Consumer complaint received 2022-02-01
Company: Santander Consumer USA Holdings Inc.
State: MN
Product: Vehicle loan or lease
Sub-product: Loan
Issue: Managing the loan or lease
Sub-issue: Billing problem

Complaint:
In the process of refinancing my loan I ended up canceling my Gap insurance. The check was sent directly to Chrysler Capital so when I got the check to pay the loan off it was more than what was due. When I logged into my account it didn't show the full payment that I made s ( XXXX ) and that I overpaid {$890.00}, it only said I paid {$40000.00} so I called to see what was going on XX/XX/XXXX after mailing my payment XX/XX/XXXX. The woman I spoke to said that they would not issue my refund for 30 days to ensure that the check was clear. I expressed my issue with that, because it doesn't take 30 days for a check to clear. She said that she would send it to the accounting department to see if I could get it sooner. I then got a call back from someone in the Executive Department on XX/XX/XXXX reiterating what the first lady said and that this was a new rule that had just come down the pipe line. I repeated that it was not acceptable and I would need my money refunded sooner or are they planning to pay me interest on the money they are holding of mine, since when I owed them money they charged me daily. She told me they would not. I requested a copy of the policy that stated this was the rule because it was not in the terms and conditions of the loan I signed nor was I given any notice of the change and she told me that they weren't obligated to do so. At that point I requested to speak to someone above her. She stated that she would escalate my complaint. On XX/XX/XXXX the same lady called me back and said that they were able to release it on XX/XX/XXXX ( somewhere close to that I can't remember the exact date ). I advised that this was not acceptable to me because it does not take that long for a check to clear and that I needed to speak to a higher authority and she told me she would escalate it. Later on that same afternoon ( XX/XX/XXXX ) I got a call from someone else in the executive department that basically said the same thing as everyone else and that they would not release my money until XX/XX/XXXX and explained why. I explained that while I understand the check needs to clear it doesn't take that long for a check to clear and it seemed like a simple solution to just call the bank the check was drawn on to verify the check has cleared and release my money and that their business practice is extremely deceptive. I again asked for a copy of the policy and was told that either way the policy doesn't state when they have to release my money. I then asked who was above him for me to speak with. He informed me that, that would be the legal department and they only speak with attorneys so if I didn't have an attorney all that would happen is that it would get routed back to the executive office which is who I have already been dealing with. When I pointed out yet another deceptive business practice, when plenty of people represent themselves, he just repeated that my attorney could contact the legal department by fax or mail only. 

This is unacceptable to me. I did not agree to my money be held unnecessarily, it is nowhere in the terms and conditions or any other correspondence I've received from Chrysler Capital. Then the only recourse is to get an attorney is not ok and I'm not about to sit by and let them hold my money for free, while I'm being charged everyday by my new finance company for it.

Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation