Entity Calling You: Santander Consumer USA
Why They Are Calling You: Santander is calling you because they believe you have an outstanding balance on an auto loan, or because you are listed as a contact on someone else’s Santander account. A significant portion of complaints from this number are from individuals who have no association with Santander whatsoever.
Information about Santander Consumer USA Inc.
a. Business Name: Santander Consumer USA Inc.
b. Alternate Names: Chrysler Capital, RoadLoans, Drive Financial, Santander Auto Finance
c. Type of Entity: Originator and servicer of first-party auto loans
d. Industry: Automotive finance (subprime-to-prime lending)
e. Business Address: 1601 Elm St., Suite 800, Dallas, TX 75201
f. Parent Company: Santander Holdings USA, Inc., which is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Banco Santander, S.A. (Banco Santander), Madrid, Spain
g. Portfolio: More than $65 billion in managed assets and approximately 2.9 million customer accounts
h. BBB Rating: Not BBB accredited
i. Founded: 1995 (commenced operations in 1997)
Regulatory and Legal History
a. A federal court entered a $571,000 judgment against Santander after the company was found to have called one consumer’s cell phone over 1,000 times in one year using an automatic dialing system. The court found that not a single one of the calls was manually dialed by a live person.
b. Multiple class action lawsuits have been filed against the company alleging violations of the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (“TCPA”) in Pennsylvania, Nevada, Georgia, and Illinois.
c. In 2020, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (“CFPB”) assessed a $4.75 million penalty against Santander for the company’s practice of furnishing millions of consumer accounts to credit bureaus with errors that occurred more than 23 million times.
d. In 2020, 34 state attorneys general announced an approximate $550 million settlement with Santander for engaging in predatory subprime lending and deceptive servicing practices.
Why Santander Consumer USA Is Calling You
Loan Servicing and Assignment
Santander Consumer USA services loans under several brands, including Chrysler Capital and RoadLoans. If you financed a vehicle through one of their network dealers, your loan was assigned to the company without your knowledge or participation. Santander also acquires loans from other originators; therefore, the original lender with whom you financed your car very well may have sold your loan to Santander without your knowledge.
As one consumer explained on the website 800notes, “I received NO INFORMATION from Citi or Sonton Air about the take over, and randomly started receiving these calls. Poor Business Practices, Poor Communication, poor resolution.”
Wrong Number and Third-Party Contacts
Many complaints about this number are from individuals who have no relationship whatsoever with Santander Consumer USA. Calls are being made to numbers that previously belonged to someone who had a loan with Santander, and to individuals who were listed as references on someone else’s loan application.
As one consumer reported on EveryCaller, “I am DEAF. I have never heard of Santander Consumer USA. I get these annoying phone calls sometimes twice a day from 888-222-4227. My name is not brian or demarco and as stated, I have no loans with ANYONE. I have had this number for over 22 years. Stop calling this number.”
What Other Consumers Are Saying about 888-222-4227
Frequency of Calls
The most common complaint about 888-222-4227 across 800notes, WhoCallsMe, and CallerCenter is the frequency of the calls. Consumers state that the company is calling them three, five, 10 or more times per day, starting as early as 6 a.m.
As one consumer posted on WhoCallsMe, “Which reputable company would call you 10X a day starting at 6 am when you have no clue who they are and why they are calling. And they keep calling despite the fact that you tell them you want your number OFF their list and they ignore that request.”
Calls to Third Parties
Nomorobo labels 888-222-4227 as a number with “Severe” calling activity. YouMail has been tracking the Santander payment reminder robocall since August 2017, with the top states receiving the most calls being Texas, Georgia, California, North Carolina, and Tennessee.
In addition to calls to the consumer, Santander Consumer USA is also calling third parties, including employers and landlords, because the company’s collection calls are not limited to the borrower on the loan. When consumers provide employers and landlords as references on their loan applications, those third parties can also receive calls.
These calls come without any explanation and can be very confusing to individuals who have no knowledge of any debt.
As one consumer related on CallerCenter, “These people called my landlord looking for someone that I know. I was shocked. I called the number 888-222-4227 and asked them why are they calling my landlord and I wanted the number removed period. She hung up on me.”
Another consumer posted, “Apparently someone used me as a reference. Super rude people waking up my baby calling in the night just to hang up on me.”
Your Rights under Federal Law
TCPA Rights
The Telephone Consumer Protection Act (“TCPA”) is a federal law that prohibits companies from using an automatic telephone dialing system (“ATDS”) or an artificial or prerecorded voice to call cell phones without first obtaining the prior express consent of the called party.
