Consumer complaint received 2020-04-27
Company: Paramount GR Holdings, LLC
State: UT
Product: Payday loan, title loan, or personal loan
Sub-product: Installment loan
Issue: Problem when making payments

Complaint:
On XX/XX/2020 I received a call from a LoanPal representative encouraging me to enroll in autopay. I stated several times that I did not want to enroll in autopay because I did not want to risk the monthly payment drafting from my account more than once. I was assured multiple times that the payment would not draft more than once as long as I paid before my due date. I only agreed to enroll in autopay after I was offered a financial incentive XXXX {$25.00} gift card ). I paid my bill as I normally would on XXXX/XXXX/2020, and it came out of my account on XXXX/XXXX/2020. On XX/XX/2020 I checked my account and found that the payment of {$230.00} had drafted a second time on XXXX/XXXX/2020. I immediately called LoanPal to have the transaction reversed and the funds returned to my account. I was told by two agents that day that there was no way to refund my money. I requested to speak to a supervisor both times and was informed that I would get a call back within 24-48 hours. I never received a returned call. On XX/XX/2020 I reached out to LoanPal twice more ( once shortly after they opened and again in the late afternoon ) to attempt to speak to a supervisor. The second agent was kind enough to stay on hold with me until the supervisor was available. She again expressed to me that it was not possible to refund my money because I had agreed to autopay. I explained again that I had only agreed because I had been assured multiple times that I would not be charged AND had been offered the gift card. If it had not been for those two things combined, I never would have agreed. She then told me that it takes 5-7 business days to cancel an autopay payment, so it was still going to come out no matter what based on the date I paid and my due date. This was the first time I had been informed of this information, and I let the supervisor know that. She just reiterated that I had agreed to the autopay and was bound by its rules despite the fact that all of the information was not disclosed to me. I also was not sent any disclosures regarding the service after enrolling. Had I known I would be charged twice at any point, I never would have signed up. The supervisor told me most people would be fine with it since the additional payment was going towards my principal balance. I informed her that that was not the case for me, especially during this pandemic when I am having to budget more carefully. She offered to get me on a payment plan due to the pandemic that would potentially stop payments for a month or two. I told her I was able to pay my bill, but I wasnt prepared to pay it more than once in a month. I then requested for the payment to at least be applied to the following month if it could not be refunded. She stated that was also not possible. She then asked if there was anything else she could help me with. I requested to speak to someone above her and am now waiting to hear back. I cited XXXX multiple times throughout my calls because I feel like I was tricked into enrolling in autopay so that LoanPal could get an extra payment out of me this month. LoanPal is lying to their customers and purposefully withholding information in order to make a few extra bucks. They are then refusing to correct errors caused by their own deceit.

Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation