Consumer complaint received 2018-08-08
Company: Tribal Lending Enterprise, Inc.
State: NJ
Product: Payday loan, title loan, or personal loan
Sub-product: Installment loan
Issue: Charged fees or interest you didn't expect

Complaint:
XX/XX/XXXX, XXXX- signed and agreement for an installment loakc with XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX located at XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX, XXXX XXXX , CA XXXX. 

I was lead to believe that XXXX XXXX was an actual licensed loan company, and would offer me as stated on their website, a small dollar installment loan.The website advertised the cost of the installment loan & included rates of finanice charges but no APR 's. Once recieving the {$1000.00} installment loan ACH wired to my bank account, XXXX XXXX used unfair, deceptive acts and practices charging fees, APR 's, & interest charges so eccessively high they should violate state lending laws. 
-The Annual Perentage Rate on my agreement, came to 667.2656 %. This violates NJ usury laws ( N.J.S.A. 2C:21-19 )  apply to all loans subject to State of New Jersey law . The maximum permissible rate is 50 % for corporations and 30 % for non-corporate borrowers. 
- The loan insterest is base over a year and the payment are withdrawns are every pay period. I borrowed a XXXX and have been paying XXXX twice a month for three months. It appears the rate is over 500 %. 

- They also state on their website that they have " no hidden fee 's '' when in their interest rates, and finance charges are all hidden until they start taking debits from the consumers bank account. 

The lender- XXXX XXXX XXXX made a loan that is not legal under NJ state laws. And they are also not federally or NJ state licensed. 
If the loan is not legal, then XXXX XXXX has no right to collect. So by continuing to collect, and continuing to tell me, that I owe, they have engaged in " unfair, deceptive and abusive '' practices under state & federal law. 

And, also found this : XXXX XXXX XXXX violated the Truth in Lending Act and the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act. The specific allegations include : Deceiving consumers about loan payments that were not owed : The lenders pursued consumers for payments even though the loans in question were void in whole or in part under state law and payments could not be collected. The interest rates the lenders charged were high enough to violate usury laws in some states where they did business, and violation of these usury laws renders particular loans void. In addition, the lenders did not obtain licenses to lend or collect in certain states, and the failure to obtain those licenses renders particular loans void. The four lenders created the false impression that they had a legal right to collect payments and that consumers had a legal obligation to pay off the loans. 
Collecting loan payments which consumers did not owe : The four lenders made electronic withdrawals from consumers bank accounts or called or sent letters to consumers demanding payment for debts that consumers were under no legal obligation to pay. 
Failing to disclose the real cost of credit : The lenders websites did not disclose the annual percentage rates that apply to the loans. When contacted by prospective borrowers, the lenders representatives also did not tell consumers the annual percentage rate that would apply to the loans. 

XXXX XXXX XXXX has done all of the above to me as a consumer, and they are not legal in New Jersey!!!

Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation