The new year (it's January 16th, 2015) is looking to be a big year for new Native American loan companies as we have already found six new companies and it looks like there are still many more out there. Why are so many new tribal lenders coming into the market in 2015? It might have to do with banks processing their transactions (getting the banks to still work with them) or it might just be an attempt to start the new year out with some new branded images and try to get a fresh start with consumers searching online for new debt sources.
The latest company to get involved is The VIP Loan Shop. By the way, it's not "VIP Loan Shop" it is "The VIP Loan Shop" if you are searching online the company actually does have "The" in the website name and in the company name. Also, it has the number "1" in the title at the end of the web address. So if you are trying to get to the company site it is www.TheVIPLoanStore1.com which is a bit complex for someone who is just given a reference to go to VIP Loan Store.
To make matters a little more confusing (this is just one more side note) and it's not a big deal, but there is another VIP Loan Store company that is not a Native American lender.
This "other" VIP Loan Store company has a ".net" at the end of their company website as opposed to the more typical (and more accepted) '.com' address, which is how our tribal friends set-up their site.
Now for the real question, which is whether or not we should even bother using The VIP Loan Store? My first response is to shop somewhere else for your loan. The VIP Loan Store is another provider of the "Go Loan!" loan product which we are finding more and more these days. There must be at least 15 online websites (although each one is technically an independent company) that are trying to sell the Go Loan at this point in time (as of March 31, 2015) and frankly it is getting just a little tiring.
The Go Loan is an attempt to re-brand what has been a very standard tribal loan (industry wide across at least 200 companies) where we have a payday loan that charges a 30% bi-weekly interest rate for every two weeks the loan is outstanding. There is nothing new about this loan. Now, the one positive the Go Loan has going for it is that The VIP Loan Store is willing to reduce the first time borrower finance charge (that's the interest payment) by 50% for new customers. That does make this loan somewhat interesting because now we are down to a 15% bi-weekly rate and this is not a terrible rate for a Native American lender. To give some perspective the 15% rate is the same rate that's charged to lower tier loans over at Mobiloans, specifically Mobiloans charges a 15% rate on any loan (technically it is a line of credit) made that is less than $500.
For a new customer that has never worked with The VIP Loan Store then I can't flatly say that it's a bad idea to use them for a loan. If you have made up your mind about getting a tribal loan and a 'better' company like Mobiloans will not work with you (say for instance that you live in a state that they are no longer willing to service) then you might want to consider The VIP Loan Store.
But here is the catch...
While they are decent for a first time borrower, they are far less attractive for a returning customer which is actually quite backwards when you consider how most companies operate. The majority of lenders (and all types of firms) usually reward returning customers with a better price. But in this case we have The VIP Loan Store that is running a special in an attempt to acquire new customers. And that's fine because it works out for potential customers who are interested in getting a one-time loan for a quick financial fix.
Just be sure you don't find yourself a year from now repaying on a fourth or fifth loan through this lender, otherwise you will have needlessly burned through a lot of financial fees that could have been prevented by using other Native American loan firms, such as Plain Green Loans or Great Plains Lending.
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