Consumer complaint received 2020-09-26
Company: Santander Consumer USA Holdings Inc.
State: SC
Product: Vehicle loan or lease
Sub-product: Loan
Issue: Struggling to pay your loan
Sub-issue: Denied request to lower payments

Complaint:
I currently have a open account with Santander Consumer on my car. This was my first car and at that time I was in need of a new car and thought that a first car loan would be some how similar to first home owner loan. I was looking forward to partner with a company that had my best interest at heart. Getting in to this loan with Santander at some points showed otherwise. I always believed that the loan was not a good loan but I did not know how i would be able to prove this. After seeing the lawsuit that this company currently has I felt better that I wasn't the only one. Throughout my time in this loan there were times that i just could not afford making my payment and Santander provided assistance ( may be twice ). There how has been more times in which i reached out to this company to request assistance with my payments, not so much saying I cant pay at all but requesting an extension and I have been told on many occasion " Well theres nothing we can do '' " you will have to just call back when you can actually make the payment ''. I would request that a note be placed in the system and i would get statements like " well that wouldn't help if the car is repo ''. This companied failed me on so many different occasions that I gave up so many times. I can recall a few months this company reported to the credit bureaus that I was late on my payment however the ONE time I was able to make a payment arrangement I was told that the payment for XXXX and XXXX would be mark as current due to the assistance that was provided due to COVID. This company turned around and reported my account as pass due for both months. The bad thing about this point is that when I called I was prepared to make the payments but because this assistance was provided I was told it was not needed and my next bill would not be due until XXXX. This messed up my credit tremulously to the point that I was denied of a home loan that was previously approved due to this. When I called to discuss the issue the transferred me to at least 5 different people with NO one being able to answer my question. I knew at this point they could not justified their error. They even got someone from the corporate office to " apologize '' however it is still reporting. I am at a much better place financially and these late payments are preventing me from accomplishing a lot. I truly believe this company has the ability to be great however they are making it worst for individuals instead of helping them. With the current law suit I hope this company is working toward better policies to include approval criteria. While I understand I am fully responsible for this loan, I plan to continue to make payments until it is determine if I am apart of the lawsuit. While I understand this process may take longer than expected due to the number of people this actually effect, I do believe something can be adjusted until this occurs. At this time I am requesting this company to do one of the two below things : 1. Remove all late payments that are currently reporting to my credit report. While the 4 late payments from last year resulted in me being late, due to the companies targeting populations that are predicted to have a high likelihood of default I believe these late payments should be covered until this select of the lawsuit. I am constantly being told that my car payment compare to my debt to income ratio at the time of me receiving this loan was definitely too high which was also covered in the lawsuit ( Preferred solution ) OR 2. Remove the account as a whole from my credit report until the lawsuit is completed. This request is in no way my way of stating that I will stop making payment because I will continue to make payments on time as I have been doing for the last 6 months however I do not believe this account should continue to report on my credit until the lawsuit is completed ( would be 8 months if I was not taken advantage of as explain above in regards to the late payments in XXXX and XXXX ) This company has contribute to a lot of the downfalls for me currently. I am however also taking responsibility for my action as well and is why I will continue to hold my end of the contract and make payments until the lawsuit is completed. 

Just like the settlement in the lawsuit, i have faith Santander will continue to show great faith and partner with me to solve this current problem. 

Please understand that if one of the above steps is the resolution to this company, this will not take the place of my right to receive any settlement as part of the current lawsuit.

Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation