Santanderconsumerfinance Reviews 47

Wish I'd read the poor reviews before I wasted my time with Santandar - I confirm the poor service others have had. Wanted business lease and applied via Tesla. Three phone call to Santandar later I've given up and gone elsewhere. 1st call promised a call back. 2nd call told me we were approved and didn't know why it hadn't been posted out. Third call said they had no line to that department and that they didn't have a line to call out either! Unbelievably poor service and zero care for their customers or their own business. Shameful.

THIEVES! I thought this Sharp practise had Stopped. This shower charge £30 to change a Private Plate on a Car. Even though the only work involved is by myself having to send a picture of the new V5. Absolutely cheap nasty mob. I will love it when they go Bankrupt.

Worst finance company in Europe, customer service is non existent, they really don't give a shit 💩💩💩about their customers

I’ve never been more disappointed with a company. After being the victim of a hit-and-run, my insurance issued a check for repairs — but Santander decided they know better than me. Despite paying my insurance and car note, they refused to let me choose my own repair shop or manage the funds for my own vehicle. Instead, they dictated where and how the repairs should be done, completely disregarding my autonomy and urgency. This kind of control over someone else's property and recovery process is unacceptable. If you're considering financing through Santander, think twice.

My PCP ended last month and I returned the car.

All payments were up to date so you would think that was that. But no. Santander sent me two final demand letters stating that i had missed a payment for £6k.

Now thats funny as all payments were made and the car was returned. Also the £6k had no relevance to any payment what so ever.

Santander's answer was “ sorry thats a mistake”. But this despicable excuse of a company has put a flag on my credit score and seems incapable of removing it.

Their customer service is a joke, never give real answers and treat you like dirt.

So unless you want your credit rating decimated for no reason do not deal with this utter disgrace of a company.

If you intend to buy a car and Santander are the only finance option you are given, run out the showroom and go elsewhere.

Be warned.

Dolores R. was very understanding and helpful. I really appreciate all yours and the relevant personnel’s help in resolving my issue. Thank you
Dal

Avoid using Santander Consumer finance to buy car. If you don’t,you will get faulty car being sold to you by dealers! Default on your credit record!!

If you do not want to destroy your credit history, have a default, spent over two years fighting a legal battle and spent thousands of pounds on legal fee, you need to avoid buying car from Saxton 4x4, and using Santander consumer finance. Worst of all, if Saxton 4x4 or car dealer offer you Santander consumer services finance for your car. Just get up and run as fast as you can.
If you doubt my story. Read this.

I bought a car from Saxton 4X4 and was offered Santander consumer finance to finance the car. Having paid £2600 as deposit for the car. On driving home after the collection of the car, red lights came on, showing red faulty lights on the car dashboard, car slowing down, and the car nearly caused a major accident on the motorway twice, this convinced me that the car was faulty. Several call were made to Saxton 4x4. Their receptionist told me that all managers were unavailable and rhetorically informed me that I will get a call back, but I never did.
Eventually the car was returned to Saxton 4X4, 72 hours after purchase as the car was clearly faulty. On returned of the car, Saxton failed to do diagnostic text even at my request.
I reported the case to Santander on the first working day, Santander consumer services colluded with Saxton and denied any fault with the car. Santander demanded that I should be paying my monthly instalment despite the fact that the car was returned to Saxton less that 72 hours after the purchase of the faulty car. After much pressure Santander requested for a diagnostic test over 21 days after the car was returned to saxton 4X4 and had been in custody of Saxton 4X4. The report acknowledges that there was red light on, indicative of a fault. Despite this report Saxton refused to refund my deposit of £2600, until I took them to court and the court rule in my favour an acknowledged that the car was faulty on 30th Dec 2024. After the court case of 30th December 2024 you expect Santander to have remove the default on my Experian report. Still they are pushing it on each other. Up till now the default is still on my credit report.
Santander on the other hand colluded with Saxton 4X4 and demanded that I continue to pay for the instalment of the faulty car that was returned to Saxton 72 hours after purchase. I took Santander to court demanding that they remove the default on my Experian report. Obviously they got their top paid lawyers to request that the court case should be throne out which the court did. Two years I battle with the appeal to date. On 3rd June 2025, the appeal court throw the case. What a justice in the land. Before you buy a car, and using Santander to finance it. you need to think

My wife and I have been leasing vehicles for 12 years using various companies including V4B in the past. We decided to go with V4B with a 4 year, 40000 mile maintenance contract.
We went with a Mazda CX30, everything went smoothly and the vehicle was delivered on time, car was dirty on delivery but never complained as it had been driven over 500 miles and the V4B team had been very helpful.
The problems all started after delivery, they are impossible to get in contact with whether it’s for service, parts or MOT. I found myself constantly waiting for the calls to be answered and be told they’d nobody available to take my call and someone would call me back, which never happened.
In February this year I put a complaint forward about this communication problem and in July I received £100 compensation.
The Mazda was returned in August this year over 8000 mile under contract and what I’d say average condition for a four year old car….only to be sent a bill for £1011 for stone chips etc, After finally getting through to them after a few days trying, I suggest that if I hadn’t put the complaint in maybe I wouldn’t have received this bill.
In my 12 years leasing cars I have never received a bill after it’s been returned.

4 calls in 3 cut then spoke to a guy then again cut off. Says it all really.

These guys get paid for what cutting people off everytime. Ridlecious.

