[l008com]

I know some people are totally anti-lease, which seems silly to me. I've leased many vehicles over the years, and it's just like buying in that... if you get a good deal, it's a good deal. And if you get a shit deal, it's a shit deal. I leased my 2013 Camaro for 3 years and it was a great deal.

.... well until it ended, and I've been dealing with USBank. Apparenlty they outsource everything, so no one can ever help you. I called them every day to get the proper paperwork faxed over to me so that I could cancel the insurance on my Camaro and transfer the plates to another car. Keep in mind I had already turned in the car. I called every day, and every day I got a different story. "we already faxed it", "we'll be faxing it tomorrow" "I have no record of this". Three different phone calls, three different days, I had given them my fax number. Yet every time I called, they had no record of my fax number. The way I finally got the document was to complain on their facebook page, then I got "special attention" and they were miraculously able to email me the document I needed right away.

You shouldn't have to complain on a facebook page just to get someone to actually help you.

So I thought the fun was over. As I said, i've leased many cars over the years and never had any issues with charges after the lease was over. I'm not particularly hard on my cars, so they're in good shape. But I just got a "leasecheck" report in the mail. They're reporting these hair-sized scratches that you could buff out by accidentally brushing your need against the car. They are saying there was a chip in the windsheild which there was not when I dropped it off. Of course, if there were, my insurance would have repaired it for free. But now the insurance is over so now I'm stuck fighting them. But it gets better. I needed an oil change. But I didn't get it since every single dealership that buys a car, automatically does an oil change. The oil I would have put in would have been discarded after about 200 miles at best. It's pointless. And there is no more "normal" wear and tear, than USING oil. So theres a $150 charge for the oil change message being on in the DIC. I kid you not.
Now this report is not the final bill, but from what I've read online, I expect to have these charges on it and more. Turns out USBank charges a $395 fee to end your lease. That's such bullshit. They also have an excise tax bill from my town that is for the full year. But I only had the car from Jan to Feb then I turned it in. They were supposed to send me a copy of the bill so I could take it to the town hall and get it corrected. Several people, on several phone calls, on different days, told me sure no problem... weeks later, still no sign of that.

Oh wait there's more. My leased ended on Feb 20th. So I went to the dealership and apparently USBank is closed on Saturdays and their website was also down. So I couldn't turn the car in until the following Monday.

So based on all this, plus what I read online, I'm probably going to end up getting a final bill from USBank for the following:

A $395 "congrats your lease is over" fee
Something like $160 for 12 months of excise tax.
$100 for a magic chip in the windshield.
$150 because the car needs an oil change.
Possibly one extra $327 monthly payment because I wasn't able to turn the car in by the due date.



So here's what I'm going to do:
Once they amend the excise tax, i'm going to pay that, as that is fully legit.
The $395 fee is VERY borderline. It is in the contract, but it is absolutely a shady fee, it's literally a fee for nothing that they hide at the end of the lease.
But all the rest is pure junk.
The mileage overage rate is 25¢ per mile. I am about 12,000 miles UNDER the 30,000 mile limit. I don't drive that much, have another vehicle, and 10,000 miles per year is the lowest they'll give you. So that's $3000. If my actual bill has these scammy charges on it, I'm going to send them a bill for the $3000 minus the charges they are trying to bill me for.

Will they pay me? Obviously not. And maybe this lease report is not final, and maybe they look at the mileage and call it even. Maybe they won't screw me over at all. But what i've read online from lots of other people with USBank leases, does not give me confidence. And lucky me, I have near perfect credit, so I can drag this shit on forever, and if I take a tiny ding in my credit score for it, that won't bother me in the slightest.

But I can assure you of this, I will never do another USBank lease again! And I'm kind of pissed at the dealership for setting me up through USBank instead of GMAC.

I will of course update when/if I get a final bill.

[Gregss1le]

They should buy back any unused miles.

[Mr. Stacy]

Send an invoice to their accounts payable dept. They'll probably pay it.

But the time to find out about this stuff is at lease inception. Make sure there are no "surprises" at lease end. I cannot stress this enough. You could get royally screwed if you are not careful. If you lease through Chevrolet or Ford, Lincoln etc, you are generally ok and "walk away'.