If Santander Consumer USA is calling your cell phone using an ATDS or a prerecorded voice without your consent, each call may constitute a violation of the TCPA. The TCPA provides for statutory damages ranging from $500-$1,500 per call.
The courts have already determined that the Aspect system used by Santander Consumer USA is an ATDS as contemplated by the TCPA.
FCRA Rights
The Fair Credit Reporting Act (“FCRA”) is a federal law that regulates the accuracy of information reported to credit bureaus. Under the FCRA, consumers have the right to dispute information on their credit reports that is inaccurate, incomplete, or unverifiable. The credit reporting agency has a duty to conduct a reasonable investigation of the disputed information within 30 days of receipt of the dispute. If the information cannot be verified, it must be deleted from the consumer’s credit report.
In 2020, the CFPB determined that between 2016 and 2019, Santander furnished information to credit bureaus that it knew or should have known was inaccurate, including, but not limited to, the status of accounts, balance amounts, and dates of first delinquency.
In 2016, an internal Santander audit identified the absence of written policies and procedures regarding the accuracy and integrity of information furnished to a credit reporting agency, but the company failed to take any meaningful action to correct the issue until the Bureau stepped in.
FDCPA Rights
In 2017, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that Santander Consumer USA is not a “debt collector” as defined by the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (“FDCPA”) when it is attempting to collect debts that it purchased for its own account. Therefore, if you are being called by Santander because it owns your debt, your claims under the FDCPA will not apply.
However, your rights under the TCPA are unaffected by the Supreme Court ruling, and your rights to dispute the accuracy of the information reported on your credit reports are in no way impacted.
The Credit Report: Where the Rubber Meets the Road
Why Disputes Get More Traction than Phone Calls
The credit report is where the rubber meets the road. At the end of the day, the question of whether or not you owe Santander Consumer USA money is not the issue. The real issue is what is being reported on your credit reports about you, whether or not that information is accurate, and how long it is going to remain on your credit reports.
When you submit a dispute to the credit bureaus regarding the information that Santander Consumer USA has reported about you, you are shifting the burden to the furnisher of that information to show that what was reported about you is, in fact, verifiable.
Collection companies make money off of quick resolutions to outstanding debts. When consumers force the issue by filing a dispute, the process just got a whole lot more time-consuming and a whole lot more costly for the collection company.
When you file a dispute, you are engaging a process that works against the business model of a collection company, and if the information that has been reported to your credit reports about you cannot be verified, that information must be removed from your reports.
Systemic Inaccuracies
The CFPB found that Santander knew or should have known that information it was furnishing to the credit reporting agencies was inaccurate, including, but not limited to, the status of accounts, balance amounts, and dates of first delinquency.
A 2016 internal audit identified the absence of written policies and procedures regarding the accuracy and integrity of information furnished to a credit reporting agency, but Santander failed to take any meaningful action to correct the issue until the Bureau stepped in.
Under the FCRA, when information cannot be verified, it must be deleted. Deletion without paying your debt is a standard and permanent outcome of the consumer dispute process. Once information that has been reported to your credit reports has been deleted, the furnisher is prohibited from re-reporting that information unless the furnisher can provide new verified information.
Taking Matters into Your Own Hands
Written Communication
When communicating with a debt collector about a disputed debt, all communication should be in writing. Verbal conversations are not binding, and they leave no paper trail. Written disputes filed with the credit bureaus create a paper trail that will trigger a series of obligations by the other party.
Keep Records
Make certain to keep copies of any correspondence that you send and any responses that you receive. This documentation will serve as the basis for your position if the information being reported about you on your credit reports is not corrected within the timeframes set forth by law.
Reclaiming Your Financial Identity
The phone calls you are receiving from 888-222-4227 are a nuisance, but they are also a reminder that information about you is currently being reported to credit bureaus. Your credit report is not a passive document; it is a tool used by lenders, landlords, and employers to evaluate your financial fitness for credit, rental opportunities, and employment.
The information contained in your credit report will have a direct impact on the opportunities that will be available to you, and if you are not mindful of your credit report, you will likely learn the hard way how much that information matters.
You have the right to verification of the information being reported about you. You have the right to dispute information that you believe is inaccurate. You have the right to deletions of information that cannot be verified. These rights exist in federal law, and the single most effective thing you can do to take control of your financial identity is to exercise them.
Visit FightCollections.com now. We can help you make this happen.
