Americas Credit Funding Group Ltd called me this morning right after I had finished speaking with my car finance company. A friend had lent me money to keep my car from being taken from my driveway.
Antonished is how I felt when I heard that I had been approved for the $5,000 loan I had applied for online over the weekend. The service I used was for persons with bad credit history - the information goes out to over 200 lenders.
I hadn't really expected a call, as I has exhausted so many avenues trying to get a loan. Now this Monday morning with my car secure and now this news, maybe good fortune was finally coming my way, I thought.
The contact person, Stacy, was good at her job. Just the way she repeatedly spoke of how I was approved and that she just needed to explain the terms. These were just formalities - everything was a go! Six percent interest. She told me that the $10,000 loan was a better deal and I began imagining how my life was going to be much less stressful, how I could take care of bills, rent and save the extra money as a cushion.
The "dropping of the shoe" came at the end of what had been for me a pleasant experience, as weeks of accummulated stress seemed to be melting off my shoulders.
She told me that before I could get the money deposited in my account, I would need to choose one of three options. Then I felt the stress coming back and asked her, "Why didn't you bring this up at the beginning?" I didn't know what the options were yet, but I did realize that I had been taken in - there was a catch and she had needed to get me hooked first.
Option 1 - use your house as collateral, Option 2 - get a co-signer and Option 3 - pay an insurance fee to the lender of $600, $700 or $2,500. Now option one and two were not applicable to me and I had indicated that on my application.
I was still back in wonderland at this point and slowly started to come out of it as I asked Stacy questions about this fee. "Why couldn't the lender just take this out of the loan?" I asked her. Stacy was quick to jump on that, saying that would not be possible.
While I had been talking with Stacy, I was also trying to locate her company on the Internet. I told her that I could not find it and she told me that it was under construction. I responded by saying that I needed to check out her company further at which point she became rather excited and agitated, practically yelling at me. She told me that they were a very credible business.
Later on, after doing much research (I still could not find any information about this company), and reading about loan scans that ask for fees up front, I called her back. I was a bit agitated myself at this point. I told her that there wasn't any information with the Better Business Bureau, she arrogantly stated that I wouldn't find anything there.
Not so anymore, as I filed a complaint with them online this evening and now I am making a "complaint" here. Borrower beware!
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