A livery driver for a fleet owner in Boston was looking for a way to obtain his own car and drive for Uber, the popular ride-sharing service. He heard about a vehicle financing program Uber was promoting to drivers who, like him, had a poor credit history. Roger, who asked to use only his first name for business reasons, signed a lease in September with an Uber-referred lender for a brand new Chrysler minivan.

Now less than a year later, Roger says he is on the brink of bankruptcy while facing weekly payments of $450 for his car lease plus late fees.

Uber, with a head-spinning valuation of $50 billion, has become a dominant force in the passenger transportation industry in large part by luring more drivers to its platform than anyone else. In an effort to maintain that edge and expand its pool of self-employed drivers beyond those who already own a car, the company has been steering potential drivers with bad credit to subprime lenders whose leases lock borrowers into years of weekly payments at sky-high interest rates.

On its website and in promotional emails to current drivers, Uber promotes its vehicle solutions program with pitches right out of the subprime lending playbook. “Credit challenges? No problem. Get on the road in 2 days with $0 down,” reads Uber’s driver signup page.

One of Uber’s first subprime leasing partners was Santander Consumer USA, a subsidiary of the Spanish banking giant. The lender drew the attention of federal authorities in 2014 when the Department of Justice issued subpoenas to the company as part of an investigation into the subprime auto loan market. In February Santander agreed to pay $9.35 million in a settlement with the Justice Department for illegally repossessing more than 1,000 vehicles from active military personnel.

Santander is Roger’s lender. He says his 52-month lease calls for weekly payments of $227 on the minivan, to be deducted automatically by Uber from his earnings. Roger knew this was a steep lending rate but was confident he could handle it. “Even though I was paying through the nose for the car, I thought that it would be OK — I’d be making enough money to cover it.” After a series of missed payments, which Roger blames on Uber’s late start in making its automated deductions, those weekly payment amounts have now risen to $450, he says.

Santander declined to comment when asked about the terms of its leases.

While his lease payments have increased, Roger has seen his income shrink as Uber has attracted more drivers in Boston over the last several months. “They’ve oversaturated the market with drivers,” he says. “My pay has gone down and now I’ve got double payments. It seems like you just can’t get caught up.”

A review of a Santander lease agreement with Scott Eddy, an Uber driver in San Diego, showed weekly payments of $293 on a 52-month lease for a current-year Toyota Avalon. Those payments add up to nearly $66,000 over the life of the lease, for a car with a top sticker price of $39,000. The lease also states that the car may be used only “as a livery vehicle to meet riders’ requests conveyed through Uber,” prohibiting not only personal use but also preventing drivers from working with a competing ride-share service such as Lyft or Sidecar.