Consumer complaint received 2026-03-27 00:00:00
Product: Mortgage — Home equity loan or line of credit (HELOC)
Issue: Trouble during payment process — Loan sold or transferred to another company
Company: SANTANDER HOLDINGS USA, INC.
State: PA

Complaint narrative:
To whom it may concern. I am writing to inform you of several issues concerning accounts that were transferred to XXXX Bank from Santander bank. I am hoping we can resolve these issues to the satisfaction of all parties. My first issue is with HELOC-XXXX which is now labeled XXXX for reasons beneficial to the bank. I was not sent any statements or information regarding this account despite Santander stating that I was. The official record of this account is now on XXXX banks website and clearly shows the balance remained at {$19000.00} from XXXX of XXXX until XXXX of XXXX. The record also shows all of the extra payments with no application to the principal or explanation of where my payments went. I specifically requested and was assured by Santander on several occasions that anything over the monthly requested amount was to go directly to the principal. Santander has recently stated in recorded phone calls that they believe those extra payments went instead to interest only payments against my instructions. Another supervisor informed me that she does not understand what happened and Its a puzzle youre going to have to figure out. Missing or incomplete records impair audit verification, triggering fines and regulatory penalties. Common recordkeeping requirements under the law typically mandate that businesses and organizations maintain accurate, complete, and accessible documentation related to their operations, transactions, and compliance activities.I spoke to my local branch supervisors who also could not explain what happened and advised me to open a Care Case to research the misapplied payments. After started the investigation I received a letter from Santander that stated loan XXXX was paid in full. '' I spoke to another supervisor who told me the loan was paid in full even after I asked her to clarify whether it was paid in full or transferred to XXXX and she stated again that it was Paid in Full. At this time I was still not informed as to how the payments were allocated and they could not provide records of my account because they were in house documents that I wasnt authorized to see. She also told me there were past due delinquent credit card balances in my name that have been accruing late fees and penalties since XXXX. She also stated that Santanders records show I have been receiving notices of these accounts and implied I was simply ignoring them. I received no such information from Santander and informed her that the accounts she was referring to were Court ordered to be closed and discharged in a XXXX XXXX from XXXX of XXXX. I was told Santander still has those accounts in my name despite a Court order. I believe Santander is acting in defiance of a Court order that stipulates the removal of these alleged credit card balances. I can only assume Santander was holding on to these balances in the hope of collecting them from my estate when I will no longer be able to dispute them. That is only my opinion. In the spirit of corporate hygiene I am officially requesting all these Santander credit card balances including accounts that remain in violation of court order No. : XXXX be removed with prejudice. Soon after this Santander sent another letter claiming the paid in full letter was a mistake and the representative who confirmed the loan being paid in full was mistaken as well. According to the False Claims Act ( FCA ) lenders who " blindly rubber-stamped '' forgiveness without performing a good faith review of records could face legal action for lack of due diligence. I then spoke to another supervisor from Santander and formally requested all of the records for HELOC account XXXX. She assured me that I would soon receive an email with all of the monthly statements for HELOC XXXX in a few days. I also requested paper documents of all the statements for HELOC XXXX which she said would would be mailed to my home within several weeks. They did not provide any of the documents that were requested. I was not sent any emails or mailed documents for the account I requested. I was instead sent records of the deliquent credit cards and past due balances due immediately. According to the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act ( FDCPA ) : Collectors must provide debt validation within 30 days of a request. If they can not produce written verification, they must stop collection activities. I assume that XXXX Bank XXXX has insured the acquisition of the Santander bank branches with indemnification clauses to protect them from what must be large tranches of non performance loans and toxic assets. These guarantees insulate the financial institution from incurring losses but leave the customer feeling helpless and unimportant. It is hard to imagine that I am the only customer who has suffered due to the incomplete and erroneous history of how these balances were calculated including itemized fees, interest and proper payment allocations. Audit processes rely heavily on accurate and comprehensive records to verify compliance with statutory requirements. Incomplete records hinder audit transparency and compromise evidence preservation, leading to significant statutory penalties. I have reason to believe, due to Santander representatives failure to process this account properly that I have overpaid this account by a significant amount. The actual amount can only be determined with a thorough, independent, audit of Santander Bank and the accounts sold to XXXX bank during this transition. I have been accused of ignoring monthly statements that were never sent on accounts that were mismanaged or illegitimate. I have also spent countless hours researching this issue and enduring dreadful customer service including incorrect and conflicting information from banking representatives and supervisors. Discouraging mistaken transfers to the wrong departments or being disconnected over and over again a suspiciously disproportionate amount of times compared to normal correspondence. After a great deal of research and many months of extensive research, correspondence and lengthy discussions with supervisors Santander suddenly provided a perfunctory account history for the HELOC that I was denied access to for years. I have no way of knowing what account history is correct after alI of the misinformation that has been given to me. I am currently doing research to find a new bank and I am finding many customers who have also been mistreated by Santander and the merger with XXXX bank. I believe there may have been a massive tranche of toxic assets and improperly managed financial accounts involved that were part of this large merger and packaged in a way that disguised the mishandling of many, many accounts and presented them as healthy assets to facilitate a merger that I do not believe was beneficial to the consumer and they did not perform the due diligence required to make sure customers were not mistreated and left so confused. Since I have been researching these issues I have found undisclosed late fees and penalties I was not aware of as well as an Escrow account that I was not told about.

Company public response: Company has responded to the consumer and the CFPB and chooses not to provide a public response
Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation