Consumer complaint received 2020-10-15
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 to arrest you or take you to jail if you do not pay

Complaint:
XX/XX/XXXX, I needed a short term loan, that I would be able to pay off within a day or two by renewing the loan at my bank. I had a really good credit score at the time, and my bank had assured me that it would renew the loan. However, the bank did not renew the loan. I tried to cancel the loan within the three day limit, however that was to no avail.

My son and his friend had moved in with me, as I lived in the city, so that they could find employment, however, that turned out to be much more difficult that we had imagined. I tried working with Ace Cash Express to  lower the payments, but again to no avail. I became ill with XXXX and XXXX XXXX in XXXX of XXXX, and subsequently hospitalized for this in XXXX of XXXX. I was ill more days than not, as I have a lot of pre existing conditions. Unfortunately, covid hit and my son was laid off from the XXXX XXXX  that he had just started working at. He does XXXX XXXX now, but he barely makes anything as XXXX is pretty competitive on that, especially with more unemployed people. 

XX/XX/XXXX, I am contacted by a " locator service '' XXXX, informing me that I was in violation of some court order and that I needed to be served paperwork, they gave me a case number and a phone number to call. 

Now I did not get suspicious at this, because the people I talked to had an XXXX Texas accent. Unfortunately, sometime in XXXX, Ace Cash Express had sold my information to sales people, and I am hit with unwanted calls all day long, however, most are robo calls or with a foreign accent. Because of this man 's accent, I assumed it was a legitimate threat. 

They gave me a " case number '' that I can't seem to find at the moment I am typing this a a phone number XXXX, to call to find out more information, they told me that they couldn't give out the information about the warrant as they could not verify who I was as they were just a " locator '' service. 

I called the number and found out that Ace Cash Express, who was ordered to pay over XXXX XXXX dollars in XXXX for doing the same thing they are doing now, had filed with the court in XXXX County using my address that I had back when I had a loan from them that I had paid off, instead of using the current address that I was living at when I took out this loan that is in default. I am presuming that they did this because they couldn't get the DA in XXXX to go after me, but XXXX County, which is as dirty a county as they come would. Texas the state 's constitution states that " no person shall ever be imprisoned for debt. '' though many counties are getting away with prosecuting for " hot checks ''. Poor people, like me, who can't afford an attorney, get railroaded into either doing jail time or paying over XXXX XXXX dollars more in fees. I called the DA 's office in XXXX County to confirm this and as they didn't have a case with my name on it yet, they did confirm that they are prosecuting for Ace Cash Express, despite it being against the states constitution, and was advised to seek legal counsel. If I could afford an attorney, I would have paid the loan off.

Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation