A few months ago I noticed that the website Clear-Loans.com was getting ready to become part of the Native American lending family of sites. Usually this process takes more than a few months, I believe it is due to the paperwork that needs to be filed to be an official tribal lending company. Sometimes you will see a "coming soon" message on the future site for a few weeks or a few months, or even longer. One company, Black Bear Advance, had the "coming soon" sign in place for over a year.
But in the case of Clear Loan Solutions they have jumped right in and the company site is already operating. Not only has the company already issued some loans there are already some reviews and discussions about the company online. Clear Loan Solutions wins the award for getting into the market more quickly than anyone else and getting some customer responses (as in new business) faster than any other tribal lending outfit. I remember when Kashia Lending started more than a year ago and there were still no reviews anywhere online after they had been opened for months.
Since we don't have any customer endorsements or complaints about Clear Loan Solutions we will have to provide a review based on what the company offers and how the quality of their website appears.
Clear Loan Solutions is a Native American lender (of course) but one thing that you will notice right away is the fact that they (very publicly) display this fact. Most tribal lenders tend to hide the fact that they are tribally-based down in the fine print of their site. Clear Loan Solutions is going the complete opposite direction as they display the phrase "A Tribal LLC" prominently across the top of their site.
Just like so many other tribal lenders the requirements to get a loan are very basic. Any potential customer will need to have a steady income that can be demonstrated. That means you can't say that you are working for your mom and make $2,000 a year, and you can't say that you are making consistent income from the stock market. The lender will want to see a copy of your pay stub and/or they will want to see a copy of your bank statement to show the direct deposit of your salary or wages. Beyond that the applicant must be at least 18 years old and they must not be an active member of the U.S. Armed Forces. Also, the customer must have a working checking account. These are all standard requirements that almost any tribal lender would want to check on before issuing a loan.
Now what about the question of whether or not we should even pay Clear Loan Solutions the time of day. We know all about their requirements for us to get a loan from them, but should we even bother to acknowledge that they exist?
Do you want the quick answer? It's "no" you should move along to another tribal loan shop. The cost of doing business with Clear Loan Solutions is too high, at least in my personal opinion. There are other Native American lenders like Plain Green Loans or Mobiloans that provide just as much money to borrow but at lower interest rates.
For those of you who want to learn more about Clear Loan Solutions you can keep going by reading the information below...
Clear Loan Solutions does do one thing very clearly, which is publishing their interest rates. The APR is not surprising as it gears around a very typical loan structure that is found throughout the tribal lending industry. This rate is 30% rate that needs to be paid on a bi-weekly basis.
The way the loan works is that the borrower needs to pay at least 30% of the total outstanding amount of the loan every 14 calendar days that the loan is still unpaid. This is the absolute minimum amount. This works out to be around a 780% APR, that's in theory because it would mean the loan would have to be renewed 26 times which is not even an option. But the annual percentage rate, the rate at which you will pay as if the loan were to last a full year, is over 700% and that's just too high.
Another problem that I have with Clear Loan Solutions is that the loan amount is only $500. I realize that many potential borrowers do not care about that low dollar amount and in reality many people only want access to these smaller amounts. But that doesn't change my opinion on the firm. I want to give my business to tribal lenders that provide loans that range from $1,500 up to $3,000. That's another reason why I like Mobiloans and Plain Green Loans. Great Plains Lending is another larger provider.
The final reason I would tend to stay away from Clear Loan Solutions is the fact that they are a payday lender. Much like the rest of the payday lending crowd they are always making the offer of extending your current loan.
That's not much of a value proposition to people who are actually looking for a real loan product. Having a payday loan that keeps getting extensions is not truly debt in my mind, even though I know it officially is classified as a debt. It's more like a financial obligation or financial burden, but not a debt.
Are there any good things to say about Clear Loan Solutions? Their website is new and has a strong layer of security so if you do decide to get a loan you can rest assured that your information will be safe. Also, the site is very intuitive and simple to use. And the company does put their rates out there for the public to see, which is not that common these days. More and more loan companies are making the decision to conceal those rates and just hope that people will still apply with them. What a business model, trying to get people to blindly beg for a small loan. At least Clear Loan Solutions isn't that bad.
I would personally keep shopping for other tribal lenders. If you are dedicated to getting a payday loan through a Native American lending shop then apply with RadiantCash, they have a very strong repeat customer incentive program.
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