But as you are finding out, US or whatever Acme Bank lease deals there are, read everything...before signing.

[GetYouOne]

I just leased a Cruze through GM Financial for $58 a month I know their is a $395 fee at the end.

[eankar]

The lease disposition fee is pretty standard, not just with USBank. I used them to lease a Buick a few years ago and it was in the contract clearly that it would be due when the car was turned in, so it was no surprise. I think part of it goes to the dealership that you turn the car in to to cover their processing and handling costs.

[pyroguy]

You just learned the hard lesson of leasing a vehicle being the MOST expensive way to "own" a car. Good luck man.

[URBAN LEGEND]

Originally Posted by pyroguy

You just learned the hard lesson of leasing a vehicle being the MOST expensive way to "own" a car. Good luck man.

How many vehicles have you leased?

[pyroguy]

Originally Posted by URBAN LEGEND

How many vehicles have you leased?

Zero for a few reasons:
1) I don't buy new. Why take the depreciation hit? 2-3 year old vehicles are still typically in great shape, especially if you find a garage queen.
2) Leasing a vehicle IS the most expensive way to own a vehicle. Not just because I think so, but because all of the top money magazines and professionals agree with that statement. You end up paying a lot of money with nothing to show for it at the end of a lease.
3) If you own a car instead of leasing, you don't have to worry about getting a refund on unused miles, paying "damage fees", over priced oil changes, or whatever else they want to throw at you when you trade in your vehicle.

Say what you will, leasing allows the most profit on a vehicle sale for a dealership and the least amount of buyer's power. It's like extended warranties, 50-60% of the cost is commission. Only about 12-15% of the cost of the warranty is for estimated repair costs based on an algorithm of how much all of the reported repairs for the car are.

[CamaroSS426]

so was this a great deal or a shit deal, im still not sure...

[SteelCamaro]

I hate some of the cracker jack banks that have "deals" with these dealerships. Shouldn't they know that this is only hurting their business in the end?

[SteelCamaro]

Originally Posted by pyroguy

It's like extended warranties, 50-60% of the cost is commission. Only about 12-15% of the cost of the warranty is for estimated repair costs based on an algorithm of how much all of the reported repairs for the car are.

Unless you own an Aston Martin.

[URBAN LEGEND]

Originally Posted by pyroguy

Zero for a few reasons:
1) I don't buy new. Why take the depreciation hit? 2-3 year old vehicles are still typically in great shape, especially if you find a garage queen.
2) Leasing a vehicle IS the most expensive way to own a vehicle. Not just because I think so, but because all of the top money magazines and professionals agree with that statement. You end up paying a lot of money with nothing to show for it at the end of a lease.
3) If you own a car instead of leasing, you don't have to worry about getting a refund on unused miles, paying "damage fees", over priced oil changes, or whatever else they want to throw at you when you trade in your vehicle.

Say what you will, leasing allows the most profit on a vehicle sale for a dealership and the least amount of buyer's power. It's like extended warranties, 50-60% of the cost is commission. Only about 12-15% of the cost of the warranty is for estimated repair costs based on an algorithm of how much all of the reported repairs for the car are.

Agreed. Fully. That's after I read your signature. Rolling on a 2010...

[l008com]

I strongly disagree that this is a discretionary tale against leasing, and assert that this is only a discretionary tale against leasing through USBank. I could go on and on about the reasons leasing works out great for me. But I wouldn't convince you, and you won't convince me.

All I will say, is that I only want to own things that go up in value, and I only want to pay for use for things that go down in value.

[jshaf]

Had USbank back in 2004 for a lease on a 3.5 Nissan altima, lost my job right after leasing it, blew through my savings figuring I would land a job sooner than later, well I didn't land a job for something like 11 months. had to turn the car in losing all my savings to them, they had no remorse for me, I felt bad about turning it in, in hind sight I wish I would have turned it in immediately and kept my savings. those pricks raked me over the coals, harassed me for years. destroyed my credit. whenever I Purchase a car now I make sure I don't do business with USbank. Dirty SOB's IMO. My credit is now in the 800's and it took a decade for me to rehabilitate it over one dirty company and absolutely no compassion!