Citi Sold My Vehicle Loan to Santander

My car loan was sold to a new lender without my permission. Is that legal?

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Bill's Answer: Bills.com Resident Expert

Santander Banco, one of Spain's and the world's largest banks, purchased a significant portion of Citigroup's auto loan portfolio. Santander did not buy all of Citi's auto loans, but your loan is apparently one in the portfolio it did buy.

Normally, when a loan is bought, the original servicer notifies the borrower as a matter of common courtesy. It tells you the loan was sold, who your new lender is, and where you will now be sending payments. In your case, it is understandable you were a taken aback by being contacted out of the blue by a party you have never heard of. After all, who in the US outside of the banking business has ever heard of Santander? Still, Citi and Santander's rude behavior does not mean anything improper occurred.

It was not illegal for Citi to sell your loan. The terms of your loan did not change when Citi assigned or sold the loan the Santander. Santander assumed all terms and conditions of your Citi loan, and it would be illegal for Santander to change your interest rate or the monthly payment required unilaterally. You stated the loan was modified, but I am not clear what you meant by that, and which terms or conditions changed.

Customarily, when a new creditor assumes a loan, it does not ask the debtor to sign a new or agreement. One of the reasons it is buying a loan is because the loan's history, risks, and expected return are known or easy to project. It baffles me Santander would risk losing you (and presumably other customers) by asking you to sign new loan agreements, which will almost certainly prompt many customers to shop around for better rates and terms.

What I am about to write is purely speculation, but perhaps the terms of your Citi loan are such that Santander believes it cannot make money on your loan, and would not mind losing you if you take your business elsewhere.

If you do not wish to do business with Santander, refinance your vehicle loan. Refinancing may not make sense if you are already years into the loan, because you will have paid off most of the interest on the loan at that time.

Alternatively, refuse to sign Santander's agreement. You are under no obligation to say yes to Santander's request to accept different terms and conditions.

I encourage you to read some useful information about auto loans that will help you compare and contrast terms and conditions of vehicle loans.

I hope this information helps you Find. Learn & Save.

Best,

Bill

Bills.com

Comments (8)


Liz L.
March 07, 2012
Have you already talked with your servicer? maybe they have specific reasons of letting your car be bought by Santander. Sometimes this happens and the borrower is unaware of it. Proper counseling is the best solution for it, talk to your servicer immediately.
Erick G.
November 16, 2011
If your loan is sold to another company what you should do is validate that debt. What I means is this is the land of contracts and if I do not have a contract with you then I don't owe you. I don't care if you purchased several loans of mine if you purchased them then you have paid my debt. A company has to have a signed contract with you stating that you requested some type of service from them and that it was worth x amount of Federal Reserve Notes. Without a contract they have not a valid claim.
Bills.com
November 16, 2011
It is fair to say most US courts respect the terms and conditions of valid, reasonable contracts. It is also fair to say that absent a no-assignments clause in a contract, a party to a contract may assign its rights to a contract to a third party. For example, an over-booked house painter may subcontract or assign a house painting contract to another house painter. Similarly and to your point, an original creditor may sell a collection account to a collection agent. In the legal trade, this is called an assignment. A collection agent that validates a debt provides evidence it has the legal right to collect a debt.

Your statement "...if I do not have a contract with you then I don't owe you," is accurate to a degree, but not accurate if the collection agent possesses an assignment it can validate.
Shirley R.
B/o Medford Lakes, NJ  |  October 24, 2011
HSBC sold our car loan to Santander 1 year ago. There has been nothing but problems. This car was always current. They said it was one payment behind, $330.00. I told them no after paying for this car for 4 years. November payment, No. 72, last payment should be $330.00. They told me today, October 24, 20aa, I still owe $2414.00 for interest. My husband flipped out on them today. Tomorrow, he's calling our attorney.
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Kelly G.
Nauvoo, AL  |  November 10, 2011
HSBC sold mine to Santander also. I called for a payoff quote in January of this year. They told me I owed $6063. My loan was for 60 months and I was to make my last payment on September 9th, 2011. I got a letter in the mail last week saying they are scheduling my car for repossession and I was behind $1743! I called to talk to them and never did get a real person. I did however get another payoff quote (Automated).... Now they say I owe $3893??!! My last payment was supposed to be in September of this year! How do I still owe this much????!! My payoff is different everyday. I don't know what to do.
Bills.com
November 13, 2011
Differences in a payoff letter can arise because of accumulated interest, payments received, or fees charged between different dates. If, according to your original calculations, the loan was supposed to end in September, you should not be making any more payments.

