Consumer complaint received 2019-08-11
Company: Santander Consumer USA Holdings Inc.
State: CO
Product: Vehicle loan or lease
Sub-product: Loan
Issue: Problems at the end of the loan or lease
Sub-issue: Problem while selling or giving up the vehicle

Complaint:
My mother purchased a XXXX XXXX XXXX from a dealership XX/XX/XXXX. In XX/XX/XXXX, my mom had a XXXX. While we are optimistic about her health outcomes, it is unlikely she will drive again ; certainly not in the next 12 months. I invoked POA authority over my mom 's affairs and while helping my mom with her finances post-XXXX, the car loan became a problem. This loan is at 14.5 % interest and of her $ XXXX/month car payment, only {$180.00} goes to principle. So $ XXXX/mon is interest payments! All things considered, I believe these terms to be predatory. My mom may have thought she could afford this while she was working and able to drivXXXX, but now she is on SSI & XXXX. Car insurance is another $ XXXX/mon. That's almost $ XXXX/month that we could channel into directly caring for her in her time of need. 

I started the process of selling the car in XXXX while on FMLA to help my mom. The dealership offered {$15000.00} for the car. We are canceling the extending warranty and gap coverage, which could be an additional {$3000.00} toward paying off the loan. On a loan balance of over {$23000.00}, there is about {$4000.00} my mom doesn't have to hand over immediately, but we wish to make a payment arrangement of monthly installments. I've called the lending institution 6 times to make arrangements, but they refuse to negotiate fairly and release the title to a buyer unless the entire loan is paid in full. The bank 's proposal is voluntary surrender where my mom pays for the car to be auctioned off. They have no guarantee what the car will go for at auction and my mom still doesn't have $ 4000+ to hand over for the title to be released. 

I believe that XXXX XXXX is refusing to negotiate in good faith and is engaging in unfair, abusive, and deceptive practices. I emailed the bank POA paperwork on XX/XX/XXXX to begin the process. I've talked to 6 agents and no one can explain to me why they will release the title in an auction from voluntary surrender, but not if we sell the car it back to the dealership. The title wouldn't even technically trade hands until a 3rd party buyer purchases it, as far as I understand car titling since it is a XXXX dealership. 

After my 4th conversation with them on XX/XX/XXXX, they violated the TCPA by calling me XXXX at XXXX XXXX after I specifically instructed them to not call before XXXX XXXX   mountain time. An " Office of the Executive '' representative called and told me my only option was a voluntary surrender unless we could pay the loan off in full. Considering the timing and the nature of the call, I feel that this was illegal harassment and have filed a complaint with the FCC. 
Feeling defeated, I called them a 10th time on XX/XX/XXXX to voluntarily surrender the vehicle. I'm back home in XXXX now, my mom & the car are in Wisconsin. I was told I had to talk to a different department and someone would call me back that day. No one called, so I called again XX/XX/XXXX. The agent on the phone said he couldn't find any POA paperwork and it would take another 2-3 business days before I could surrender the vehicle. 

In summary, they deceptively issued a predatory loan to my mother, treated me unfairly, and deceptively when I attempted to negotiate in good faith, conveniently lost legal documents, and engaged in abusive harassment by calling me outside of hours I specified and which are legally mandated.

Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation