It didn't take very long for the complaints to start piling up against Gallery Cash Now but before we join the complaint list too quickly we have to note that the number of complaints is substantially below other tribal lenders. And Gallery Cash Now is at least two years old at this point so we can't use the excuse that they haven't been around long enough not to be complained about.
Let's read about the best complaint that I could find anywhere and the one below is truly the best. While it details the problems with using Gallery Cash Now it also shows us the type of unwitting customer that tends to make up at least 25% (albeit that is a rough estimate) of all tribal lending customers.
People simply do not realize what they are getting into when they sign the dotted line for these Native American loans. But at the same time we have to point the finger at companies like Gallery Cash Now and try to understand how it is reasonable (even if they have the legal authority via their tribal lending laws) to charge 700% or 780% APR on their loans.
The question we need them to answer (well, if the company was still a going concern they could answer) is why they think it is alright for them to charge so much just because they can. What's wrong with charging 300% APR to a customer? That still creates a high degree of profitability for the lender. These are moot points because tribal lenders are going to charge exactly what they want to charge evidently because making more money is always better than making some money.
With that being said below is the number one complaint that I could find for Gallery Cash Now...
I took out a loan for $500 from the company called Gallery Cash Now. That company has a website that indicates that repayments can be made to pay down the loan, however the payments that I have provided are not being applied to my outstanding debt.
Below is a list of the dates I made repayments and the amounts of those payments, and in case anyone is wondering they were all processed and cleared through my bank checking account with no returns or trouble. The payments add up to a total of $2,196 and change.
The company processed a payment every two weeks since the original loan of $500 was received by me back in October. I feel the company needs to explain why the payments have not been applied to the loan. These guys also have been instructed to take no more repayments from my checking account and fortunately my bank is going help out in this matter. The company keeps saying they will get back to me but I keep waiting.
Alright, so that complaint from Customer X (which by the way is from January of 2014 and they seem to be referencing a loan that they received in October of 2013) is not too strange. In fact this review (complaint) is right in line with a few others that are out there. The problem has two major pieces.
First, Gallery Cash shouldn't be charging so much money. A $500 loan has no business charging a total of $2,196 to repay that same loan. And it's not like this loan stretched over the course of several months or a year, we are talking about four or five months. Tribal loans are terribly expensive and customers (especially new customers that are unfamiliar with how these loans operate) are going to keep getting burned by getting into a financial product that is clearly beyond their control.
Second, the customers are just not doing their due diligence when they are jumping into debt. Americans spend so much time watching movies and playing video games, all these hours used for digital media experiences. But how much time do they invest in reading the fine print of a loan that they sign and that will govern their financial future, and thus the lives of them and their families? Maybe five minutes? Maybe 1 minute? Perhaps they didn't read one word about the how the repayment system will be structured? This shifts some of the burden away from a company like Gallery Cash Now that surely supplied this information to the customer. That's one thing these tribal lenders do religiously and that's give all the excruciating details about how the loan will operate once it is established. The customer must take some of the responsibility for this loan as they are the ones who signed for it and made it happen.
There is a reason why so many short-term tribal lenders are going out of business. Treating customers (including the irresponsible customers that do not read) so poorly and then getting so many negative reviews doesn't help them.
In the end all the negative commentary and the negative press that has followed created a large number of regulator complaints. In the end the negative tone of these companies catch up to them and the firms are forced to close.
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