Consumer complaint received 2018-01-14
Company: SANTANDER BANK, NATIONAL ASSOCIATION
State: NJ
Product: Payday loan, title loan, or personal loan
Sub-product: Personal line of credit
Issue: Charged fees or interest you didn't expect

Complaint:
Hi, I will make it very short, and that's an attorney this will be my final and first attempt to make things right and corrected should things sale and not be corrected I will have no other choice but take full legal action in federal court because I can not tolerate being the victim of the financial shenanigans. 

On XX/XX/XXXX I gave a check to somebody for {$3400.00} and Santander which I had a {$25000.00} line of credit with since XXXX paid the check twice. In other words the recipient deposited a check once and my line of credit from Santander paid it twice. 

As soon as I realize that I called in several times and I was promised everything will be taken care of. Of course so I would have the time and energy I will go into detail and mentioned every single phone call how I was placed on hold for hours and transfer to a million departments and was promised call backs which never happens and I have all that recorded however, I do not know if I can use those recordings therefore I am not using it and I will just have to put down my complaint the way I can best put it down in the most simplest plain English. 

So after I called in hundreds of times and I was promised it will take care of I was happy and I figured it's being taken care of. Then I went and XXXX continue using my line of credit and I even did a transaction on XX/XX/XXXX for {$11000.00} and it went through, I'll tell you before why I'm mentioning this transaction. Then on XXXX to I went to banking center with a check and I want to make it clear all my payments from the day I open my account was made in a banking center with a check and that is every single payments again every single payments. And I made a payment for {$23000.00} and the little bit more than that have to don't remember the exact amount what I do remember is that my payment amount was more than my total balance it came out that I overpaid by {$20.00}. 

During all these years when I have my line of credit and I paid it off in full in a branch I never even knew there's an option nor was I ever ask what I want it was very simple, I went to the teller and I made a payment and it was paid in full and then when I use my line of credit again I paid it again in full. 

It comes out to be based on the payments I made when I paid it off in full on XX/XX/XXXX that there actually is an option when you make a payment to ask the teller to apply it towards interest only or towards principal only. I never knew about that nor did not even inquire about it I just went in I asked what my full balance is and because my check was already written before and it was an overpayment I told them to just leave it as a credit on my account. 

After that I got in the mail every month or statement and my statement said that I have a {$25000.00} line of credit and I have an available credit of {$25000.00} and I have copies of all my statement so I can show it and it's very well understood I understand that I might be wrong, and I do understand that sometimes I will use all their jargons from their terms and conditions to prove me wrong however I believe that's why the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau was established.. However, when I saw that I have a lot of credit of {$25000.00} and I have available {$25000.00} and I knew clearly I have an overpayment and I had that in mind that if I ever use and when I use my line of credit again I will have a credit balance of {$20.00}. 

After as I mentioned before hundreds of phone calls and the problem with my duplicate check was not resolved, I had a lot of unfortunate life events that came up for one my XXXX XXXX XXXX and then I had a lot of other incidents that came up and I was not capable and able to be calling sometime there everyday begging them for something which they clearly proved they are unable to help me with it because if I am promised to call back I read a hundred times and they never called me back what else is there that can be done? 

However, on XX/XX/XXXX which was a few days after I wrote out a check to company for {$21000.00} I was notified by the Company that the check was returned, and they gave me a copy from their bank which indicated account Frozen. 

I do have to admit I am XXXX and for 13 years I am currently on 5 XXXX XXXX  and I am also on medication for XXXX I am on XXXX for XXXX I have been through XXXX for XXXX XXXX two times in the past year. Because I am XXXXr and I have terrible XXXX XXXX I am not XXXX meaning I will not be calling it back every 5 minutes like other people do until they get what they want and quite frankly if I would and if I will call every 5 minutes sometime there they will give in. However it comes to a point when my tolerance reaches about everything and I literally can not longer tolerate it anymore. 

