Consumer complaint received 2018-03-05
Company: LendingUSA
State: IL
Product: Payday loan, title loan, or personal loan
Sub-product: Installment loan
Issue: Charged fees or interest you didn't expect

Complaint:
On XX/XX/XXXX I was seeking a personal loan and I went through a web portal called XXXX which they will look at your credit and refer you to lenders based off your information. The agent who contact me from XXXX his name is XXXX XXXX and he referred me to LendingUSA to seek my loan as it close matched that I could be approved. I went to the site as directed by the email provided by XXXX and filled out the application. The following day I received an email from LendingUSA that my loan was pre-approved and they would need some verification before proceeding with the loan. I spoke with the representative, XXXX XXXX. I sent the requirements of drivers license, selfie + drivers license side by side and lastly a voided check along with an Instant Bank Verification ( they provided the link ) as requested per my conversation with her over the phone. I was approved and they sent me a link to complete and accept the loan. The terms were that the loan was at a 26.02 % interest. I thought that was great not as high as some other lenders. I was funded a funded the monies the week of XX/XX/XXXX directly into my account and payments to start paying back the loan to initiate on XX/XX/XXXX. I  started my payments in XX/XX/XXXX as I should and have continued making payments each and every month for this loan. However, today as I was making my payment for XX/XX/XXXX I noticed that the balance of my loan has not gone down. It was showing one month that it had gone down some but the following month I see I owed more than before. I called them today and asked them why my principal is not going down and they are saying that the majority of my payment is going toward interest and just a small amount is going toward the principal. The representative by the name of XXXX said that I'm being charged {$7.00} a day in interest regardless if I make my payment on time. I asked her then why did they say I would only be charged a 26.02 % interest if I'm going to be charged each day interest on a loan and if the average month at 30 days I would be paying about {$210.00} in just interest alone when my payment is {$320.00} monthly. She said it was included in the loan documents. I said I don't recall that and at this rate I'll never finish paying off my loan as scheduled as it will only be paying interest and not my principal because the interest rates are high and not the 26.02 % as advertised. All my statements reflect the balance going down then back up, no consistency of payments applied to the principal. I told the XXXX the representative that what's happening is predatory lending and I would be following up with my state and federal government of it's practices. Also, they make it look like on the statement they produce it states that Grace Period expires on the XX/XX/XXXX or XX/XX/XXXX   of the month for payment. So they statements are event deceptive in their writing of the statement to make it seem like there's a grace period to pay before you pay additional interest and fees. It is clear that any/all payments are made to their benefit only and at this rate I will never be done paying off this loan due to their deceptive practices and the set up of their correspondence/statements they submit to customers. Due to this I find them to be predatory lenders seeking only to rip off their consumers in the end. Had I known regardless I would be charged interest each and every day regardless and I would never get my principal down I would have not signed off for this loan. I feel fully taken advantage of. Everything was done online on their computer system. I was not offered the opportunity to print off the loan documents just sign off everything electronically. I made a follow up call after my first call today to request my loan documents be sent to me to review. I please ask for help. I also asked for their direct mailing address and this is the information provided to me : Attention : LendingUSA, XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX, XXXX XXXX, CA XXXX. The signature line on the representative I had initial contact XXXX XXXX here is her contact information : LendingUSA, XXXX XXXX, XXXX XXXX XXXX, XXXX XXXX, XXXX XXXX, CA  XXXX ; Phone : XXXX ext. XXXX, Fax : XXXX ; email : XXXX. One more note, when making payments to them you are directed to another website which is https : XXXX. Therefore its confusing to who is lending as the statements is in the name LendingUSA but when making payments the portal indicates it's a company called : Copyright 2017 XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX, XXXX per their website.

Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation