Consumer complaint received 2024-11-13 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: SD

Complaint narrative:
I paid off my XXXX XXXX XXXX back in XXXXXXXX XXXX XXXX. Santander has refused to send me the paper title ( or to send it electronically to SD as per SD standards ) and has neglected to send me an accurate release of lien letter. Part of the issue here is that I moved from North Dakota to South Dakota about a year before the car was paid off. 

I have called Santander Consumer USA and spent hours and hours on the phone with them and their unintelligent phone agents since XXXX trying to get a resolution here and all they have sent me is a letter saying the lien is released but they listed the incorrect state on it, SC instead of SD. In XXXX I asked for another copy of that release of lien letter with the correct state listed on it and they never sent it despite agents promising to do so over the phone. My main problem here is that they NEVER sent me a copy of the paper title nor did they send it electronically! I live in South Dakota right now ( former ND resident ) so they should have sent it to the SD DMV/DOR electronically because SD does electronic titles, but they sent it to North Dakota instead , claiming they had my old address on file ( this is false, I updated my address with them after I moved and got other communications from Santander through the mail just fine but whatever I just need the title ). 

Back in XXXX they told me they sent a copy of the title electronically to North Dakota, and that I'd need to contact the ND DMV and have them transfer it to the SD DMV, but North Dakota doesn't do Electronic Titles so that's completely false. They have sworn up, down, left and right that they do not mail titles. I contacted the ND DMV and they confirmed Santander SHOULD HAVE MAILED ME THE PAPER TITLE WHEN I PAID IT OFF but they never did and their phone representatives confirmed that many times over by telling me they don't mail titles. They also told me I'd need to take that release of lien letter to the SD DMV to apply for a title, that's totally incorrect I can't apply for a title to be created out of nowhere I need to have the title that should have been mailed to me to register it as the owner and non-lien holder in SD. At one point someone at Santander told me they were going to email me the title, just to give you an idea of how unintelligent the people answering their phones are. I am getting the run around and being promised different things by different reps in XXXX each time I call. These people don't know what they're talking about and it is at my expense, I have been unable to register my car in the state of SD and have paid a couple of very expensive traffic tickets as a result. This loan was predatory in nature to begin with and that's on me for having low credit when I was younger but I have paid way more for this car than its worth, the least these clowns can do is provide the freaking title now that I've paid it off.

Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation