Just as all tribal lending companies have a good number of complaints, so does Advantage Cash Services. It's not possible to run a tribal lending operation without getting complaints splattered across the internet. This is how it goes for Advantage Cash Services, a pretty standard Native American loan company. We will look at some of the reviews of this firm from across a number of forums, review websites, and complaint boards.
The first complaint against the company is from August of 2011, where a customer writes "Advantage Cash Services is about to make me scream, they will not stop calling my job after I have repeatedly told them that this is a place of business and not to call back. My boss as well as other co-workers have told them the same thing." Not to burst the bubble of this customer, but I don't think Advantage Cash Services is too worried about making people upset or not making new friends. They are interested in getting paid and that's it. The problem is that taking out a Native American loan and not staying current with the loan will result in a high number of phone calls, to your home, to anyone you listed as a personal reference and to your employer. There's a good chance you will start receiving a barrage of snail mail letters and a pile of unhappy email as well.
The next complaint is the type that is showing-up more these days and it's the kind that gives you a chill up your spine, unless it makes you infuriated. Many complaints against tribal lenders these days are about people who are potential customers, where they fill out an application for a loan. They haven't decided to take a loan yet and they haven't signed any loan documents, they are simply applying to see if they qualify and to see how much money they would qualify for. But then something happens. What happens? Within a few days there is a deposit into the (potential) customers checking account. This is the same checking account that was provided when the would-be customer applied for credit. But again the customer did not decide to be a customer, they were assigned a loan. They were force fed a loan. They were issued credit without any loan documents.
If this sounds too unrealistic or crazy to be happening then just stop and believe it, because it not only has appeared on hundreds of online complaints it has also happened to me (the author of Native Loans) so you better believe it is taking place. Now we should point out that it's not just Advantage Cash Services that is being accused of doing this type of nefarious transaction, there are dozens of companies now alleged to have done this type of forced loan without an official request for a loan. But the fact that these complaints are now appearing with Advantage Cash Services should make you very wary of even applying with this company.
Below is the complaint that was written in August of 2011, where the customer states...
"A few months ago I filled out information on one of those lender network web
sites for a payday loan. They were NOT lenders themselves, but a company that can get loans with other lenders. The next day I
received a deposit of $300 into my bank account from Advantage Cash Services
(advantagecashservices.com). The beginning of June, I closed my bank (checking) account
after paying $90 every two weeks, which started on 4/22, 5/6, 5/20 and 6/3 totaling $360. I do not remember at
any point requesting this specific loan and believe it was just put into my
account after I filled out a form on the lender's network site.
Since the account was closed, they have now started to call me. They state
I now owe them $510. I told the guy I don't remember ever having signed a contract with this particular company at all and he stated I could see the (original) contract online at their website. He was very rude and
stated they were located in Oklahoma. Their website states they are an Indian
reservation lender and they're part of a sovereign nation.
I attempted to log into the site, but any username and/or password I would use for their site doesn't work. I requested the site send me my password to the email account on file. I
have not received anything in email from them as of yet. Seems strange that I can't log into "my own" account.
I did receive
an email from them this morning stating to go to my account on the site to
make a payment. I can easily log into the site now, but it does not show the original
contract." And of course it will not, because this customer never, ever signed anything with the company. Why would someone, especially a person so well spoken and genuinely so open and honest as this person is lie about all of this? They wouldn't, this "customer" (on demand customer) is not lying and they never did sign for a loan from this firm.
Advantage Cash Services is clearly somehow associated with other lenders, as the person wrote, the "lender network" which is true. But this means that all of these firms are sharing your personal financial data with one another. How many lending companies are we talking about? Does the network have 10 companies or 20 firms, how many times exactly is your information being passed around freely? What if one of those companies does not have good data management or good website security? This is not a good situation at all, at least not by my estimation.
Here is one last complaint that comes from a customer back in July of 2012. The customers (now an ex-customer) writes "I feel this is an injustice and wish there was a way for (someone to) me help out. I have been doing my research and Ameriloan and Advantage Cash Services share the same tribal arrangement. I want to say they are way above the national rates, they're just plain old sharks after my money."
Well, it's hard to argue with that complaint. The fact is that Advantage Cash Services (and Ameriloan for that matter) are truly expensive forms of credit. And 10 years ago none of us would even have considered paying this much for small payday loans when credit was so widely available and readily obtained. But those days have passed and these are the loans we are left with now. One problem on the customer side here is that I have no doubt that Advantage Cash Services made the loan rates very clear on the loan documents. It is so essential to read the loan agreement when (and if) you sign for the tribal loan, I can't stress that enough. And if you do sign, the second big concern you should have is paying the debt off as quickly as possible.
Most of these Native American lenders even say on their websites that this is a very expensive form of credit. If you haven't paid attention, then now is the time, because it is a true statement. Tribal loans are very accessible but at the same time they are very costly. Anyone who is going to take one of these loans must understand that concept or they will be out of a lot of money in very short order, and then they will be out on these complaint boards complaining that the tribal loan shops took their cash.
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