Consumer complaint received 2025-11-18 00:00:00
Product: Vehicle loan or lease — Loan
Issue: Managing the loan or lease — Billing problem
Company: SANTANDER HOLDINGS USA, INC.
State: IL

Complaint narrative:
I enrolled in Santanders 6-month payment plan to cure one missed payment, protect my credit rating, and prevent delinquency or repossession. I timely paid my regular monthly payments plus the additional payment-plan portion every month through XXXX. Santanders own payment history and multiple representatives have confirmed that all payments through XXXX were made before the due date. 

Immediately after enrolling, I began receiving past-due notices. I repeatedly contacted Santander for an explanation, but I was given conflicting answers for two months : that no plan existed, that the plan existed but never activated, that it was cancelled, or that a system error removed it. I requested escalation multiple times but never received any written notice or documentation. Santander did not provide any of the required disclosures about cancellation, modification, default, plan status, or the alleged system error. 

During this period, Santander violated servicing and credit-reporting requirements by : ( 1 ) failing to provide written notice of payment-plan cancellation or modification, ( 2 ) failing to provide required documentation of the system error, ( 3 ) failing to correct misapplied payments after being notified, and ( 4 ) failing to mark the account as in dispute while the dispute was active. Instead, they continued to reallocate my full payments backward, month after month, making it appear as if I carried a rolling past-due balance even though I was paying according to the plan terms. 

For XXXX, I made a partial payment before the due date and the remaining payment within the 30-day window. Under credit-reporting standards, this does not qualify as 30 days late. Santander may mark an internal late fee, which I paid, but they are not allowed to furnish a 30-day delinquency to the credit bureaus unless the full scheduled payment is unpaid for a full 30 days past the due date. That threshold was not met. Santanders own payment history supports this. 

Despite this, Santander ignored all prior servicing issues, ignored the disputed status, ignored that the XXXX payment never reached 30 days past due, and reported me as 30+ days late to XXXX. Later, they claimed the delinquency was from XXXX, even though they also confirmed that XXXX payment was made prior to the due date. These statements can not both be true. 

In their XX/XX/XXXX and XX/XX/XXXX responses, Santander admitted a system error but provided no required documentation, no written notice of plan status, no explanation of the payment reallocations, and no correction of the inaccurate credit reporting. Their responses did not address any of the regulatory issues raised. They then declared the matter CLOSED, even though nothing had been resolved and none of the required disclosures were provided. They also regularly stated that they would not allow any payment-plan enrollment or correction as a result of the ongoing complaint, which is retaliatory. 

I am requesting CFPB escalation and supervisory review because the initial complaint process did not provide this and since, Santander has not provided the documentation required by law. I am requesting that Santander be required to : ( XXXX ) provide written documentation of the plan dates, any cancellation, proof of any and all notices that they were required to send ; ( XXXX ) produce documentation of the system error ; ( XXXX ) correct all misapplied payments ; and ( XXXX ) remove the inaccurate 30-day delinquency, which did not meet the legal threshold and was reported while the underlying account issues were under active dispute.

Company response to consumer: Closed with non-monetary relief