Who is Ally Financial, Inc?
The Ally Financial phone number 888-611-6904 is associated with the following entity: Ally Financial, Inc.
Company type: First-party original creditor (not a debt collection agency or debt buyer)
Industry: Automotive finance, consumer banking, insurance, and corporate finance
Headquarters: 500 Woodward Avenue, Detroit, Michigan
Company size: Publicly traded financial holding company with $191.8 billion in total assets and 10,700 employees
Founded: 1919 (as General Motors Acceptance Corporation, or GMAC). Renamed Ally Financial in 2010.
Services: Ally operates across all 50 U.S. states, with Ally Bank and Ally Auto Finance divisions that serve 11 million customers.
Better Business Bureau (BBB) rating: A- (not accredited), with 2,935 complaints filed in the last 3 years.
95 federal lawsuits alleging Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA) violations
At least 95 federal lawsuits have been filed against Ally Financial under the TCPA, alleging the company used an automated telephone dialing system (robodialer) to call people without their prior consent, called after revoking consent, or called the wrong numbers repeatedly.
One lawsuit filed in Michigan says the plaintiff received hundreds of calls to her cellphone from Ally regarding the same debt. Another suit filed in Florida claims a consumer received approximately 500 non-emergency calls over 4 years from Ally regarding a paid balance.
On the RoboKiller complaint-filing platform alone, users have reported 495,910 calls from 888-611-6904, with 3,830 negative reviews.
Why is Ally Financial calling me?
Ally Financial might be calling you because you have an outstanding loan or account balance owed to them. Ally is a first-party creditor, meaning they originated the credit product (probably a car loan) and are now collecting on it directly. Ally is a large auto lender that works with 22,000 dealerships across the country, so there’s a good chance they were the ones who financed your car loan if you purchased a vehicle through a dealership.
These calls can start as soon as you miss a payment. “My payment was due YESTERDAY!” wrote one CallerCenter user. “I am not behind on my account. ALLY WILL HARRASS YOU THE DAY AFTER YOUR DUE DATE.”
Or, Ally might be calling you by mistake
If you’ve inherited a recycled phone number, or you share a common name with someone who has an Ally account, these calls can haunt you. “Asking for someone who is not there,” wrote an 800notes user. “I continually tell them to take me off their list. They keep saying they will and keep calling me back. This is bordering on harassment.”
In situations like these, the onus is on you to get your number removed from Ally’s system, but the process is needlessly difficult. Multiple users have reported that, in order to remove a phone number from Ally’s system, you need to provide either an account number or Social Security number. If you’re not actually the person who owes money to Ally, you don’t have access to either of those things, which means the calls may just keep coming.
How do I get Ally Financial to stop calling me?
Step 1: Request your credit reports from all 3 bureaus (Experian, Transunion, Equifax)
Knowledge is power. Before you do anything else, pull your credit reports to see what exactly Ally Financial is claiming you owe them, when the account was opened, and whether they’ve already reported you as delinquent to the credit reporting agencies.
You can access all 3 of your credit reports for free on the website AnnualCreditReport.com.
Do not skip this step. Your credit reports will tell you exactly what you’re up against. Inaccurate information on your credit reports can be used as leverage to get the calls to stop and the account removed, so look carefully for any errors or inaccuracies. Account balance too high? Payment history not showing up? Account not even yours? All of these things can be disputed in order to get the negative marks removed from your report altogether.
Step 2: Understand your federal rights under the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) and Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA)
The FCRA says you have the right to dispute any item on your credit report you believe is inaccurate, incomplete, or unverifiable. When you dispute the item, the credit reporting agency has 30 days to investigate and verify the information. If the company that made the report (called the “furnisher”) cannot verify the information, the agency must delete it.
The catch: companies like Ally Financial can’t or won’t verify accounts in response to consumer disputes, because they don’t retain all of the documentation for every account. If you dispute the account, the likeliest outcome is that it will be deleted.
The TCPA says you may have additional recourse if Ally is robocalling your cell phone without your prior consent. (One Nomorobo user reported recording an automated message from Ally that said, “We do not have an agent available at this time. We will call you back.”)
If Ally has hired a third-party debt collection agency or sold the debt to a junk debt buyer, those entities are also bound by the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (FDCPA), which prohibits abusive, deceptive and unfair collection practices.
Step 3: Dispute the account with the credit reporting agencies and force Ally to respond
Don’t call the collection agency and throw yourself at their mercy. Instead, dispute the account with the credit reporting agencies, which forces the furnisher (Ally) to respond. If the debt collector is willing to settle for less than you owe, that’s a sign that the debt collector doesn’t have complete records for the account. Why settle for less money and still have a negative account on your report when you can have the whole thing deleted?
When you need to dispute accounts on your credit report, consider working with a reputable consumer advocacy firm like ours. Companies like ours know how to word your dispute for the best results, and how to follow up in the right way and the right amount of time if your dispute is ignored.
Submitting a credit report dispute on your own is possible, but the language you use and the documentation you include (or don’t) can have unintended consequences, including confirming the account if you’re not careful.
Step 4: Keep a paper trail and protect your personal data
Log the calls when they come in
Keep a log of the dates and times you receive calls from 888-611-6904. Jot down what happened — whether someone spoke with you or if it was a dead-air call — and any pertinent details about the conversation.
Users on the website WhoCallsMe reported that Ally customer service representatives often work in offshore call centers and hang up the phone when you press them for their names and identifying information. “It is not GMAC, this company is located in the Philippines so the operator said and once I started questioning her, she hung up on me,” wrote one 800notes user.
Never give your Social Security number over the phone
Ally customer service reps have asked for people’s full Social Security numbers over the phone, according to reports filed with YouMail. “Ally Financial asked for my full Social Security number to discuss my account,” one user wrote. “I hung up. Major scam.”
You don’t need to give anyone your Social Security number over the phone in order to make collection calls stop. Don’t do it, no matter who’s calling or what they say. There’s no reason a first-party creditor needs you to give them your full Social Security number over the phone if they already have your account information on file.
Conclusion
Ready to stop the calls from 888-611-6904? Ally Financial doesn’t have to push you around and dictate the terms of your financial relationship. The calls may have brought you to this place, but you don’t have to let them get the best of you.
Instead, pull your credit reports, look for errors or inaccuracies, understand your rights under the FCRA and TCPA, and file disputes that force the furnisher to respond.
At FightCollections.com, we specialize in exactly this kind of advocacy work. We help consumers push back against debt collectors and original creditors who are reporting bad information on their credit reports. When the information can’t be verified, it gets deleted. That’s the outcome you’re looking for.
Let us help. Visit FightCollections.com today to connect with an expert who can review your credit reports, evaluate what Ally Financial is telling the credit reporting agencies about you, and devise a customized plan to dispute it and make it disappear.