My Flex Cash is a new tribal lender, but let's find out if the company actually lives up to what is implicit in the firm's name. Does this lender offer a degree of flexibility when it comes to borrowing money? Or is it more like another (extremely typical) tribal lender trying to get you borrow money at a high interest rate?
The answer is "yes" they are just another high interest lender, and certainly not one that will help your financial situation, especially in the long run.
The first warning sign with My Flex Cash is their "How It Works" page on their site, which explains next to nothing about how the potential loan is going to work. The "How It Works" section only shows three steps, which are apply for the loans, get approved for the loan and then get the money electronically deposited into your checking account the next business day.
Alright, let's not kid ourselves, we already know that there are hundreds of Native American lenders who perform this exact same routine. You have to love how My Flex Cash is acting as if this is some startling new online convenience for their customers. And what they do not mention is how long can the customer keep the funds? Is the loan for two weeks or two months? And by the way how much will the loan cost? You would think under the how it works area there would be some mention about the interest rates that will be tied to the debt. Fortunately we do get the "APR Disclosure" page which shows us that My Flex Cash is just another 30% tribal lender.
What does the 30% allude to? In case you were hopeful it does not mean that there is a 30% APR tied to the loan but rather that every 14 calendar days that a customer has the loan outstanding the amount due on the loan is 30% of the principal amount. For example, if you had a $300 loan with this lender at the end of the first 14 days of the loan you would owe them $90 (which is 30% x $300 borrowed) and that $90 is strictly just the interest on the loan, not a penny of that payment will go towards repaying the principal on the loan.
If borrowing from My Flex Loan didn't seem too inviting at first then these high rates should make the whole situation even less appealing. If you think back to what were called high interest rates on credit cards and merchant cards (like Macys or Sears) and remember that people were bitterly complaining about 22% and 29% APR rates, it's just funny because now (in the face of tribal lending) these rates appear to be incredibly cheap. Times change and not always for the better, especially in our modern business climate in the USA.
There are some decent tribal lenders out there that I have reviewed in the past, companies like Great Plains Lending and Mobiloans, plus Spotloan and RadiantCash. Also, if you work for the government, or your spouse works for the government, try applying to Superior Funding which a specialized tribal lender that serves government, military and US Postal employees.
Overall just remember that Native American lending, although easy to acquire, is very expensive and much harder to repay than you realize when you are first looking over the loan documents. It's one thing to read that you will owe 30% interest due every other Friday but it is a much different set of emotions when it comes time to actually part with that amount of money for paying only the interest. The principal amount of the loan will be hard to pay off when you are dealing with the burden of the finance fees. Make sure to think twice before agreeing to loans such as My Flex Cash wants to offer.
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