Dear Santander Car Lease,

The car was returned as planned in December 2024 but I’ve just received another payment request (19.03.25).

First, you tried to charge me for next year’s road tax on a car I returned last year. Then, you attempted to bill me for an extended lease—even though the car was returned on time. And now, you’re trying your luck again with a charge for “no service.” Impressive dedication.

Thank you for your incredibly thorough six-week investigation, which led you to the remarkable conclusion that the vehicle has no service history whatsoever. Your commitment to customer service is, quite frankly, second to none.

That said, I do have the tiniest concern that your findings might not be entirely accurate. I was all set to accept them, but then—oh, what do you know—I remembered that I had already told you the vehicle does have a full service history. Funny thing is, it took me all of four minutes to confirm this.

It’s a shame your investigative team wasn’t able to crack this particular mystery. But let me offer a little insider tip—just between us. If you call Mercedes-Benz, provide the vehicle’s registration number, and simply ask, they will magically tell you the service history. Hard to believe, I know. But don’t worry—you can thank me later.

Perhaps your team could consider this revolutionary technique in the future? Or, if that’s too much trouble, you can always stick to your usual approach—asking customers for an arbitrary £200.

Rest assured, I’ll be sharing my experience on social media so future customers can fully appreciate the world-class investigative skills they’ll be dealing with.

Best regards,

Do not use this company if you are buying a car on finance!!
When it came to settlement i called them they gave me wrong amount and also sent me a letter stating balance to pay i paid it then they came chasing for more because they made a mistake!! and wouldn't wait for payment making threats with default and credit file stay away totally Inept useless staff!! and do not care about the consumer

I realise as to why Santander don't respond on here. My experience proves that they are perhaps the worst banking organisation about. I spent 75 minutes on a call to them yesterday. The call was answered and they left me listening to music for 75 minutes!!!!! Words fail me. I’m attempting to pay off settlement figure for a car. They clearly don’t want me to pay it off. I have a large sum of money on deposit with Santander. That will be moved out from them tomorrow. My own bank, First Direct does not recognise the bank details of Santander. Both banks blame each other however further discussion with FD would indicate that the problem is with Santander. Question. Is there a worse bank than Santander? I doubt it.

Quite simply the worst it is possible to be. Literally DOZENS of phone calls to sort out finance on a broken car being returned to dealership. Could never get through, almost never called back, took months to sort out. Lackadaisical staff, working from home, who didn't know and didn't care. Just a nightmare from start to finish. Absolute horror-show!

It’s a shame we have to even award a one star review.
I have just had the displeasure of being kept waiting for an advisor to answer my call, 50 minutes and counting. I don’t have the time for this, anyone in management would realise that this is an unacceptable level of customer service, yet they do nothing about it.
I will not be using this company ever again…

Absolutely disgusted by the customer service in UK. Is one of the most unprofessional, untrained, unexperienced customer service provider that I ever met and this is a WARNING for all of you in UK looking to deal with them: DO NOT!!! Stay away from this people, they cannot even handle a phone call, they will shut the phone in your nose cause, they will never sort out your issues and you will never be able to speak with anyone competent ever! This is from far the worst bank experience i ever encounter with a bank!!! STAY AWAY FROM SANTANDER AT ALL MEANS!!!!

I have spent over a week trying to get a settlement figure. I tried via the website and it doesn't work. They also tell me they have posted it to me but I haven't received it. They have zero interest in customer service

Last year I purchased a brand new £33000 Kian Niro HEV4 using Kia Finance (Santander). After a few weeks I noticed a fault with the gearbox and, as advised by Kia Motors I took to my local dealer who could not f8nd a fault. Provided video evidence and a report from Auto Express which showed the same fault with the Kia press car they had, dealership looked again and found no fault.
Beginning of December 2022 I contacted Santander and rejected the car. It took until mid January for them to have an independent engineers report carried out which confirmed the car was faulty. Santander Refused to accept the finding of their own engineer!
I then had to stop driving the car and contacted the financial ombudsman.
To cut a long and harrowing story short, the car was off the road for 8 months, during which time I had to buy another car to keep me mobile.
In August the Ombudsman found in my favour and gave Santander 28 days to complete a refund and several other items.
As I write this it is day 57 and they still have not completed the Ombudsman’s instructions. Absolutely appalling.
Avoid using this Company their service is terrible.

Out of date finance service with zero customer care.
Had a car finance via Mazda, and after paying a clearance amount it has taken 12 days so far and today they have finally 'cleared' the finance BUT can only post or FAX a letter to confirm. To get that much information too over 2 hours on hold. They are unable to email anything out due to the, in their own words 'old systems'. They expect it to take 3 -5 days to update the status on the website from today.
They are still blaming Corona V for poor service and long hold periods - the hiding place for all bad service.

I missed a phone call from them this afternoon. I missed the call by seconds - it was an 0800 number. I immediately called back only to hear a voice saying that the number cannot be reached. Absolute b*llsh*t!!

Where do I start, apply for 0 balance transfer credit card. Lucky that was small amount. You done it twice. On the phone endless time until someone answer. Onse that resolved trying link on the app impossible my bank first direct is not on the list. So on the phone again, so I can pay, nope can't even do that. Finely contact my bank so they can pay the full amount balance. Again on the phone 20 minutes waiting so I can cancel and close the account. Your app is not up to standard, your online chat useless. Over all shambles from start to end.