Red Rocks Credit Union will issue auto loan customers more than $300,000 in refunds after failing to property refund guaranteed automobile protection payouts for almost six years, Colorado Attorney General Phil Weiser announced Thursday.

Customers can get guaranteed automobile protection (GAP) from their lenders if they total the car in an accident.

GAP protection covers the amount insurance companies will pay, typically only “fair market value,” and the amount consumers must still pay on those auto loans.

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The lender, according to Colorado law, is supposed to refund borrowers any “unearned GAP payments” if the borrower pays off the loan early, or the car is repossessed before the loan is repaid.

In the settlement, Red Rocks Credit Union officials agreed to pay 1,328 customers $312,268 — with 8% interest — for failing to issue those refunds from October 2014 to July 2020, according to a news release.

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“This settlement reflects our office’s efforts to ensure hardworking consumers are not cheated out of money, even by trusted lending institutions whose business practices must comply with Colorado law,” Weiser said in the release. “Denying a consumer GAP refunds to which they are entitled is unfair and illegal.”

Weiser’s office has secured more than $19 million in GAP refund settlements in recent years, including from Wells Fargo, BBVA USA (formerly Compass Bank), Ent Credit Union, Premier Members Credit Union and Credit Union of Denver.

The release alleges Red Rocks Credit Union officials knew of the ongoing investigations and GAP enforcement actions against those competitors and sought the settlement to “release the credit union from any legal action.”

Red Rocks Credit Union officials did not return a call from The Denver Gazette seeking comment.