When I was informed that a {$21000.00} check was returned from the company I gave the check to and the reason it was returned was because my account was frozen I was literally hurt and betrayed because Santander has never ever ever notified me that there's something with my account meaning that they've Frozen or anything. I would like to make it clear Santander has never ever notified me that there is an issue with my account nor did they notify me that my account is frozen nor did they notify me that it's blocked nor did they notify me of any issue. In fact I have a secret from you on the recorded phone calls which I called in on XX/XX/XXXX and I was asking XXXX phone call why it is that it's already 5 days that I am being promised everyday a call back and nobody is calling me? The representative put me on hold for an hour as usual then she came back on the phone and she told me that the department that can help me is currently closed. I asked the representative would you kindly tell me when this happened that my account got frozen and blocked? She responded one minute and then she came back to me and she told me XX/XX/XXXX. I did not say anything I hung up and I was literally in pain I can not begin to describe the pain you have from being lied to and your face and being betrayed to being taking advantage of the financial Shenanigans and to be taken advantage of these Financial corporations that have luded the corporate Treasury I created the United States to be in enormous amount of debt which can never be repaid. And the reason I was hurt is because as I mentioned before XX/XX/XXXX I did a transaction for {$11000.00} and it went through and the representative a minute ago on the phone told me that my account got closing XX/XX/XXXX. 

I will make a detailed list of all the problems with my account and I will leave it up as my final attempt for some time there to make it good show they fail to make it good I will go to small claims court and I will sue them for every single thing they did to me and I will end up firing my attorney XXXX XXXX XXXX from XXXX New York which of the criminal defense attorney was a track record of 38 years of not losing the taste kindly you look up my name the New York court records and you will see I have never lost a single case. 

1. Santander did not honor my {$21000.00} check which has caused me Financial damage and I have now this company running after me for bouncing a check on them which they are accusing me of the crime plus damages and they are giving me another 5 days to make good on it. And Santander failed or should you want to call it did not and still did not call me or notify me not in any form of communication that something is wrong with my account and my account is perhaps or indeed closed or frozen or blocked or whatever it is that it is which I at the moment do not even know. Simply because there is no one in Santander that will have the audacity to return my phone call and I can see why because they have nothing to lose but not with me. 

2. Santander charge me on my statement of XXXX and XXXX is {$50.00} annual see which is fraud they simply did it in order to make or gain an additional {$50.00} on speculation that I will not realize it and I have no doubt that did it hundreds or even thousands I'm all their consumers because this is what the financial industry is good at. No further explanation is needed as you can see everyday and alert from the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau that another financial institution was find with millions and millions of dollars. 

Furthermore, and this is my third complaint. When I signed up in the branch from a long line of credit I also have a personal account and they told me if I said off that my payment should be automatically deducted from my personal account my rate which is my interest rate will be lowered and I agree to that. However Santander 2 years ago without telling me without notifying me without any form of communication told me that there's anything wrong with my account. 
It was on a nice sunny day that I have realized my debit card is not working, I called and sometimes they're asking why and they have told me my account is frozen I have asked them why and they told me they have to transfer me and they have to call me back and I have to go back and after I realized that the Financial games off calling back a million times and being promised to call back is beginning I immediately decided I will not eat myself off and go through aggravation I will leave whatever money I have left in the account which is {$99.00} and I will allow it to be Frozen and I immediately went to a different financial institution and opened an account and I'm very happy with them and so far no complaints and I decided to leave my Santander personal account Frozen and let them steal my hard-earned money which is still in bad Frozen account. 
As a consequence of Santander freezing my personal account by themselves again I did not freeze it today did the consequence was that every month from that date I was charged on my statement of {$35.00} fee which on the state and said return payments although I never ever missed a payment how much every month I went into a financial institution with a check and I paid my balance and with all that said they still had the audacity to the flawed me the {$35.00} fee and I was not able to call or complain about it because I knew I will waste my time and breath and it's not in the best interest of my health to call and get aggravated when I have realized who I am dealing with. 

