Just when you thought there weren't any new tribal lenders left to discuss, we now have Cash On Cloud 9 which is a tribally-affiliated loan company.
Cash On Cloud 9 is not trying to win any awards for new financial products or best website design, instead they are trying to go head to head with the other Native American lenders by offering an identical loan product that's found on so many other websites.
Although they aren't entirely identical as Cash On Cloud 9 has taken the extra step of making loans available to those consumers who are on a fixed income, which usually means they are retired but can also refer to someone who is on disability. It's interesting because an applicant who is employed must have a gross income of at least $1,000 per month to be considered for a loan but an applicant who is living on a fixed income needs to only have $800 as a minimum requirement to apply for, and be granted, a loan. Why the different treatment for a person working for a living versus a person who is retired? It's hard to say, perhaps the tendency for a retired person to be responsible and make their payments on time justifies the lower income requirement.
Cash On Cloud 9 is an installment lender, which sets them apart right away from the majority of tribal lenders who are obsessed with the payday lending structure. Installment loans give a substantial degree of time to repay the loan than a payday loan which is going to come due in full the next time the customer gets a paycheck, unless of course that consumer starts the extension game with the payday lender. This is a bleak road for most consumers. It's a better option to go with the installment lender and simply build in the extra time to repay right at the start of the loan.
Having the installment lending program in place is a good thing and normally would be a reason that this site would support a tribal lender like Cash On Cloud 9. Unfortunately there is a substantial problem in that we don't get some very salient details about how the loan is constructed.
We are told that the borrower can get a loan of up to $1,000 but that's not very detailed. A better result would be to say the average borrower will receive around X dollars in a loan. Plus, even if the average lender was truly eligible to receive $1,000 in a loan that's not a very big amount. I can understand when payday lenders top out around $700, $800 or $1K because of the (almost) immediate need to repay the loan in full. But with an installment loan the borrower has several weeks to repay the debt so there should be a higher dollar amount offered.
As a point of comparison we know that Mobiloans offers $1,500 in a single loan, while Plain Green Loans and Great Plains Lending both offer up to $3,000. Tribal lenders that are engaged in the business of installment lending should offer higher dollar amounts than a simple $1K maximum.
Another problem is that the company never mentions the interest rate or the annual percentage rate on their loans. Doesn't that seem like a strange omission? I'm rarely have any confidence in an online lending portal that doesn't seem to be interested in providing their rate information. That information is essential to comparing the interest rates of this firm to their competitors. Another way of saying this is that in general I do not trust companies that provide loans but do not discuss the rates they charge on those loans. It just feels as though they are hiding rather than they forget to inform us.
Knowing the interest rate a consumer will be paying on a debt is knowing the cost of that service. And how often do we, as consumers, pay for products or services that we don't know the cost of? Imagine going to a retail store, clothing store or a restaurant, and planning on making a purchase but not having the cost information readily available to you. It would be absurd at a grocery store to contemplate buying an item but not having a price associated with that product. This is what's taking place on more than a few of these tribal websites that make an offer of a loan, and they do tell us what is available (in this instance with Cash On Cloud 9 they are making a $1K loan available) but then they fail to tell us the cost the consumer will have to bear to pay for that lending service.
A third problem is the firm doesn't really talk about how long their installment loans last. Some installment lenders will have loans that are eight to 12 weeks in length while others have loans that will stretch out well over a year. This is pretty important information for the consumer and to not bother making any reference to it anywhere on the site is just too big of a lapse. It makes me wonder about the judgment of the managers running Cash On Cloud 9, don't they think this is information that we would want to know as we consider signing up for their loan?
Cash On Cloud 9 isn't a terrible lender. Their website is modern, they have a decent amount of web security built into their application form. The company has toll free customer support, email customer support and an interactive chat function Monday through Friday. They offer installment loans instead of the lower quality payday loans. On the surface the functionality and offerings of Cash On Cloud 9 should make them a company that is reliable for getting a tribal loan.
But then there are the drawbacks...
The company only allows up to $1K in a loan even though the loan stretches on for a (relatively) long time. The company doesn't discuss or publish their interest rates, or even a mock example of what a typical customer would pay, assuming the rates might fluctuate. Finally, the fact that we aren't very clear on whether this is an installment loan that lasts a few weeks or a few months is not very settling. There are just too many holes in the necessary information for me to say this is a good tribal lender.
One final note on this lender, I just am not too excited to get my loan from a company with such a silly name. This is a personal decision and it doesn't have a lot to do with logic. And if Cash On Cloud 9 has low interest rates, and had a loan that stretched over six months, and they offered a $3K loan, then you better believe I wouldn't care what they called the company I would recommend them. But since the company is quite limited and we don't know much about important pieces of their enterprise (namely the duration of the loans and the cost of the loans) then we can be more critical of the name.
Cash On Cloud 9? There really wasn't any better company name and/or website name available? I will be sticking with Mobiloans, Spotloan and Plain Green Loans for my Native American lending selections. This company is sitting anywhere but on cloud nine.
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