Consumer complaint received 2018-11-01
Company: Santander Consumer USA Holdings Inc.
State: TX
Product: Vehicle loan or lease
Sub-product: Loan
Issue: Struggling to pay your loan
Sub-issue: Lender trying to repossess or disable the vehicle

Complaint:
In XX/XX/XXXX I inquired about purchasing a vehicle from XXXX in XXXX, TX. I was on a desperate situation in need of a way of transportation, and now knowing the consequences of my request, I ended up accepting a loan negotiated by XXXX with Santander Consumer USA, for a 3 year-old vehicle with a tag price of {$12000.00}. 

According to the loan contract, the amount financed was {$16000.00}, with a finance charge of {$12000.00}, almost the same value of the vehicle on a loan term of 72 months ( 6 years ) at a rate that surpasses the maximum lawful interest rate for usury laws ( 20.61 % vs. maximum lawful of 18 % in Texas ) for bad credit scores. 

When purchasing the vehicle I was just desperate and the seller was aware of it, so I feel I was abused in the midst of my desperation. I just trusted XXXX I would be able to afford the payments, hoping for things to change and get better in the future. 

I am a small business owner, so I am self-employed, and my income varies from season to season. At time of purchasing the vehicle, my payments were set to be paid on the XXXX of each month, but back then I was living at a relative 's house, so I did not have to pay rent. Given this circumstances, I decided to move my payment due date to the XXXX of the month, so this was the first bill I could take care of. 

A year later, my relatives moved back to the house I was living in, so I had to find a place to live. Now my rent became due on the XXXX and this date was no longer convenient considering my income flow. I requested Santander at that time to switch my payment back to the XXXX, but they said they only change the due date once during the life of the loan. This started to become the main issue, as I started to be late on my payments, causing me fees and higher interest, and obviously, extra income for the bank. 

During a season of very slow business, I got into a situation where I could not make my payments for 2 months, so my vehicle got repossessed in XX/XX/XXXX, and I was able to get it out of repossession the same day the vehicle was towed by Santander. Back then, the very first time I had to face something horrible like that, I was told by the agent assisting that they would lower my repossession fees and not charge me for the storage fee. Recently, I have been told by another agent, after paying again for my second repossession {$2000.00} to release the vehicle, that those charges are indeed part of my balance and still due. My vehicle has just been released of this second repossession that happened after an incident that caused a cosmetic repair which I am still paying for, because my insurance would not cover it, causing me to be again delayed on payments, while realizing the terrible lockup in which I found myself. 

Up until this day, almost 4 years after making this terrible and uninformed decision, I still owe Santander over $ 13K on a vehicle which value is a third of the amount owed. It is beyond proportion the amounts of money I am liable for, considering the much over cost this decision has caused me. 

I just need for you to provide some guidance and assess the situation : I accept my responsibility in having agreed to such a bad deal, but I just want to be released from a loan that I evidently can not afford, and one that is causing my credit to get even worse that before I purchased the vehicle. I was willing to voluntarily surrender the vehicle, but I am told that after that, I am still liable for the outrageous 20.61 % finance and charges. 

Please help me out of this!

Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation