Consumer complaint received 2026-03-07 00:00:00
Product: Vehicle loan or lease — Loan
Issue: Problems at the end of the loan or lease — Unable to receive car title or other problem after the loan is paid off
Company: SANTANDER HOLDINGS USA, INC.
State: TX

Complaint narrative:
In XX/XX/XXXX, I contacted Santander Consumer USA to receive a Release of Lien because the XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXXXXXX XXXX ( XXXX ) could not issue me a new title for my car because the car title had a lien ( from XXXX XXXX. ) After months of bouncing between the XXXX and my email conversations with Santander 's Titles Release Dept, I escalated the issue to the Executive Office. The Executive Office 's Escalation Team contacted me and essentially told me that they never serviced my loan and they would send me a letter as a " courtesy. '' The Titles Release Department was on the same email chain with the CEO and other executives when I escalated my concern. This created two communication chains. The Titles Release Dept soon sent me a digital copy of a Lien Release Letter, ( which the TX XXXX does not accept. ) Meanwhile, I spoke with the Executive Office Escalation Team representative twice. Between the two calls, I sent proof of my contract with Santander ( including a Welcome email from Santander, acknowledging their assumption of my loan from XXXX XXXX, and car payment details from my bank account ) to XXXX ( Escalations Team. ) Each time I spoke to the EO Escalations Team representative, XXXX, he continually tried to gaslight me into believing that Santander did not ever service the loan. The second time we spoke he told me that Santander would send me the notarized letter with a wet signature that I needed. He just kept telling me that Santander never serviced the loan, nor accepted payments from me. I forthrightly told him repeatedly that Santander serviced the loan, accepted my payments, and I referenced the email I had sent him. He acknowledged receipt of the proof but he couldn't explain why they had no records of my account. He acknowledged, in each call, that the age of the account didn't matter and that he should be able to find the account if it existed with Santander. However, even after receiving proof of the existence of the account, he continued to insist that it never existed. The calls with Santander were audio recorded by them both times, and I made records of each calls. So, I'm able to reproduce the conversations if I need to do so. The Lien Release letter that the EO 's Escalation Team representative, XXXX, promised to send to me via XXXX overnight never arrived. Instead, I received a notarized letter with a wet signature that stated that Santander never " funded '' a loan for me and never accepted any " payments '' from me. This is materially false and I contacted him again on that day, Wednesday, XX/XX/XXXX, explaining that I needed a Lien Release letter. I asked him to respond by Thursday, XX/XX/XXXX, no later than XXXX XXXX CST to confirm receipt of my request. XXXX never responded. However, on Thursday, XX/XX/XXXX, I received a Lien Release from the Titles Department that fulfilled my request. My concern is that the company is still denying servicing my loan and receiving payments. They accepted my payments from XX/XX/XXXX - XX/XX/XXXX, yet they have no record of my account ( XXXX ) and they did not update records with the TX XXXX. This issue has been extremely time-consuming and frustrating as the car needs to be taken from its current location and I can't transfer ownership of the car with the current title I have, as it still shows a lien on a car that was paid in full over a decade ago. It should not take over 5 months to get a Lien Release Letter from an auto loan lender, Santander, that accepted payments for over two years until the car was paid in full. And a letter of No Interest does not satisfy the state 's requirement for a Lien Release Letter. This is unethical business practices that Santander is engaging in, and the Executive Office 's Escalation Team ( XXXX XXXX made the situation worse, not better. If I were still reliant upon XXXX I would still not have what I need. He did not provide what I requested and has now gone radio silent and is not responding to my email correspondence. This is absolutely reprehensible behavior and unacceptable.

Company response to consumer: Closed with non-monetary relief