Consumer complaint received 2019-07-23
Company: Populus Financial Group, Inc. (F/K/A Ace Cash Express)
State: TX
Product: Debt collection
Sub-product: Payday loan debt
Issue: Took or threatened to take negative or legal action
Sub-issue: Threatened or suggested your credit would be damaged

Complaint:
On XX/XX/XXXX, I was contacted by XXXX. They claim to be a mediation department working on behalf of XXXX XXXX XXXX. However, they will claim to be mediating on behalf of Ace Cash Express, which is not accurate. XXXX XXXX XXXX is a debt buyer who, according to XXXX, frequently buys Ace debt. I spoke to two women named Ms. XXXX and Ms. XXXX. They do not provide first names. They indicated that in XX/XX/XXXX, I took out a payday loan with Ace Cash Express and never repaid the loan. I did not remember taking out the debt, which I stated clearly a few times. When I said this, both women immediately turned to fraud, stating that if I did not take it out, I must be alleging that someone defrauded me. That was not my statement. Ms. XXXX refused to provide written notice of the debt or documents, as she stated that now that we were in mediation, it was too late for that. Both Ms. XXXX and Ms. XXXX stated that they were going to move to go against my social security number claiming " malicious intent to defraud a financial institution. '' She stated that they had already accessed my credit report and wanted to know if I keep track of my credit. She stated that this debt would be placed on my credit report for collection. She also stated that this information would be reported to XXXX and that an Early Warning Signal would be added to my SSN for fraud, which would result in my bank being legally allowed to close my account. I would be unable to get a bank account, among other things. She also stated that her recommendations would be to do whatever they could against me to the fullest extent of the law in Texas. Neither of the women explained why they were contacting me, as they said multiple times that they were not a collection agency. They were mediation department. When I challenged what she was saying, Ms. XXXX indicated that that she had decided within five minutes of our conversation not to help me and listed the above consequences as a result of my attitude. She strongly insinuated that her unwillingness to assist was due to her disliking me personally, but then later claimed that it was because I said that the debt was not mine, which was also never said. I only indicated that I did not remember taking it out. She said she would give me one day to contact Ace Cash Express to figure things out and then ended the call. 
The next day, I contacted Ace Cash Express to find out what was going on. I found that in XX/XX/XXXX, I had taken out the loan. That year, I had worked with a debt consolidation company who reportedly made at least $ 500+ in payments on my behalf. This means that Ace would have had to agreed to a settlement amount for them to accept payments from the consolidation company. At some point, Ace attempted to take money out of my account and the payments were returned several times. Neither Ace or XXXX can give me information as to when this happened. They decided to add at least {$400.00} in fees to my account, if not more as a result of this. When I went to their website to find the loan documents or account information, their website prompts me to resolve my debt, but does not allow me to access any documents. This also means that Ace is attempting to collect a debt that they admit that they sold. I contacted the CFPB, who stated that what these companies were doing was illegal and predatory. 
The next day, XXXX called me and I attempted to speak to Ms. XXXX regarding what I found out from Ace. When I said that I spoke to them about my loan, her immediate response was, " Oh you mean the one that isn't yours? '' When i asked her to repeat herself, she said, " The loan you never took out, right? '' I asked why she was being so condescending and rude, and she said that we had gone " around the United States '' in circles and she did not know what I wanted. I wanted to explain about the debt consolidation company, but she continued to talk over me and was very loud. Eventually, she said that she was ending the call, said XXXX bless you and then something about how she hopes that I can be more financially responsible in the future. Ms. XXXX then hung up on me.

Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation