Well once again those of us who have credit problems and need personal loans, not payday loans, but longer term personal loans are easy prey for crooks.
I received a post card telling me that will help me wipe out past debts, and rid myself forever of bad credit situations. On the reverse side of the card it said that I could get personal loans as low as $3,000 and more for vehicles or a new home. It had a phone number and an approval number.
The 800 number and the approval code were just to get me to Florida so i could get the amount i would need to send to get my pre aproved, yes pre-approved personal loan for as little as $3,000 which was the amount i wanted anyway. So, i called and discovered i would have to have a money order for $49.00 for the information that would change my life. They even sent me a one dollar bill to help pay for the money order fee. So on the surface it looked ok. A phone number that worked, although i never could get ahold of this Bob Lyons person, and an address, well actually two addresses because once you call the 800 number you get a letter asking for the $49.00. This letter from Maxi Finance was a Florida address, but just a po box. I should have saw this and the red lights should have went off telling me no street address how would we find them?
So, i got the money order and the material arrived. There was a piece of paper where i could apply for a grant for the money to pay off $1000 of my debt. On the back side were lines where i could list bills i wanted to 'consolidate (which no longer just means getting a loan to pay them off and have just one bill), now it means that someone would call the creditors, with a min amount of credit card debt and arrange a lower interest rate and one payment to pay them all off. I only have 2 small cards but i listed all the things i wanted the personal loan for and the two cards.
I got a call from some consolidation company telling me that i had applied with them to consolidate my bills. When i told them what the bills were they said they could not help me and i asked them why they were calling me when all i wanted was the grant that was on the front. She did not have an answer, this told me that there was no grant application being prepared for me, it was just a scam to get the consolidation company more business.
And about the approved personal and secured loans? They sent a book on how to improve your credit, which firms do not loan to those with poor credit and then a list of lenders for many states that have lenders that supposedly do poor credit loans.in my state there were two and i noticed that one was in most states but they misspelled the name, on purpose i believe so they could say that the loan companies with their name was not the same as the one that is in most states, citifinancial. They have it as city financial. There is no city financial in iowa where i live and the only other loan company was in des moines, iowa and they would not make loans outside the des moines area and no they preferred not to take apps for poor credit.
So, i have a nice thick book to read, and while it does offer decent advice to build credit it does not provide the 'approved loans' that the post card said would be there for me. Living on fixed income, $49 is a lot of money to me and that amount could have been partial payment on a long-term personal loan.
So, beware of Maxi Financial, the only thing Maxi about them is the gall they have to print such lies and to not have anyway to contact them for a refund or even an explanation about what happened to my 'grant application.' oh yes, if you hurry they'll give you a way to get a new computer. But in reality it just provides you with a card that you have to send in another money order and they might approve up to $750.00 for a computer but you must match that amount.
Now, if i had $750 i could buy a good quality computer system, granted it might not have all the bells and whistles but they have intel 4 processors and usually a cd burner or a combo cd/dvd burner and a cd rom drive. And now there is no shipping plus a $100 rebate so my own $720 would buy me a good system, but of course i don't have an extra $750 just sitting here for a computer.
Everything they do requires a new money order and usually has a very quick deadline in which to use it so you cannot file a complaint against them.
Please remember this: that no one can send you something that is 'pre approved' with no idea about who or what you are. The only exceptions are major banks with credit card offers as they get reports from other banks so they do know a bit about you and even they have small print that allows them to decline you if you do not meet their min. Requirements.
So even if a place has a phone number, an address or two and even a name that does not mean that it is a legimate business. Most of these places prey on us the person that has poor credit and i do not know how they know but they do. So throw the maxi post card in the trash and take their $49 fee and put it in the bank to help get you started on a better life. It will come.
Terry
Dubuque, Iowa
U.S.A.
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