Consumer complaint received 2023-11-15
Company: Upgrade, Inc.
State: WA
Product: Payday loan, title loan, personal loan, or advance loan
Sub-product: Installment loan
Issue: Problem when making payments

Complaint:
I lost my job in XX/XX/XXXX and had been barely making my payments with my unemployment. Unfortunately, I ran out of unemployment benefits in XX/XX/XXXX and had XXXX income to pay for gas let alone bills. I finally found a job and was working towards paying back my creditors. I logged into my account a handful of times to see how much I needed to pay, as I needed to plan and budget to pay each back. Each time I checked, there was a balance owed for around {$660.00}. Once I got the money to pay, I checked again and the balance was still approximately {$660.00} so I paid {$670.00} on XX/XX/XXXX, which was withdrawn from my account on XX/XX/XXXX. I just had a weird feeling that I should check the account again and I'm grateful I did because I found that there was a balance due of {$210.00} due on XX/XX/XXXX. So I paid what was listed as due on their website on XX/XX/XXXX, money was taken within XXXX days, and then I have another balance due by the XXXX. I made a payment within 10 days of the due date and the {$210.00} was not accounted for in what I was asked to pay. Why not? I called on XX/XX/XXXX and spoke to someone who was very kind and helpful ( she is NOT the issue here ), and she did some research and found that the balance showing up front on XX/XX/XXXX was only what was past due. So once I paid that, then the 'normal " balance due came through. 

What would have happened if I didn't check my account again till XXXX, thinking that I made my payment and I am current? That would have landed me with yet another late fee and negative reporting on my credit. For someone who is desperately trying to remedy the mess that was created when I was unemployed, this seems like the company is setting up consumers for failure AND putting them in a position where they can collect additional fees enriching them and keeping consumers in hard financial position. 

Let 's talk UDAAP.

A practice is unfair when 1. It causes or is likely to cause substantial injury to consumers aka monetary harm for FEES paid by consumers as a result of an unfair practice. As I noted before, had I not gone back to look at the account I would not have known that there was more due, that was not disclosed up front when they went to collect the 'balance due ', I would have incurred a late fee. If this is happening to me, it can and will happen to others. Add up all of those fees that Upgrade is maliciously collecting and that is SUBSTANTIAL INJURY. 
XXXX. Consumers must not be reasonably able to avoid the injury. I knew I needed to make up payments, I did the most logical thing to figure out how much I needed to pay to be current, WITHIN 10 DAYS of the due date, and I as the consumer trusted that the information provided to me in my account on the website was accurate so I paid what was showing as the balance due. Considering this was within 10 days of my due date, that XXXX balance owed should have been included in that balance due. I should not have to rely on my intuition to nag me to go look again to find out that I owed more, that Upgrade hid {$210.00} that was due until after they took the first large payment. I don't care that I would eventually get an email reminding me to pay what they hid from me. This should not have been the case to begin with. This is wrong. 
XXXX. The injury must not be outweighed by countervailing benefits to consumers or competition. Please let me know what benefits would come with this. Because all I can think of is another late fee ( which profits Upgrade ) and another ding to my credit.

A practice is Deceptive if : 1. The representation, omission, act or practice misleads or is likely to mislead the consumer. " If material information is necessary to prevent a consumer from being misled, it may be deceptive to omit that information. '' I think it's pretty clear the omission of XXXX 's payment in the balance due that was showing on my account page is extremely deceptive. Especially considering it was within 10 days of the due date. They knew this amount was required for XXXX, so on XX/XX/XXXX when I looked at the balance due I as a consumer should have been able to trust the company to tell me the whole story and list the accurate amount that was due to them. Seeing that amount due, on XX/XX/XXXX knowing my due date is XX/XX/XXXX, I trusted that that was everything I owed. I wanted to be current and get back on track now that I'm working again, but Upgrade put me in a position where I have to borrow money to pay the additional {$220.00} that they hid from me initially. They have all of these articles on their website about financial health and budgeting blah blah blah. They are predators and do not care about consumers. 
2. The consumer 's interpretation of the representation, omission, act, or practice is reasonable under the circumstances. If they are going to have a website and online accounts for consumers, it is their responsibility to show accurate information on there. It shouldn't be used as a tool to trick consumers into paying additional fees, it should be cut and clear, here is how much is owed. I naively trusted that what was showing on my account was the accurate amount. I don't see how that is unreasonable. I can't imagine I am the only one to have ran into this nor do I believe that I'm being unreasonable in how this was presented.

3. The misleading representation, omission, act, or practice is material. Material is subjective sometimes and I'm certain Upgrade will say oh wahh not a big deal. But I would like to note, " if a representation or claim is not presumed to be material, it still would be considered material if there is evidence it is likely to be considered important by consumers. '' I know people in financial institutions, specifically executives, who make the decisions to be shady or not are very well off, so maybe {$220.00} is no big deal to them. But to me and other consumers who are living paycheck to paycheck, a surprise bill for {$220.00} is material. That matters. This is real life, this isn't about funds moving from GL to GL or numbers on a balance sheet, this is money that I have to take from taking care of my family, getting gas for my car to take my kid to school, grabbing milk at the grocery store. Money matters. 

An abusive act or practice : 1. Materially interferes with the ability of a consumer to understand a term or condition of a consumer financial product or service. I was told I owed approximately {$660.00}, this was the amount that showed up front on my account. I paid {$670.00}. This should have been it. I later found out that I owed an additional {$220.00} which confused me ( because I just made a payment within 10 days of my due date ), therefore interfering with my ability to understand a term or condition because that was put together deceptively to rake in more fees from consumers.

2. Takes unreasonable advantage of the reasonable reliance by the consumer on a covered person to act in the interests of the consumer. I don't kid myself, I know that financial institutions of many kinds are not in it to help the consumer. I don't see upgrade as a company who helps people become more financial savvy or even help credit building. I know I'm just a number and they just care about money. However, as a consumer there is a baseline amount of 'trust ' and expectation that we expect of companies, the simplest being don't XXXX me over. I'll pay you what's owed, you report to the credit agency accordingly etc. But do not set me up for failure. I'm disgusted with this predatory company. 

When I spoke to the rep yesterday she said that she would put in a complaint on my behalf, and I believe that she will do that, but I did feel it was necessary to bring this to the CFPBs attention as this is very slimy, deceptive and frustrating. I'm trying to get back on track. I didn't enjoy being unemployed and I hated that my credit got destroyed because I didn't have any money to make payments. The idea that I could have incurred another late fee so shortly after I just paid what I understood to be was the balance due is upsetting to say the least.

Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation