Consumer complaint received 2024-03-29
Product: Vehicle loan or lease — Lease
Issue: Managing the loan or lease — Billing problem
Company: SANTANDER HOLDINGS USA, INC. (MD)

I purchased my vehicle on XX/XX/XXXX from XXXX XXXX in XXXX, MD ; the original balance at the time of leasing was {$24000.00}, through Sandtander Consumer USA, with a monthly note amount of {$650.00}. As of current date, my balance is {$19000.00}. I have always made my payments on time, however due to financial hardship which started in XXXX, I had to request a few extensions, which was reported to the company. Then XXXX came and made things worse. Even with the pandemic going on, they harassed me about making payments. I was out of work, with no income coming in. And once I was back to work, i struggled to make ends meet because I was so behind with everything, not just my note. XXXX states, including Maryland filed a class action lawsuit filed against Santander sometime in XXXX because they violated consumer protection laws by placing borrowers with subprime credit into auto loans it knew carried a high probability of default. XXXX harass me with phone calls consistently and multiple times a day and during the week and weekends about payments. I was instructed by XXXX of the representative to do partial payments to make sure my full amount was paid by my due date. That turned out to be a lie because the money I was providing was not going to the principle balance, it was going to interest. My vehicle was repossessed on XX/XX/XXXX and I retrieved it on XX/XX/XXXX ; paying the full amount owed, which took my balance down to zero. I contacted XXXX on XX/XX/XXXX to inquire about my XXXX payment since my balance was XXXX and my note is due the XXXX of each month. The representative I spoke to said that I did not have a XXXX balance and that my next payment was not due until XX/XX/XXXX. After speaking to me on the phone, this same representative went into the system to supposedly check something, and whatever she did, put my monthly note amount back in the system for XX/XX/XXXX. There was no phone call to tell me what had been done, no line of communication. I did not find out about this until XX/XX/XXXX ; 12 days after the payment was due, when the phone calls started again. I explained to the representative at that time that I had spoken to someone on the XXXX of XXXX who informed me that I did not have a payment and that my next payment was due in XXXX. He went into the system, read her notes and repeated everything verbatim what she informed me. He then informed me of what she did and said that I owed them for XXXX. I informed him that I had just made a full payment of {$3300.00} and did not have another {$650.00} to give them. He told me that I would remain a month behind until that full payment could be made. I asked to speak to XXXX which he transferred me to XXXX, so that I could possible have the XXXX payment waived since it was their negligence of what their employee did and it was no fault of mine what so ever. XXXX told me that there was nothing they could do about the payment and that I had to pay it. To this date, I am still a month behind on my vehicle because of what they did. I struggle to make my payments now with inflation being so high and not making the amount of money I was making when I first got the vehicle. All of this has been told to them multiple times and they still refuse to offer any kind of assistance. The representative told me that I could make my monthly note payment of {$650.00} plus a half of payment {$320.00} o speed up paying my vehicle off by the end of the year. Their resolution to my problem is to make a payment of my monthly note plus half of that in order to get the balance down. Meaning, they want me to pay almost {$980.00} every XXXX weeks, are they insane. I am concerned that I still owe so much on my vehicle. XXXX thing is clear, Santander does not care about their consumers at all, they care about money. My maturity date is XX/XX/XXXX ; I don't want to lose my car because it is my only means of transportation, but my wallet and my credit are taking a major hit because of this car loan I have with XXXX.