Consumer complaint received 2018-07-17
Company: Advance America, Cash Advance Centers, Inc.
State: CA
Product: Payday loan, title loan, or personal loan
Sub-product: Installment loan
Issue: Getting the loan

Complaint:
I went to this company whom I have a payday loan with to see if I could get more because the {$90.00} fees I'm paying monthly and getting only {$250.00} in return is just not cutting it with my budget. It's a waste of gas, time, effort and money to drive there for this small loan every 2 weeks. The installment loan sounded a lot easier to get and would have given me the cash I needed to get rid of some debts. You complete a simple app, then wait for about XXXX mins. Then verify your info on 2 sheets of paper, sign the same forms minutes later, are asked what payment schedule you'd like, all making you feel like you got the loan because in that 10 minutes, something should've been run through XXXX to be sure it's a go! Well after I confirmed the payment schedule I was immediately declined! Good thing they print the letter to tell you why! None of the reasons make any sense!! I have a rebuttle to all of them! 1. The loan amount is very small, it's barely over {$2500.00}, talk to me when it's $ 5K+! 2. I have a permanent fraud alert with all 3 bureaus, who by the way placed it on there when companies were carelessly losing consumer information years ago. I believe I sent in a total of 5 letters in one year with companies apologies for being irresponsible with my info. The credit bureaus sent me letters stating the fraud alert would remain permanently. They didn't want to have to keep adding it every so many months. I'm OK with it, it slows down the identity thieves from getting to me. I feel protected and refuse to remove them now or ever! That alert has kept my info safe for many years. I have one with  XXXX XXXX too. It ain't broke so why fix it? 3. I made $ XXXX last year including bonuses and raises. Not clear on what that was about especially since my pay stub is year to date. My salary is around $ 84K annually not including bonuses and raises. However, no one bothered to confirm that nor did they add my hourly rate to find this out. I'm confused. 4. I live 13 miles exactly from their location! Why was I denied for this? This is ludicrous! So it's OK to give me an expensive {$250.00} payday loan at 400 % + and I don't live too far to drive over there every 2 weeks for that but not for the loan? 5. The  claim was I had " too many inquiries in the last 6 months ''. This was all supposedly done through XXXX. I went to my last report that I received on XX/XX/XXXX, I have no recent inquiries on that report for XXXX! In fact I counted 10 that will be dropping off beginning XXXX through the end of the year and another 5 in XXXX! That will clear up all but 1 inquiry left to drop off on XXXX. So they lied! Now to the good part. I was really angry when I left the store. I said nothing except that it was a waste of time and would call Advance to discuss. I called XXXX and forgot the person 's name I spoke to. She claimed to be a supervisor. I don't know how she got that position because she is so credit ignorant it was insulting my intellect to talk to her! I began asking pointed questions during my complaint. She said the distance from the store " must have been more than 30 miles ''. Why would I waste a tank of expensive gas ( {$4.00} per gallon for my car ) in my state to drive that far for {$2500.00}????!!!! I'm not that desperate! I told her my mileage counter said it was XXXX3 miles! She continued to state it had to be more than 30 miles, I insisted it wasn't! I asked what the fraud alert comment meant, she had no clue but tried to answer something she wasn't familiar with. I told her I have alerts on my report but no fraud has ever been committed. I mentioned my income was more than enough to cover the loan. I asked what inquiries had to do with my getting a loan. She had no answer for that either! She said I needed to call XXXX  at XXXX because they were the one 's that declined me not Advance America! What??!!! I don't recall XXXX being responsible for lending money to anyone! Last time I checked they're a bureau that tracks and monitors credit only for businesses and that's who pays them to do that not consumers. I said as much to her and she continued to tell me that " they '' didn't decline me! It became very clear that she was in over her head, got that job because she smiled at someone the right way or has been there too long, because she certainly had zero experience in any credit field if she made an ignorant and inept comment like that! I applied with Advance America not XXXX. My understanding from the store staff is that many customers ask which bureau they go through to run credit. Corp. refuses to allow customers to know because they know we won't apply if we know it's XXXX. If someone runs XXXX my chances of getting the loan are zilch! I tried to tell the woman that AA sets the credit criteria and XXXX just matches my report back to their requirements set up in the system. She refused to listen, still maintaining she knows what she's talking about! I work in the lending business! I unfortunately don't qualify for traditional loans. So places like this are where I go, they're far less judgmental than banks and credit unions. I demanded to speak to a manager, I was just done with her stupidity. You don't ever talk to a person in the same field and not be able to answer questions or have a clue about what you're talking about. I know lending and credit, been in the business for decades! She knew nothing! She boldly said " there is no one above me! I am it! '' REALLY????? OMG! I said " OK so you're the CEO or are you trying to tell me that your company doesn't have one? Last time I checked you're large enough to have one! '' She got really quiet at that moment and claimed she would have someone named " XXXX '' call me before the end of business today from a XXXX area code. Well guess what? No one ever called just as I suspected they wouldn't! What they didn't bank on was my filing this complaint! They were hoping I would just go away! Nope! Not going to do that, I'm calling them out on their ineptness and letting them know they didn't stumble upon a know nothing consumer. That's what happens when you mess with someone who works in the same business but happens to be a lot more familiar with the industry. I feel I was unfairly denied based on nothing on my credit report but everything to do with their stupid credit criteria. However, if you look at the attached letter they blame everything on XXXX. None of this has anything to do with XXXX! This is all AA and their inability to effectively train employees to understand loans, credit or anything else. Those ladies in the store know more than this woman did! She called herself a manager? She needs to be seriously demoted! She was straight stupid! When challenged she had no intelligent answers. She was basically guessing her way through that job! This is what many of these types of lenders are hiring which is incredibly sad and will kill business for them. I was hesitant to apply without knowing who they ran credit through. Now that I have, have been treated this way I will be sure to blog every where I can to let other consumers know what happened to me. This way they know not to go through them. I'm calling AA out on their incompetence. They need to provide me with accurate reasons about why my credit was denied! The excuses on the letter are just that - excuses! This was unacceptable and could've been handled differently. They need to change the way they process loans in the stores and on line. Don't ask me to verify info or what payment schedule I want if I'm declined! Get through the credit process faster, then either decline or approve people, THEN ask those questions! Not before you know there's a loan there! Gees! Very tacky, unprofessional, inept company!

Company public response: Company believes it acted appropriately as authorized by contract or law
Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation