Consumer complaint received 2019-01-16
Company: Tower Loan of Mississippi, Inc.
State: MO
Product: Payday loan, title loan, or personal loan
Sub-product: Installment loan
Issue: Charged fees or interest you didn't expect

Complaint:
I received a check in the mail in XX/XX/2018 for {$1200.00} stating the total payback would be {$1400.00} which included {$210.00} in interest for 10 monthly payments. I cashed it and eventually received a payment reminder stating the first payment was due on XX/XX/2018 and that if I needed any more money to contact the office. Two days before my first payment was due I called and talked to XXXX about a payday loan I had with an extremely high interest rate and we discussed them loaning me another {$500.00} to pay the higher interest payday loan off, it was considerably higher than the rate that was quoted on the check I had received and cashed from Tower Loan in the mail and I assumed the {$500.00} would be the same rate just added onto the first amount. When I went to make my first payment XXXX said she got me approved for the extra {$500.00} but in doing so I was not made aware of the fact that the interest rate was changing from the initial 36.99 % to 60.48 %! So now my loan payoff total was at {$3200.00}, I felt like I had gotten a scam pulled on me and like it was clearly a bait and switch kind of tactic. They will say I was given a full refund of all the interest which I am assuming they are referring to not charging me the {$210.00} on the original loan ... of course not why would they when they had somehow just suckered me into paying {$1500.00} in interest for an additional {$500.00} added to my original loan of {$1200.00}. I would never knowingly have agreed to such absurd terms, I was never informed of them nor do I have a signed copy of the contract, I was never given one.  They had also added some bogus insurance for " collateral '' that I do not nor have I ever owned. I told them 3 things I had which were an XXXX desktop computer 10+ years old, an XXXX laptop 8+ years old and a XXXX circular saw 5+ years old, everything else on the list was added by them at her suggestion. They also pushed an Accidental health insurance policy on me which was of no use to anyone as I was currently off of work awaiting scheduled knee XXXX at the time. 

I then received another check in the mail for {$1200.00} at 36.99 %, same as the original first loan check I had received from them, as I was still off work recuperating from the XXXX I needed the money and against my better judgement cashed this check knowing I could easily pay it back since they were only charging a little over {$200.00} interest. No problem as soon as I was back to work to pay this off. I received the paperwork in the mail stating the payments would be {$140.00} for 10 months. So now I had 2 loans one with 26 payments of@XXXX, one with 10 payments of {$140.00} which combined was {$260.00} a month. 

On XX/XX/18 I went in and asked if we could combine the two loans to simplify things into one payment over 26 months and they agreed and we settled on an interest rate of 43.24 %. The paperwork was signed she handed me a sealed envelope with my account number and the information 26 payments of {$200.00} each written on the outside of it with the first payment to be made on XX/XX/2018. I walked out feeling like I hadn't gotten taken too awfully bad. 

Then I received a payment reminder in the mail stating my balance was {$7400.00}!! I got the still sealed envelope with my contract in it, I hadn't ever opened it since it clearly stated the terms we had agreed upon on the outside of the envelope ... I never dreamed the contract inside would say something completely different and not even be the one I had signed! There is no signature of mine anywhere on this copy of the contract. The one in the envelope stated I was to make 36 payments of {$200.00}, not the 26 payments like we agreed to. I went there twice and tried to talk to her to explain this was not what we had agreed on and I clearly didn't sign this contract and was refusing to make a payment until it was straightened out because in doing so I would be accepting the terms that I did not agree to.

Company public response: Company has responded to the consumer and the CFPB and chooses not to provide a public response
Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation