Illegal PDL email
" To whom it may concern,
It has come to my attention that payday lenders must be licensed by the state of California in order to offer loans to its residents. Since your company has no license in my state, the loan contract I have with you is not valid. To date, I received a deposit of $250 on 11/01/2016 and have had 4 debits of $75 and one for $87.50. The $250 principal has been paid with an overpayment of $137.50.
At this time I am requesting a return email acknowledging that my loan has been paid in full. Also all phone calls to be STOPPED!
I am also revoking authorization for ACH withdrawals and any wage assignment I may have signed. I have given a copy of these revocations to both my bank and my employer. Any future attempts to collect funds in this manner will be blocked.
Please respond to this email with acknowledgment that my account has been satisfied in full. "
Within minutes I received this reply back
" Please keep in mind that Green Gate Services is a properly licensed tribal lending entity wholly owned by the Big Lagoon Rancheria, California, a sovereign nation located within the United State of America, operating within the Tribe’s Reservation and governed by the Tribe’s Regulatory Authority.
As stated in your loan agreement, upon your signature and acceptance of the Loan Agreement, you entered into a Loan Agreement with a Federally Recognized American Indian Tribe and as such, the laws of the state where you reside are not applicable to this loan agreement. Green Gate Services is a legal tribal lending entity offering installment loans to consumers and is not violating tribal or applicable federal laws. Therefore, you are obligated to perform to the terms you agreed to under the loan agreement.
Please refer to the Governing Law and special note portion of your contract for detailed information. Feel free to contact me should you have any questions. "
How do I go about dealing with this?
Tribal loans are not legal.
Tribal loans are not legal.
Read these threads to know about tribal loan law:
https://forums.debtcc.com/paydayloan/selfgovernment-taxonreservationactivities.html
https://forums.debtcc.com/paydayloan/dealingwith-illegallenders.html
Also, stop paying interest as you have paid enough.
Legally, you owe nothing. The law is on your side. If they don't close the account, take legal steps.
Submitted by Sanders Patricia on Tue, 03/14/2017 - 04:58
I have read both of those and
I have read both of those and I have already stopped paying them 2 months ago. My question is how do I reply to their email?
I read through a lot of posts
I read through a lot of posts on here and shot them back an email and their reply
I am a citizen of the United States and I am bound by the Federal Laws and the laws of my state the state of California. I do not live on your reservation and I am not bound by your laws.
California payday laws I abide by
Legal Status: Legal (must be licensed in CA)
Laws: Cal. Fin. Code 23000 to 23106
Maximum Loan Amount: $300
Loan Term: Maximum of 31 days
Maximum Finance Rate and Fees: 15% of check
Finance Charge for 14-day $100 loan: $17.65
APR for 14-day $100 loan: 459%
Maximum Number of Outstanding Loans at One Time: One
Rollovers Permitted: None (cannot charge fee for extension)
Cooling-off Period: None
Repayment Plan: Voluntary (no fees may be charged in conjunction with payment plan)
Collection Fees: $15 NSF fee
Criminal Action: Prohibited
Their reply
That is irrelevant. You got the loan and agreed to the terms. That means you are bound to the agreement. Read your contract.
My reply
Not irrelevant according to the state of California WHICH your company has no license to do business in….Your laws are irrelevant to me as I DO NOT live on tribal land
Their reply with their soven mumbo jumbo
Keep in mind you can pay this outstanding balance through us at a discount or you can let it go to a collection company for the full balance plus collection costs. This will be reported to your cred for 7 years by the 3rd party collection company once they get the file. Please read the highlighted portion.
Please keep in mind that Green Gate Services is a properly licensed tribal lending entity wholly owned by the Big Lagoon Rancheria, California, a sovereign nation located within the United State of America, operating within the Tribe’s Reservation and governed by the Tribe’s Regulatory Authority.
As stated in your loan agreement, upon your signature and acceptance of the Loan Agreement, you entered into a Loan Agreement with a Federally Recognized American Indian Tribe and as such, the laws of the state where you reside are not applicable to this loan agreement. Green Gate Services is a legal tribal lending entity offering installment loans to consumers and is not violating tribal or applicable federal laws. Therefore, you are obligated to perform to the terms you agreed to under the loan agreement.
Please refer to the Governing Law and special note portion of your contract for detailed information. Feel free to contact me should you have any questions.
My reply
My next action is filing a complaint to FTC, CFPB and Ca. states AG
Proceed accordingly
Annnd their reply
I am sorry to hear that. Your account will be sent to a collection company in 10 days thank you.
Which in turn I replied with
Which I will also file a complaint with the FTC, CFPB and my state AG due to the loan being illegal. Have a nice day
I know you must have been
I know you must have been very upset, but there is a possibility that the payday company might be correct. Though you are living in California and you are opting to be governed by it, they might have placed a clause in your agreement where you are allowing yourself to be governed by the Federal laws to the extent of that loan agreement.
Based on my experience, you have below options
- Refuse to make any further payment: The upside of it is, you don't have to pay them anymore. None of the payday loan history gets reported to credit bureaus. So there will not be any impact to your credit score. The downside of it is, you wont get another loan from this lender. with slight possibility, like may be 5 to 10%, you wont get payday loan from some other lenders as well, if they are all sharing the data, which i doubt. But due to the fact, that your account is going to collection agency, you might be called at your phone number multiple times. Remember they are NOT supposed to come to your house or work place. It is ILLEGAL to do in person collections. But they are completely within their rights to call you any number of times during normal business hours.
-Talk to the manager and ask for payment plan. Most of the lenders are required to give you more time to payoff the balance, without charging you any more fees. Upside you dont have to be worried about collections or calls. downside you will have loose money.
- Approach any debt consolidation company. they might be able to help you.
please krishna.i doubt highly
please krishna.i doubt highly the OP will ever want another pdl again so scratch those last two suggestions.i mean c'mon first you state the loan is illegal(which it most certainly is)then you give two suggestions that state not only should they pay,but the last was hiring another place to negotiate payment.the OP needs to respond just like this:
dear cretin,i know your loans was,is,and always will be illegal.so i will file AG,BBB,AND FTC complaints against your illegal tribal entity.
do that and file the complaints.especially the FTC.as they are looking at tribal lenders after the WESTERN SKY/CASH CALL/DELBERT debacle back in 2010.
Thank you Paul. I did file a
Thank you Paul. I did file a complaint with the CFPB. I received this email
Thank you for contacting the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. We reviewed your complaint and couldn’t send it to the company for a response. This could be because the company is not yet registered to respond to complaints or because we do not currently handle complaints related to this matter.
What happens now?
We entered the information you provided into the Consumer Sentinel Network, a secure online database operated by the Federal Trade Commission. Civil and criminal law enforcement authorities worldwide, including Consumer Financial Protection Bureau investigators, use the Consumer Sentinel Network to identify questionable business practices that may lead to investigations and prosecutions.
Can I hire my own lawyer to look into my complaint?
Yes. While we can’t give legal advice or represent individuals in legal matters, if you want more help you can contact a private attorney or your local legal aid office for free or low-cost legal resources at www (dot)Isc(dot)gov.
Is that it?
Not by a long shot. Complaints help us identify trends and problems in the marketplace and understand the challenges people are facing so we can do a better job looking for these problems when we supervise companies, enforce Federal consumer financial laws and write rules and regulations.
Hearing from consumers like you is critical to our mission. Thank you again for contacting the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. If you need assistance with another consumer finance issue in the future, contact us.
Thank you,
Consumer Financial Protection Bureau