I took out a loan from UCL for $400 last week. It was my full intention to fully repay the loan on the first due date. I never received any phone contact or email after I applied for the loan. Several days later the monies appeared in my account. Now that I have done some research on-line, I am very weary of this company. I called today to try to get them to take a full payment of the loan this Friday (first payment) and was told that I could no request a payoff over the phone. The operator told me that I would have to log in to thier website to select the payment terms. The operator offered to email me the username and password. Guess what>> no email was ever recieved. I checked my main email and my spam email both. When I try to navigate thier website there is an option for forgotten passwords. But they do not show my email account as being valid. That seems like a simple mistake, except that I had the operator confirm my email address during the telephone conversation.
The more I have read about this company, the more I am convinced that they have no intention of recieving a full payment. They want to charge the fees and make as much money as possible on the "loan".
As a result, I decided to be proactive on the banking front and I have closed my accounts prior to the first ACH. I have assurances from my bank that no ACHs or demand drafts will clear the closed account. So at least I am safe in that regard.
There are other problems that will arise that I am not sure how to deal with:
1. I have $400 of thiers. I am not going to call them in advance of Friday...that would allow them to try to do something to my old account prior to it fully closing. I want to give them back this money. I am smart enough to know that I cannot do any type of electronic transfer (they would get my information that way). In addition, I will not write them a check (same problem). So I need advice on how to engage them to return the funds. I have no problem paying them a fee or two...but how do get any assurance that they will close the loan at that point? Thier track record on this is miserable.
2. They have all of my personal information. SSN#, Driver's License #, phone number, email, personal contacts. I can easily block their calls on my cell phone. I cannot keep them from calling my relatives or my employer. I plan to tell all parties what has happend so they can expect the worst. I will even offer to pay to have my references' telephone numbers changed. That will not make up for the inconvienience, but I think being proactive will go a long way towards minimizing any damage. I will put a lock on my credit reports (they were not that great, but damage is damage).
Does anyone have any further advice? Remember, I am convinced that this company had no intention of making this a one-payment loan. I realize that my actions in advance of thier ACH put me in a difficult situation to argue from. Based on what I have now discovered about them, I do believe that I have taken the initial steps to protect myself from the damage that they have caused others.
Your thoughts?