There is a new tribal lender that just landed on the scene (as of the end of May 2015) and it's called North Plains Financial. Now for anyone who follows the Native American lending industry (all five of us) this company might look very similar to another tribal lender that has been around for a few years, and that company is called Northern Plains Funding.
Here is a quick point of distinction: North Plains Financial (the new company) is not the same organization as Northern Plains Funding which is an older lending firm.
North Plains Financial does not offer much for their customers. That's unfortunate but not too uncommon at this point, right? It's the rare tribal lender (probably somewhere around 6% or 8% of all the companies) that actually offer an innovative or low cost loan solution that can truly help out a consumer. The rest (by far the majority of firms) offer low grade, high cost options and that's where North Plains Financial finds itself.
The company even has built-in some responses for the inevitable criticism that will dog them. Even their FAQ section on the company site gets people prepared for the various drawbacks to using North Plains Financial. Near the top of the FAQ the verbiage reads "I thought I could receive $1000 or $1500. Is it possible to receive more than $400 for a first-time advance?"
Now realize this is not some customer complaining to the lender about their tiny dollar amount for a loan (North Plains Financial likes to start their new customers off with a $400 or less loan) instead this is the actual language at the company site. This tells you what kind of lender you are dealing with when they are preparing for your complaints by putting the potential complaint into the language of their webpage.
Most companies like to brag and market their services with abandon, yet this lender is preparing us for the worst case situation by consoling us that the $400 loan is the right way to go for new customers. This doesn't do anything to make me want to run out for a new loan from North Plains. And with so many tribal lenders offering all sorts of short-term loans (all of which are unsecured and all of which are relatively easy to qualify for) it just seems awkward for them to have this apologetic tone right from the start.
Another reason I do not really like North Plains Financial was their website.
First, I didn't like the navigation or the arrangement of the site. While it was not impossible to use it just didn't flow very well.
Second, I do not like the fact that it does not inform us more readily about how they are using encryption and the latest software to protect users from anything malicious happening to their data.
Third, and maybe this is just my personal computer, but I had trouble with this site in my browser. When I would go to another tab and then try to return to the tab with the North Plains site my screen would freeze up for a few seconds before I could return to their site. Although this could be on my end it still added to the overall flavor of disinterest I already had for the firm.
North Plains Financial does not bring anything to the table in terms of creativity, innovation or customization. There is not much (if any) flexibility to the construct of their loan product.
If that's not enough there are a good number of states that this company is not willing (almost certainly due to warnings from state financial regulators) and this makes the company less viable even if we did want to use them for a loan. They are not able (or willing) to conduct business with residents from Illinois, California, Colorado, Arkansas, Pennsylvania, New York, Kansas, Washington, West Virginia and others.
Unfortunately for the owners and managers over at North Plains Financial there is really no reason I can recommend the company, there are just too many strikes against this lender and no incentives that I can find to make me interested enough to give them any further attention.
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