If Santander Consumer USA is hiding fees in your bill, you may have legal options.
Santander Consumer USA is an automotive financing company that offers things like car loans and refinancing services. Many consumer complaints against Santander Consumer USA have to do with overcharging fees, alleged late fees, and subsequent negative reports to credit bureaus even when payments were made on time.
When you look at your bill, you should see the following:
Sometimes payments made do not show up on your bill because they take a while to process or were processed early and applied to a previous bill.
For example:
John has a credit card statement prepared on the 8th of every month. His bill is due by the 5th. If John makes a payment to his bill on the 5th, it might be applied to the previous month and, therefore, not show up when he gets his statement on the 8th.
There are many fees that might show up on your Santander Consumer USA statement depending on the type of account you have with them, or whether you have a loan with them.
You might be charged a fee if you try to pay by phone with your checking or savings account. If you use a debit card to process a payment over the phone, they charge you.
You might also be charged a fee if you try to make an online transfer using your debit card. Similarly, third-party fees might be levied against your account for CheckFreePay, PayNearMe, Western Union, or MoneyGram services. Santander Consumer USA notes that these fees are not from the company, but from the third party you use to process your financial transactions. So, if you send someone money using MoneyGram, Santander Consumer USA does not have a transaction fee but MoneyGram might.
However, consumers have lodged complaints against the company for claiming incorrectly that payments were not made or auto-drafting from a bank account and claiming payments were not made on time. These consumers have dealt with many late fees they should not have.
Some consumers have checking accounts with Santander, not just auto loans, and with those accounts, they have seen a slew of other hidden fees. Monthly fees for basic checking are $3, but for the Santander Select, the Checking account is $25. There are fees of $3 for paper statements and $3 for ATM withdrawals at non-Santander ATMs. International transactions might earn a 4% fee based on the transaction amount when you use your debit card overseas, and if you use an ATM to get cash in another country, that fee is 3%.
Other account services and fees that might make their way onto your monthly statement include an official bank check fee of $10, a money order fee of $5, a levy processing fee of $100, checks sent for collections fee of $10 per item, and returned deposited item fees up to $25.
Wire transfers can earn a $13 fee on your next statement or $40 for international transfers. If you have insufficient funds, you can face up to three charges of $35 per day.
For loans, Santander Consumer USA might see returned check fees when a check is returned, unpaid fees, late fees for situations where the total amount due is unpaid, repayment fees, and past due fees. Usually, these are based on a percentage of your loan amount but might also take the form of a flat fee depending on your account with Santander.
If Santander Consumer USA incorrectly charged you a fee, start by reaching out to customer service. When you contact Santander Consumer USA customer service, you might be able to get an explanation of an otherwise unrecognized charge or a resolution when there is a mistake. But if that gets you nowhere, you still have two options:
The first is to sue Santander Consumer USA in small claims court. This is something often laid out in a user agreement. If you have the time and money to file the correct paperwork in court, this might be a good solution. However, each state has different limits for compensation, so your case might not qualify.
The second is to file a dispute against Santander Consumer USA. Using consumer arbitration, you can get a potentially faster resolution with our support.
Share your complaint about Santander Consumer USA with FairShake today.
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