We fell behind by 3 months on our boat loan last year and subsequently the boat was reposesed in June 2010. Within 1 week I was able to settle with GEMB and pay all of the back payments, the repo fees, etc. The balance on the boat I was told was $22, 000.00 if I wanted to pay it off.
Since the repo, we made arrangements to have the funds automatically deducted from our bank account, therefore leaving no room for delinquency or late fees. We were now 2 months ahead of our payments. As of this date, GEMB is still receiving the monthly payments. All of our mail has been going to a PO Box for the last five years and yesterday I picked up the mail and found an invoice from Santander for $25, 520.00. I contacted them and was told that they bought the loan effective April 9, 2011. I have never received a phone call or letter from Santander or GEMB stating the loan was sold.
I can now not get a hold of GEMB, as I would like a payment history from them to prove the correct balance. Santander states that they can only look at the history from April 2011 and the balance is what it is.
What is my course of action on this?
Well I'm back! I have called Santander 3x since May 17th to obtain "the letter" stating they have bought our GEMB boat loan. As I never received a letter (it went to a street address of which we haven't lived at for 2 years!) Today I call and am told that they cannot provide a copy of the letter.
WHO ARE THESE PEOPLE! What kind of customer service is this? It sounds like they are praying that their customers fall behind on payments so they call repo!
Where can we go to get some help?
We just received a bill from Santander for June 2011 saying we were 2 months behind in our payments on our camper - we didn't even know who Santander was or what this was for. Turned out, we, too, apparently had our loan through GEMB (made through automatic bank payments the first of every month) sold to this company (we had never heard of before) "Santander" as of April. And here we were, JUNE, having made payments to GEMB in April, May, and June on the first of the month, without one word from GEMB OR SANTANDER in any formal manner informing us of the change. The bill included 2 LATE FEES because of them not receiving our payments in a timely manner! Well, SOMEONE at GEMB got our checks and didn't have a problem depositing them in their account. After 6 calls in one day from Santander to my husband's cell then 3 to his business phone, he was informed we are behind on our payments and would we take care of the bill right then on the phone. #1 - we don't even know who SANTANDER is. #2 - We have paid our bill in a timely manner for every month to GEMB! and #3 - we don't happen to have an extra $500 to give SANTANDER (whoever in the world they are) when we have already paid GEMB and #4 - Santander moved our payment due date up by several days resulting in having to make 2 payments within one month in order to catch up and avoid further "LATE FEES!"
By the time I called the company myself to straighten things out, I find somehow GEMB must have forwarded ONE of our checks to SANTANDER that very afternoon - and it is credited to our account - but it is still considered to be LATE! And the person on the phone who I speak with barely speaks English and can't give me anyone's name that I can talk to who can answer any of my questions about how I get these late fees removed, how I get my date of payment adjusted to what it was, and to inform me how my account became a part of SANTANDER in the first place! What she can tell me is I can fax a written statement to [protected] so someone, somewhere can review my "claim" that I don't deserve to be charged a late fee for my late payments which I have to prove that I made! ...and who exactly is Santander anyway? Can I trust this? Why would GEMB not be professional and make sure my payments went to the right place if not to them and why wouldn't they make sure I felt secure in making my payments to a reputable company. And WHY can't SANTANDER make any effort to TALK to me person-to-person so I can speak with a human who can tell me what will be done to address this situation rather than ME have to find proof that I made payments! And have to send a FAX (which I don't even have access to) to someone "begging" to have my bill straightened out.
Call your Attorney General, get a personl lawyer (they usually don't charge up front if they think they can sue this company) and refinance if you can through a credit union . My story is almost the same as the above camper story except they repoed mine. No notice from GEMB or Santander that they bought the loan, no calls about late payments since they were all sent to GEMB and then forwarded by "pony express" to Santander making them 2 weeks late every time. This company should be shut down but sounds like they are a branch of the Banco Santander of Spain. I got my camper back but plan on pursuing this through the courts if I can.
Well ours was different in we had boat a boat in 2006, paid extra to Santander to pay the loan off early and then they sold it to GEMB who did not send us anything until they used up all the extra money for payments @ $ 333.00. 15 months latter they wanted to talk. Now, ( 2021) I just happened to notice that the trailer is still in lein to them as lender. That is the only reason I happened to find this page. Now I am wondering if I will ever be able to get title?