Consumer complaint received 2020-11-30
Product: Vehicle loan or lease — Loan
Issue: Struggling to pay your loan — Loan balance remaining after the vehicle is repossessed and sold
Company: Santander Consumer USA Holdings Inc. (CA)

My fiance and I co-signed on a car loan through Chrysler Capital for a used XXXX XXXX XXXX for {$17000.00}. By the time we had signed for the car and saw our loan balance it was {$23000.00}. They did not tell us the APR percentage as we were first-time car buyers eager to own our first vehicle as a family with a son on the way. Within 6 months of having our loan ( $ XXXX monthly payment on a 6-year loan with a 29 % APR ), our car was repossessed. The tow yard they took our vehicle to refused to give us our personal property ( including urgent medications and continued to say it was not in the vehicle ) unless we paid {$150.00}. We ended up having to borrow money from relatives because losing the car and having a loan for {$10000.00} more than the car was worth was not something we could afford and would ruin our chances of having a vehicle for the next 6 years. We borrowed {$2300.00} in total to get our car released back to us. We have successfully paid every month since then, besides 2-3 late payments due to job loss from COVID-19. We were speaking with a relative about our car loan and APR and they were floored and said that is an illegal practice, so I looked into the consumer finance website. I was going to file this a month ago so we could get a FAIR payment on the value of the car at purchase, but unfortunately, I was getting onto the XXXX on the on-ramp and a coyote darted in front of me, I swerved to the left to avoid it and there was no guard rail so I ended up flying over a hill and the car crashed back onto the floor in an embankment full of trees which I avoided, but all of the airbags went off, thus totalling the car. It is now worth less than {$4000.00}. I contacted my insurance agency ( XXXX ) and they took a month to complete my claim and tell me that it would not be covered to get my car out of the tow yard. I then contacted relatives and was able to secure a personal loan for the value of the vehicle and the tow yard fees. I then called Chrysler Capital and offered them that amount in return for closing my loan out so they would not lose money on getting my vehicle from the tow company, on top of letting them know if they do not accept the offer we will BOTH have to file for bankruptcy because we can not pay {$16000.00} on a car that they took back and sold, on top of paying the exorbitant interest rate they charged us. They refused, got the car from the tow yard and are set to sell our vehicle XX/XX/XXXX for less than {$4000.00} and we will still owe {$15000.00} for a car we do not have. This is my last step before my fiance and I both file for bankruptcy. Any help would be SO greatly appreciated because we were truly being used for our low credit so they could make money on top of the millions they profit, while we are left bankrupt, without a car and a XXXX-month-old to care for with no transportation. We also just received an offer in the mail to refinance through an entirely different company for {$340.00} a month, cutting {$160.00} from our bill. Every time we called to refinance they said they would not due to the repossession that happened due to Chrysler price gouging us.