Accused of Extortion!!

I would report that employee to their corporate office, I would also file a complaint with the FTC., they should be made aware of the illegal fees etc. That way they can't over charge anymore innocent people! :twisted:

Problem is, this was the owner, not an employee so there is no corporate office. I think they are going to be investigated by the state at least. FTC? Federal Trade Commission?

In that case, I would complain to the State--definately the Attorney General and if you have a Dept of Corporations or identical dept that does licensing them as well.

Sounds like it was a mom and pop payday storefront that is not following the laws.

I am sure they have ripped off a lot of people. Report them to any and all agencies that you can.

They need to be closed down.

Fedup!, what state are you in?

You have reported them to the DFI, which is exactly what you should have done. I would follow-up wth them in a few weeks and discuss the refund of fees with the DFI, they can force the refund after investigating.

In IL, you could file a complaint with the state DFI. The DFI would look at all your documentation, and send a letter to the storefront asking for their response. If DFI didn't think the numbers were legit, then they would sent a state auditor out to the storefront to examine their books and records. If the loan really didn't comply with state laws, then DFI would fine them, force them to give you a refund, and possibly revoke their license.

PDLOwner-
I am in Tennessee. There is a TON more to this story. I know I am 100% in the right, but live in an EXTREMELY small town and even though I want to fight this to the end, I don't want it broadcast. With the job I have, this type of attention would probably be frowned upon. What are my rights as far as confidentiality are concerned?

I know for a fact this place has no idea what confidential means because as I was trying to deal with them, I was called by another customer's full name and told they knew certain members of my family (they called them by name), then told they had already put up with my NSFs, etc. -I told them they had the wrong person-I NEVER had an NSF with them. Later, they figured out they had the wrong person and acknowledged this but not before broadcasting this other customer's business. In addition, I was shown papers that had another customer's name on them-supposedly they are taking this person to court. During the course of this discussion, it was indirectly implied that they could have me arrested.

Can I PM you for a lilttle further advice since you know how these places should operate?
Thanks!

I wouldn;t worry about the "extortion thing" since it is only words and in the end you will prevail. The bigger picture is that you have been paying fees in excess of the the state mandated cap. In one of my states, a violation of this type would require that the lender pay back the entire fee for each loan that was in violation and then a process to determine if the lender would still be in business with a valid license.

You are more than willing to PM me, but I would think that this is information that needs to be on the forum since there are more folks that yourself that are being affected by this place.

Hello,

Just wanted to post an update an get a little further advice.

I received a letter from my state Department of Financial Institutions saying that they were looking into this situation. After waiting several weeks, I emailed the lady I had been in contact with at the state and told her that although I knew she could probably not give specifics regarding their investigation, how would I go about finding out if I would receive any sort of refund for the overpayment. I have not received a response.

This started about a month ago, so possibly it hasn't been long enough for anything to have happened yet, or for the investigation to be complete.

In all, I probably overpaid somewhere in the neighborhood of $1000 or so in fees on one loan to this company, and since they were in violation on the other loan (allowing rollovers), probably about $750 or so. The second was was actually charging the appropriate fee, just violating Tennessee regulations regarding rollovers.

Has anyone received a refund from a storefront who was violating state regulations and approx. how long did it take/what was the process?

Thanks!

Keep on the DFI to follow thru with this. They are now aware of the situation and have probably sent a letter requesting supporting documentation for either side of the argument. When this goes out, a lender would be given 10 days to 2 weeks to reply and another week or two for the DFI to review. If the state finds conclusive evidence for your claim, they may send an auditor out to review documents on site. This is not a short process, so just stay on them and be patient.

Yup.. follow PDLowner's advice. I'm still dealing with a Legal Licensed lender with our DfI and its' been ummm 7months? Since last Sept at least.

Every few weeks I've followed up. They basically have deemed the actions of the legal payday lender "illegal" and are waiting for them to respond. I think that was a few weeks ago.. will be following up myself within a week or so to see if they gotten any response.