In order to clarify your situation, follow these steps:

  1. Collect all the proof of the payments you made on the loan.
  2. Compare that to the loan amortization schedule in your loan contract and/or your quarterly or annual statements.
  3. Contact your lender. Write a letter  (by fax, e-mail or registered mail) demanding an explanation for any discrepancy between your calculations and theirs.
Stephen J.
Yardley Borough, PA  |  September 26, 2011
My Sovereign loan was sold to these henchmen. Trying to get my insurance check for accident cashed at Sovereign- told they are not authorized even though Sovereign is under Santander. Have to send check to Santander, get repairs, have body shop send them the repair list and they will then send the check to atuo body. If repair is less they take the difference and apply to principal. This is the most convoluterd assinine process. They are not available in person- no brick and mortar bldgs, only internet. Their attitude is arrogant and condescending. Unfortunately, there is nothing we as a customer/consumer can do.
MSBAMA .
November 16, 2010
We too were sold to Santander. We received a letter in September they had acquired our account along with that letter we received a statement the one and only statement. the statement had us owing a balance of $2,852.53 and $15.00 for fees no explanation as to what these fees were,we then mailed a $400 payment on september 10th, we mailed another $400 on september 30th, because we were trying to pay the loan off as quickly as possible we then got a call from them around october 2nd saying the account was past due and they needed to get the entire pay-off or do a modification on the loan, well we didn't to do the modification when we only owed a couple thousand dollars and even though we had the money in our savings we didn't want to pay that much out at once,so we mailed another $400 on the 6th of october,on or around october 11th a repo man showed up at our door saying he had an order to pick up our car,i ask him what do you mean we have sent these people at least $1,200. in the past 3 weeks he stated we have a balance of $2,085.72 past due, I told him well the car is not here he ask where is it,i replied at a relative, I guess he was a pretty good guy or something because he didn't give me any hassle. I then called Santander and spoke with a rep. and asked her why would they send a repo man to our door when we are paying them money on the account she stated the account is so many days past due and thats why it went to repo status so I told her I wasn't aware that you can try to repo a car while its being paid on only when a person is not paying. She continued to say the same thing and inquire as to when we would pay the balance off. I replied to her we would be making another payment, and you are not going to get this car. We have practically paid for this car and now you wanna take along with all our money. I guess I must have made her mad or something,cause she said you don't call here and tell us what we aren't gonna do we can get the car even if we have to send a constable (policeman) to your house and force you to release it. I said fine do that and we'll take you to court. She stated I'm not gonna hold this conversation with you any longer I'm transfering you to someone else. The second rep. got on the phone proceeded to tell me about the balance on our account and when would we be sending a payment,she then said the only thing we could do is a pay-off or modify the account. I agreed to do a modification,she said they could fax the papers or send them to my email. I said email she said when I receive the papers I need to print them out sign them and send them back to and we only had a few days to do that. She said give it up to about 48 hours before we receive the papers. Well, come friday no papers, because it was a monday when I spoke with them. I then called back the following Tuesday, the rep who I spoke to said the mod. was still pending she then said no wait I see where they were sent to your email on october 28th, I said no they were not cause I have checked my email everyday. She then said give me your email address again. I did she then said oh I see what happen the papers were sent to the wrong address. She then pretended to correct my email and stated they would resend the papers to my correct email. I waited 8 days no papers, Called them on the 1st,2nd nov. inquired about our pay-off I was told $2,126.72 I again ask them about the balance and what happen with all the payments we been sending. Same answers interest fees and late charge nov. 2 mailed another $400 called back on nov.8th to ask what our pay-off would be the rep. Ms W. stated $2,126.72 I then got upset and told her how can this still be our pay-off when this is what you all told us before the last 2 payments she then said oh wait a minute hold on it may have been calculated wrong. She then came back on the phone and said it would be $1,725.72 at that point I didn't even have the energy to argue anymore. She said you can either pay it off or do a modification I said we are going to send you a money gram today for the balance. She was like speechless for a second and then she ask you gonna do it today I said yes ma'am we sure is. Now we are waiting for our title a week have past already. When we called they stated the title was mailed on the 11th so thanking god we are done with Santander and hoping they don't try to come back and hit us up for more money.
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