I recently applied for a loan online from Ace America Loans. I was excited when they told me they found a lender that would accept my application. However, my excitement quickly turned to disappointment when I found out that I had to pay the "guarantor fee" for the loan up front before the loan could be processed.
I happened to notice on the contract that there was an option that said "loan fee to be paid from the proceeds of the loan." I e-mailed the company back and asked them why I couldn't have that option instead of having to pay the fee up front. Here is a copy of the reply that I received from the company (copied and pasted from the original e-mail message):
[Text of actual e-mail message from Ace America Loans follows]:
Regarding the guarantor fee, the guarantor fee must be made payable to Ace America with a money order to be included in the overnight package with your signed loan contracts to the lender. This fee is charged up front because to get the loan approved Ace America had to guarantee or co-sign the loan for you.
The reason we collect the "Guarantor Fee" up front is this is the only way Ace America is assured of getting paid. Due to lender contracts, in a transaction of this type, there is only 1 draft written and that is to the Borrower. When this program was first introduced, after the loan was funded, we allowed the borrower to pay the fee to us as an ACH transaction The problem with that is that any individual, such as youself, in a private transaction, has up to 30 days to reverse the transaction and have the bank credit the payment back into their account.
If the borrower of the funds elected to do that, we were still responsible for whatever portion of the loan we provided a gurantee for regardless if we get our fee or not. If you elected not to pay us, we had no recourse other than to sue to collect our fee. Paying an attorney $2,500 to sue for $200 is just not a viable alternative. This is how we keep our fee as low as 4%.
Ray Scott
Loan Officer
Ace America Loans, Inc.
[End of text of actual message from Ace America Loans]
While I was waiting to receive this "explanation" from the company, I happened to find the consumer complaints website and found stories of other people who had been victimized by Ace America Loans. Had I not found your website, I would have become yet another unsuspecting victim.
I am sharing the e-mail message I got from Ace America Loans with the general public to help prevent anyone else from becoming a victim of these unscrupulous people. I am so grateful that I found out the truth before I sent them any money. My heart goes out to the victims who trusted this company to help them, only to find out they had been used.
If my report helps even one person avoid headache and heartache, it was worth taking the time to share this information with you.
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