Close to first payment being due but nothing from lender

[MikeyC]

I bought my M3 on March 21 and financed through Tesla. The loan documents in my glovebox on the Tesla account show the details of the loan but it has no lender or any info on how to remit payment. I called Tesla in Tampa where I bought the car about 2 weeks later and asked: they said I should receive that info by mail within 30 days. I thought, fine, I'll wait. Yesterday being 30 days and the first payment being due May 3, I called Tesla again and they said their finance people weren't there but they'd check into it. They said the lender was TD Auto Finance. I looked up TD Auto Finance online and read the reviews and now I'm really worried! Just about all 1 star reviews with many people claiming they bait you into being late for payments and then charge a late fee. I thought I'd be safe financing through a big company like Tesla but now I'm thinking, "Who am I dealing with here"?

Has anyone else run into this? If Tesla doesn't get back to me, I'll call back in a couple days but I thought about maybe calling TD Auto Finance directly but I'm worried that will screw something up. Most of the reviews say they are almost impossible to get ahold of anyway.

Why do they make it difficult to give them money? Also, Tesla picked the lender to which I had no choice: you'd think Tesla would have a working relationship with their lenders and could at least put account/payment info in your glovebox of your Tesla account so in the event of a physical mail problem, you could still pay your payments. Tesla acts like it's a third party and they've washed their hands of it.

Any advice?

Thanks,
Mike

 

[CapitalTM3]

Have you actually attempt to contact TD Auto Finance yet?

 

[Amped412]

I bought my M3 on March 21 and financed through Tesla. The loan documents in my glovebox on the Tesla account show the details of the loan but it has no lender or any info on how to remit payment. I called Tesla in Tampa where I bought the car about 2 weeks later and asked: they said I should receive that info by mail within 30 days. I thought, fine, I'll wait. Yesterday being 30 days and the first payment being due May 3, I called Tesla again and they said their finance people weren't there but they'd check into it. They said the lender was TD Auto Finance. I looked up TD Auto Finance online and read the reviews and now I'm really worried! Just about all 1 star reviews with many people claiming they bait you into being late for payments and then charge a late fee. I thought I'd be safe financing through a big company like Tesla but now I'm thinking, "Who am I dealing with here"?

Has anyone else run into this? If Tesla doesn't get back to me, I'll call back in a couple days but I thought about maybe calling TD Auto Finance directly but I'm worried that will screw something up. Most of the reviews say they are almost impossible to get ahold of anyway.

Why do they make it difficult to give them money? Also, Tesla picked the lender to which I had no choice: you'd think Tesla would have a working relationship with their lenders and could at least put account/payment info in your glovebox of your Tesla account so in the event of a physical mail problem, you could still pay your payments. Tesla acts like it's a third party and they've washed their hands of it.

Any advice?

Thanks,
Mike

It is a third party bank. Tesla doesn't have a finance bank. You need to contact the bank that loaned you the money to arrange payments with them. When you sign up for "Tesla financing" it's just Tesla matching you with their preferred partner banks. It's not actually Tesla lending you the money.

 

[MikeyC]

Have you actually attempt to contact TD Auto Finance yet?

No. I was tempted to after Tesla told me they were the lender yesterday but at this point, I'm worried that contacting them directly might throw a wrench in the works somehow so I thought it might be better to let Tesla check into it as they said they would: maybe they have some "official" way to deal with these.

Mike

 

[J_Nixon]

No. I was tempted to after Tesla told me they were the lender yesterday but at this point, I'm worried that contacting them directly might throw a wrench in the works somehow so I thought it might be better to let Tesla check into it as they said they would: maybe they have some "official" way to deal with these.

Mike

Tesla has the money from the lender, it is totally out of their court and they have little incentive to help you. The best advice is to contact TD Auto Finance directly. If you have a loan/account number, which you should have gotten with the loan documents which were left in the glove box, you can likely remit payment over the phone with the lender.

 

[JVINFL]

Have a car loan with TD Auto Finance. They are a bit slow. If I remember correctly, it was about 2 weeks before my payment was due that I received stuff in the mail.

 

[MikeyC]

Thank you to those who encouraged me to contact TD Auto Finance. I went to their website and was able to register my account and make the first payment. FYI, the loan papers from Tesla (in my account glovebox) make no mention of the lender or account number. I guess maybe that gets "assigned" after the loan paperwork because I had to call Tesla to get just the lender name. I understand Tesla works with various lenders to get rate quotes, etc. and that I deal with the lender. It's just that I've bought a lot of cars and this is the first time I've had an issue just getting info on who the lender is and how to make a payment. Anyway, I was able to take care of it in the end.

Mike

 

[TheRFMan]

That's interesting; I'm nowhere near receiving my car, but my Tesla account indicated the lender that provided the approval, as well as term, rate and payment.

 

[MikeyC]

That's interesting; I'm nowhere near receiving my car, but my Tesla account indicated the lender that provided the approval, as well as term, rate and payment.

That might have been part of my problem. Once I decided on the Model 3, I looked online, called Tesla, had the deal done and picked up the car the same day as they had it in inventory.

Mike