If you’ve ever had a car totaled, you know it’s already a nightmare. Now imagine that stress getting worse because the bank holding your loan calls and demands payment for a car that doesn’t exist anymore.
That’s exactly what TikTok creator Nikki (@nikkisfun4all) is dealing with after the credit union holding her totaled BMW loan said she still needed to make her monthly payment before the insurance check came through. According to Motor 1, Nikki talked about a call with a credit union worker who contacted her about a late payment. Her four-seater BMW had been in an accident about a month and a half earlier, and it was totaled. When the credit union called, Nikki thought they were checking on payoff details or processing information.
Instead, the worker was calling about the $700 payment, which Nikki had decided not to make on purpose. She told them she wasn’t paying it because the car was totaled, and the credit union would get their money from the insurance company soon.”I told them two weeks ago that I’m not paying it because it got totaled and they’re gonna get paid,” she said in her video. But the worker replied, “Yeah, we haven’t received your payment.”
This situation shows how companies forget basic human understanding
This is where things get really frustrating for any car owner. Nikki pointed out that their file should show the car’s totaled status. She had called them twice to explain, told another worker who had called her before, and the credit union had already talked with State Farm, the insurer. Nikki was confident that the loan would be paid off by both her insurance and the third-party insurance involved in the accident.
Despite all this, the worker still pushed back. Nikki said the worker told her, “Oh, OK, well it’s totally up to you if you want to [make your payment]. It’s going to negatively affect your credit report, because it’s going to be past due a certain amount of days.”
Nikki’s response to the threat was clear. “I said, ‘Sir, respectfully, it is totaled. Why would I put money on that totaled loan? Go ahead and repo it. I do not care.'” Before the accident, she had been enjoying the BMW X5’s incredibly useful features, but now she was stuck dealing with this payment mess.
She ended her video on TikTok by calling out what she saw as a lack of humanity in the situation, saying, “That’s what’s wrong with corporate America. They can’t see this is a situation where you need to actually be a human and put something in the computer.”
While Nikki’s frustration is totally understandable, especially when dealing with the stress of a wreck, the unfortunate money reality is that the credit union was technically correct, even if they handled the communication poorly. When an insurance company declares a car totaled, the owner is still responsible for the loan payments until the lienholder (the credit union) receives the check for the actual cash value.
You signed a legal contract promising those payments. If you stop paying before the insurance money arrives, the loan goes delinquent, and your credit score takes a hit. The situation mirrors recent controversies about workplace boundaries and employee personal matters, where companies sometimes overstep reasonable limits.
