Consumer complaint received 2020-03-11
Company: Santander Consumer USA Holdings Inc.
State: NC
Product: Vehicle loan or lease
Sub-product: Loan
Issue: Managing the loan or lease
Sub-issue: Loan sold or transferred to another company

Complaint:
The full narrative and supporting documentation are in the document attached to the complaint. 

The short version is that my auto loan and it's servicing was sold from Gateway One Loan and Finance ( " Gateway '' to Santander Consumer USA which was a surprise given that I had made 69 of 75 payments in a timely fashion and was current in the loan which would not ordinarily be a candidate for being sold. 

I received the required combined notice from Gateway and Santander on XX/XX/2020 even though the letter itself was dated XX/XX/2020 with the transfer effective date being XX/XX/2020. 

The notice failed to be provided by Gateway and Santander 15 days ahead of the effective date which is customary for combined loan transfer notifications. The CFPB auto loan examiner 's  manual notes that their examiners must enquire of examined companies whether they provided timely and useful information in the event of a loan transfer. The fifteen days requirement is mentioned in 12 CFR 1024.33 in RESPA/Regulation X, whilst written for mortgages, a mortgage is generally a closed-end loan like most auto loans and should still be considered relevant vis-a-vis the intention of Congress and the CFPB regulators governing notification to consumers of a closed-ended loan servicing sale/transfer. 

Compounding this error was the fact that the information contained within concerning the current balance remaining on the loan as well as the due date of the next expected payment being prior to the date of the notification letter itself. 

I tried contacting Gateway on XX/XX/2020 to ascertain their side of the story but over the course of five phone calls, the first two to Gateway 's numbers automatically redirected to Santander as we were already past the effective date and no option to speak to a human was provided. The next three were to various people in the loan department of their parent company XXXX XXXX XXXX, one of whom was rude and unhelpful beyond belief but apparently was the only person out of six I talked with who knew that XXXX had sold their entire auto loan portfolio to Santander on XX/XX/2019. None of the Gateway statements covering this period ever mentioned that a chance in servicer was forthcoming. 

I then spent four hours using the transaction data transferred to Santander to make sure the accounting was correct as to my current balance. 

When I finally called Santander later in the evening on XX/XX/2020 to ask why the notice was so late in getting to me and mentioning that they were in a potentially actionable legal position, the first person I talked to was so rude and condescending that I bypassed her ( over her many objections ) to a supervisor. XXXX was more pleasant but more than a little bit obtuse and took the position that as long as the account transferred correctly, there was no harm nor any foul. She refused to accept that providing the notice very late in the process and against Federal regulations ( which is likely illegal on their part ) almost to the point of my automatic payment unintentionlly going to what would be the wrong servicing company and the factually incorrect information in the notice requiring me to spend valuable time verifying something their letter said should be " seamless '' did in fact harm the consumer. Her expectation was that the I was to follow the letter of the law and the contract even if Santander chose to violate the law on their part which is an utterly insane position for her to take. 

It also introduces grave doubts that clearing the lien and providing my clean vehicle title when the loan matures in six months will be any less of a complete farce that their transfer of servicing has been. XXXX tried to assure me otherwise but having been through a botched transfer before where my title was actually lost and then the servicer wanted more money to get a replacement to clear the lien until I told them I'd send the Sheriff round to lock them up for grand theft auto ... considering Santander royally XXXX  up the easiest part of the process, I don't really have any faith or trust in anything they say or do. 

XXXX decided to kick the problem to her " higher management '' as she was unable to " resolve my request '' ( which I hadn't really made any request of her ... I was waiting for her to show even a modicum of concern and offer a way to try to repair the relationship they had already destroyed on first contact! ) and supposedly they'd contact me. I didn't have any faith that her " higher management '' would prove any more useful or competent than Santander had already shown themselves to be and said as much and finally rang off in complete frustration.

Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation