Alaskans with Credit Acceptance car loans may get debt cancelled under a $709.5 million settlement

Alaskans who financed a car through Credit Acceptance Corporation in the last decade may find the balance wiped out, or a check in the mail. Alaska joined a $709.5 million settlement with the subprime lender on Thursday.

The company will cancel $634 million in loan debt and pay $60 million in cash. It also has to stop reporting the affected accounts to credit bureaus, ask those bureaus to delete the entries entirely, and release liens on the titles it still holds. Borrowers due debt relief will hear from the company; those due cash will hear from a claims administrator.

Eligibility turns on the company's own numbers. The relief covers loans the company scored below 56 when it made them, where the monthly payment came to at least 13 percent of the borrower's income, originated between November 2015 and November 2025. The debt cancellation splits in two: $388 million written off for people whose cars had already been repossessed, and $246 million for those who still have theirs.

That score is what the case is about. The states allege Credit Acceptance rated each loan by how much of it the company expected to collect, then made low-scoring loans anyway, including loans where it predicted the borrower would never repay the principal. The settlement also covers allegations that dealers rolled service contracts and gap insurance into the financed amount.

"This settlement gets relief directly back to the folks who were harmed," Acting Attorney General Cori Mills said.

How much relief comes to Alaska is not something Alaska knows. The state's release gives no figure for Alaskans. Oregon published its numbers: $548,431 in debt relief for 58 residents, $96,142 in restitution for 67 more. Colorado reported $678,736 for nearly 500 people. Alaska collects about $106,650 from the $15.5 million the lender pays participating attorneys general, and has no say in how the relief is divided or who administers it. A seven-state executive committee decides that. Alaska's name appears once in the consent judgment, on the roster of participating states.

The company denies wrongdoing. Entering the agreement, the consent order says, "makes no admission of wrongdoing or liability." The settlement takes effect Nov. 2, with most of the money due within 90 days.