Attorney General Phil Weiser announces Colorado borrowers receive over $3 million in debt relief from Santander Consumer USA

Sept. 10, 2021 (DENVER)—Attorney General Phil Weiser today announced Santander Consumer USA, Inc., the nation’s largest subprime auto financing company, will provide $3.065 million in debt relief for 340 Colorado consumers.

The settlement with the State resolves allegations that Santander’s subprime lending practices violated Colorado’s consumer protection laws by exposing consumers to unnecessarily high levels of risk and knowingly placing consumers into auto loans with a high probability of default.

“This settlement provides hardworking Coloradans with vital relief and establishes strong guardrails to prevent future harm to Colorado consumers,” Weiser said. “We will continue to work hard to protect consumers and encourage Coloradans to report any concerns to our department.”

Under the terms of the settlement, Santander will:

• Cancel consumers’ debt on certain loans it owns;
• Attempt to repurchase consumers’ loans from third parties in order to cancel the debt;
• Engage in credit repair for affected consumers;
• Evaluate a consumer’s ability to pay a loan, based upon a reasonable debt-to-income ratio;
• Not require dealers to sell any ancillary products (e.g., guaranteed asset protection insurance);
• Not require consumers to make payments through methods that require payment of third-party fees;
• Maintain policies and procedures for deferments, forbearances, and modifications, and ensure its employees follow these policies and procedures; and
• Monitor and take action against dealers who inflate a consumer’s income and/or deflate a consumer’s expenses in order to qualify the consumer for a loan.

Consumers eligible for relief will be contacted by Santander. Consumers who have experienced issues related to financing a car may file a complaint at https://coag.gov/file-complaint/credit-and-debt-complaint/.

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