Honda Financial Services SCRA: How to File and the 30-Day Response

Honda Financial Services and Acura Financial Services are the same company, American Honda Finance Corporation (AHFC), and both brands file SCRA requests through one route. AHFC’s help-center article, titled “Do you have questions about SCRA benefits?” and dated December 15, 2021, is short: it names lease termination and a rate reduction on retail installment contracts as benefits, tells you what to put in the request, gives three ways to send it, and promises a response from an SCRA Specialist within 30 days (read August 15, 2026). What it does not do is print a rate. The 6% cap does not need Honda to print it.

The article’s date matters. It is dated ten weeks after a federal court entered a consent order requiring AHFC to change its lease termination and SCRA interest rate benefit policies.

On a $26,000 Honda retail contract at 9%, dropping to 6% forgives roughly $780 of interest in the first year, and the statute forgives it rather than deferring it. Check your own figure in the savings calculator.

What AHFC puts on the page, and what it leaves out

Under § 3937, the 6% cap on a pre-service retail contract is mandatory, the excess is forgiven, fees count as interest, and the credit runs from the date of your orders. If you paid a deposit or an installment before entering service, § 3952 also bars AHFC from repossessing the vehicle for a breach without a court order.

The 2021 consent order

On September 29, 2021 the United States filed a complaint against American Honda Finance Corporation in the Central District of California, alleging it failed to refund pre-paid lease amounts, capitalized cost reduction paid from vehicle trade-in value, to servicemembers who lawfully terminated their motor vehicle leases on qualifying military orders. The court entered the consent order on October 6, 2021: $1,585,803.89 to 714 servicemembers, a $64,715 civil penalty, changes to lease termination and SCRA interest rate benefit policies, and employee training. The record sits in the enforcement ledger alongside the other auto-finance cases.

Filing with AHFC

File your SCRA request with Honda or Acura Financial Services

1. Confirm the retail installment contract or lease was signed before your active-duty start date. Pull the account number from a Honda or Acura statement.
2. Write the request the way AHFC asks: your account number, an email address, a contact phone number, and a sentence saying you are requesting relief under the SCRA and which relief (rate reduction, lease termination, or both).
3. Attach your military orders, a certification from your commanding officer, or another document prepared exclusively by a branch of the military or the Department of Defense.
4. Submit it one of three ways: the online form at my.americanhondafinance.com/s/submit-scra-request, fax 1-310-224-7205, or mail to American Honda Finance Corporation, P.O. Box 6070, Cypress, CA 90630-6070, Attn: SCRA Benefits. The letter generator produces a § 3937 letter you can attach to any of the three.
5. Questions before or after filing go to an SCRA Specialist at 1-866-753-4111. Expect the written response within 30 days, and check that it states the rate applied and the date it runs from.
6. If the response is silent on the effective date, or the credit starts at your filing date rather than your orders date, push back in writing. The escalation guide covers the next step.

Where Honda and Acura borrowers get tripped

No rate on the page is not a smaller benefit. AHFC’s article says benefits “may include” a rate reduction and stops there. The statute is not optional: a pre-service Honda or Acura contract above 6% drops to 6%, the excess is forgiven, and the payment falls by the forgiven amount. Get that number in writing, because the page will not give it to you.

Trade-in equity on a lease is refundable money. The 2021 case was about capitalized cost reduction paid with a trade-in. If you end a Honda or Acura lease on PCS or deployment orders, § 3955 requires lease amounts paid in advance to be refunded within 30 days of the termination date, and equity you rolled in at signing counts. Ask for the refund math, not just the release.

“Which relief” is a real question. AHFC asks you to state the particular type of relief you want. A rate cap on a financed Accord and termination of a leased MDX are two separate requests under two statute sections. File both if you have both, and quote each account number.

Thirty days is a long fuse. Keep paying the current amount while the review runs. The forgiven interest is credited back to your orders date once the cap posts, so nothing is lost by paying, and a missed payment is not protected by a pending request.

A loan signed at your first duty station has no federal rate cap. Only a contract that predates active duty gets the § 3937 cap, and a purchase-money auto loan secured by the vehicle is excluded from the Military Lending Act too. The MLA vs SCRA guide explains the gap. AHFC’s SCRA desk is the wrong door for a during-service contract.

See how AHFC’s thin page compares with lenders that print a rate on the bank leaderboard, and if the cap should have applied months ago, the refund guide explains how far back the credit reaches.

The law behind this: 50 U.S.C. § 3937

Maximum rate of interest on debts incurred before military service: read the statute.