Consumer complaint received 2023-02-20
Company: Paramount GR Holdings, LLC
State: CA
Product: Payday loan, title loan, or personal loan
Sub-product: Installment loan
Issue: Charged fees or interest you didn't expect

Complaint:
After a home improvement project, the bill was {$29000.00}. The contractor put me with company named " Goodleap '' offering " 6 months no interest. '' Their loan document provided on XX/XX/XXXX, eight days before funding stated : " Your first payment date will be due approximately six months ( the Promotional Period ) after your loan start date. '' Because of this, upon loan funding of XX/XX/XXXX, I expected my first payment to be around XX/XX/XXXX. 

The loan funded on XX/XX/XXXX while I was away on vacation, and they emailed a " Loan Closing Certificate. '' Upon my return about two weeks later, I received the Loan Closing Certificate as well as Goodleap 's first monthly statement dated XX/XX/XXXX in email. 

The Loan Closing Certificate said my " promotional period '' ( of no interest ) is six months. It also said my " first payment date '' is XX/XX/XXXX. This made no sense because this is seven months later and the loan document of XX/XX/XXXX previously stated that my first payment date would be in six months. 

The statement dated XX/XX/XXXX also said my " first payment date '' is XX/XX/XXXX, but there was no mention whatsoever about the " promotional period. '' This worried me, so I logged on to my account on Goodleap 's website and could not find any further terms or information about the promotional period and what the actual date was to pay by to avoid paying interest in line with their " 6 months no interest '' offer. 

Because of these discrepancies, I called Goodleap 's customer service line and they assured me that my first payment date of XX/XX/XXXX is correct and not to worry. So I believed them and did not worry when I saw the same thing on each subsequent monthly statement from XX/XX/XXXX to XX/XX/XXXX. Since I thought what they told me was correct, I planned to pay them off about a week before XX/XX/XXXX. 

On XX/XX/XXXX I got a different looking statement dated XX/XX/XXXX showing that the promotional period expired on XX/XX/XXXX and I owed them {$1700.00} ( now {$1900.00} ) in interest. I called them immediately but nobody could help me as it was late in the day on Friday. Immediately after hanging up, I logged in and paid the entire {$29000.00} I owed them. 

The following week I finally spoke on the phone with someone who said she would get my issue to the right department. I then got an email from their representative, XXXX XXXX. He stated that the payment date of XX/XX/XXXX was correct and that I owe them interest of almost {$2000.00} because I missed the promotional period payoff date of XX/XX/XXXX. I wrote back saying that I missed the date because they provided conflicting payment information, and never gave the actual date to pay off by the end of the promotional period. 

Because of the conflicting misinformation provided by their documents and phone representative, I asked him to please reverse all interest and close the account. He wrote back saying that they could not reverse owed interest on this loan. 

The only payment date they gave was XX/XX/XXXX and never provided the date of the end of the promotional period to avoid interest. Every single creditor I have ever had that offered free financing has been clear about the terms of the promotional period and provided the exact date to pay by in order to avoid interest. I believe that Goodleap deliberately omits this date from all their documents and statements to confuse people into missing that payment so they can charge for a lot of accrued interest. 

Do I have any recourse in this matter?

Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation