and couldn’t make payroll a few times. I don’t think they reversed any pay they’d paid out, but we were relieved that if they had tried they likely wouldn’t have gotten a whole month’s worth. These were after all the same people who deducted 401k money with every paycheck and deposited it into employees’ accounts months later.

9

https://www.consumer.ftc.gov/articles/0196-automatic-debit-scams

10

That’s all true. But you only need to give a one-time authorization for any and all future transactions. Which authorization *de facto *applies to correct as well as erroneous transactions.

It’s a simple equation: When something goes wrong, would you rather they have your money or you have their money? In a game where they have 99% of the leverage I’d much rather that I hold the money during any dispute.

YMMV.

11

To expand a bit on what LSLGuy said, that law only applies to one time payments over the phone, as in the case where you are buying something from a telemarketer. It does not apply to recurring payment authorizations. As one who spent many years in banking, I could tell you stories that would curl your hair…

12

I concede that there are risks when allowing them to take the money from my bank. But most such companies will do it for free. In contrast, if I ask my bank to give them the money, my bank charges me several dollars for that.

So, one way of looking at this is to compare a possibility of losing a lot, vs definitely paying a fee many times.

13

Right, pretty much everything comes down to a cost/benefit analysis. Chances are you’ll be fine, but it’s healthy to acknowledge the risk.

I mean, what car dealer would cheat a customer? :smiley:

14

If you have two checking accounts make sure they are with different banks.

We bank with Wells Fargo Bank. My wife worked in the office of a school. The class had a account at Wells Fargo Bank. Because my wife paid for some of the class expenses she was one of the signers on the account. A check from one of the parents bounced causing an overdraft. Wells Fargo took the money from our joint account to pay for the overdraft. There were some very ugly words with Wells Fargo over the phone. The would not let me correct the problem because ZI was not a signer on the class account, I had to put my wife on the phone. They were given the decision to correct the problem now or we would go to the bank to close all our accounts the next day. They were to note though my wife was a signer on both accounts, the accounts were to be never connected again and send us a letter stating that they made a mistake and it would not happen again.

Depending on you bank if one account is short they may take money from the other account, negating your safety.

15

If you are banking with a bank that charges several dollars per e-banking transaction you’re doing it wrong.

Completely free is the more usual price IME.

Certainly that bank may have other offsetting advantages you value. YMMV.

16

Certainly if you can do them for free, you’re paying for them in other ways. If what you want is all those other things you’re getting by having to pay for initiating transfers, then you’ll go with the bank that charges you for it. If you don’t want those other things and want free online transfers, then go with the bank that offers them.

17

I concur that customer-initiated electronic payments is by far the preferred way to do it, and it’s often surprising how many obscure places can be registered as online payment accounts.

That said, there are situations where authorized withdrawals are either necessary or sometimes a good idea, but those are special cases. Banks may insist on it for credit lines, for instance, and it may be handy for home and auto insurance payments that fluctuate. But generally I concur with the posters who want to retain control of when and how they make their payments.

18

Why not use your banks online banking and issue a payment to toyota every month, where you have the power to change postpone or even stop said payment, rather than let toyota have access to auto dip into your stuff?

I never let anyone auto pull money from my account.
I will auto shove a payment at them, but i wont let them auto withdraw

19

Respectfully, if your bank is charging you to make a online bill payment you need to change banks. Charging for a bill payment is absurd in today’s banking environment.