4. I was promised a better interest rate when I agreed that they will deduct my payments for my personal account, however after they froze my account which day did on purpose in order for the payments and not to go through of course my interest rate went up and I paid over {$2000.00} in interest in XXXX, and I believe I paid almost the same amount of interest in XXXX. This is by all means fraud stealing deceiving and taking advantage of the Innocents consumer which they knew I have no words no say no one to talk to and I do not have the money to hire a criminal attorney which although now I do have the money to do it due to people that I have involved and they feel bad for me, and there is a group of advocates in my community which lay out money for people enabling them to hire the best attorneys which with no doubt not only when every case but walk out with huge checks which is then deducted from the retainer and that is exactly what I will do should this complain not be resolved in the best way possible in fact better than I can imagine. So this step number for is my complaint about my interest rates with Spike because they without telling me without notifying me to sign it to close my personal account or to be exact to freeze it and the new very well what they doing. 

5. I called again and again and of course I have no doubt I can bet trillion dollars sometimes you will never admit it however I have a XXXX XXXX XXXX and I do not know why but the phone came by the default with a feature which records every single phone call. I have tried several times to disable it because it consumes a lot of memory and my phone slows down. I do not know if I can use these recorded phone calls should the law enforcement agencies allow me I will definitely use it to prove that I called Santander everyday I did not miss one day besides the weekend. I called every day informed them that they need to make Goods on my situation. 
I don't know how but somehow, I was lucky and representative told me that there's an issue with my account that I have a balance of {$63.00}, I instantly said how the possible I gave them the exact date which I don't have with me it was on my statement that I paid off my account not just in a full but and overpayment of {$20.00}. 
The representative explained me that when I made the payment at the teller the teller applyed the payment only towards the balance and not towards the interest. Which is what I mentioned before I never even knew there is such a thing and when I look at my statements I actually see what the representative meant because it says applied to balance and this is another savior from the bank side because I never knew and I was never notified all these years when I went to the tailor to make a payment that there is indeed a choice. Every time and again I'm repeating every time I made a payment it was a full payment which went towards the interest and it went towards everything. Another reason why it did not appear to me that I have any balance even the so-called interest is because I received statements every month and I have a copy of them and every statement I received after XX/XX/XXXX when I paid in full my state and stated that I have a credit limit of {$25000.00} and a have a full available credit to use of {$25000.00} and common sense says that when you have your full of available credit available it is because you do not have a balance. 

When the representative told me that there is a problem they see I do have a balance on my account of course my first question and concern and complaint was how is that possible? The representative am I am listening to the recorded phone call which again I do not know how to turn that feature off which is why I am not using it I am just listening to it to remember and remind myselfrepresentative came back to me after placing me on hold and told me I myself do not understand it does not make sense to me either because I do see that you have your full available credit and it shows up on my screen that you do not have any balance. 

Besides all this I constantly logged into my mobile app to check if there is any activity or any XXXX over and where did not use it because I always wanted to make sure everything is okay with my financials. And it's always showed up that I have a zero balance and I have a full {$25000.00} available credit. 

On XX/XX/XXXX I called in again complaining that I did not yet received a call back in regards to my check which Santander paid on XX/XX/XXXX twice and I did not receive a call back with the reason why my account is frozen and the steps that I need to take on my behalf in order the have the freeze removed. I was then told again that they see on the notes on my account that there is a special department and they dedicated representative handling this case and I should expect a call back very soon by latest tomorrow. 

On XX/XX/XXXX I decided instead of calling back it is definitely that the problem is resolved and I logged into my mobile app and interesting I saw the following. It's stated I have a lot of credits all {$25000.00}, my available credit is XXXX, and then it said last payment made was XX/XX/XXXX in the amount of {$100.00}. 

I immediately called in asking what is going on, and I was told by a representative precisely what I anticipated since that was my usual response that they do not have access to my account and they need to transfer me to a different department and they do not know which department and they have to put me on hold and have to see what to do about it and then somebody has to reach out to me. And I decided this time I will not let myself and I was asking and asking until I was placed on hold and she came back from the phone telling me that sometimes I decided that because I did not go into a branch which I was never told I need to go in fact every time I made a payment that went into a branch which this is something completely insane they decided to close my account and {$100.00} is basically a write off which sometimes there is taking because I did not pay it.

Company public response: Company has responded to the consumer and the CFPB and chooses not to provide a public response
Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation