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Madrid-based bank, Santander, bilking billions of dollars from American consumers
Knoxville automobile dealerships connecting consumers with bank that funneled $3 billion in clients' funds into Bernie Madoff scheme
By Jeaneane Payne
One of the world's largest banks, Santander, based in Madrid, Spain, has been bilking Americans out of billions of dollars.
Santander infiltrated the US banking industry and purchased loans from much smaller lenders in 2008-2009. Upon purchasing the loans, Santander then changed the due date on the loans without notifying consumers causing the loans to be late every month for several years without consumer knowledge.
As a result, thinking they had made a final payment on their loan, consumers were not notified that they owed several thousand dollars in additional interest fees. If the loan was for a vehicle, Santander waited a few weeks after the final payment on the loan was made then repossessed the vehicle without notifying the consumer.
There have been 3,888 closed complaints against Santander with the Better Business Bureau in Santander's US home office town of Dallas, Tx in the last 3 years. J. D. Powers ranks Santander at the bottom of the banking industry. Santander is known as the worst bank in Great Britain.
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12:36 a.m. March 28, 2012
Class-Action lawsuit filed against Santander Consumer, USA
BIRMINGHAM, Al. -- The law firm of Davis & Norris, LLP in Birmingham, Alabama has filed a class-action lawsuit against Santander Consumer, USA (formerly Drive Financial) alleging, among other things, that Santander has violated the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act and the Telephone Consumer Protection Act. The lawsuit also claims that Santander breached its contracts with consumers in the manner by which it charged fees.
According to the law firm, Santander Consumer, USA has violated federal law by communicating with debtors' friends, relatives, co-workers, and individuals other than the debtor on multiple occasions. They have also disclosed to others that the debtors owe them a debt. Other allegations include communicating with debtors at odd times or places without their consent, making repeated phone calls to debtors with the intent of harassing or harassing in an abusive manner, and calling cellular phones using an automatic dialing machine or a recorded message without the debtor's express authorization.
Santander has also been known to make it impossible for debtors to make their final loan installment by blocking their online ability to do so, by rerouting debtors' phone calls to a dud telephone line so that they are unable to make a payment over the phone, and by adding thousands of dollars in additional interest charges, requiring debtors to pay the entire amount within a very short period of time or face repossession of their vehicle.
If you feel you have been the victim of Santander's violation of the Fair Debt Collection Practice Act or the Telephone Consumer Protection Act, you can become a part of the class-action lawsuit against Santander by completing an online questionnaire at http://24.73.189.118/santander.
Published March 28, 2012
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