Toyota Financial Services and Lexus Financial Services offered payment relief to West Virginia borrowers affected by damaging floods and landslides in late June. Specifically, the captives offered loan extensions and deferred lease payments, redirected bills and statements, and arranged payments for consumers whose home phone lines were damaged, said TFS spokesman Justin Leach.
Extensions on payments range from 30 days to 60 days for disasters requiring FEMA aid, according to hosts of a radio show covering one of the disasters.
The captives have taken similar measures for those impacted by other natural disasters, most recently in March for victims of a landslide in Oso, Wash. “We have roughly 100 people in a loyalty team and we asked them to reach out to each customer with a phone call to determine if any assistance was needed,” said Al Smith, group VP at TFS. As a result of the March 22 landslide, TFS called its roughly 4,900 customers in the area and offered assistance.