Consumer complaint received 2018-04-24
Company: Avant Credit Corporation
State: IL
Product: Payday loan, title loan, or personal loan
Sub-product: Installment loan
Issue: Getting the loan

Complaint:
In XX/XX/XXXX, I applied for a relatively small loan with Avant/XXXX XXXX. I was notified of pre-qualification through their partner ( XXXX, whom I have no issue with ). 

Upon completing the application I was given a message stating that my application was under review and that I would receive a decision shortly. Moments later I saw that had a missed call and voicemail from Avant on my phone, additionally I received an email requesting that I " Please call us at XXXX to verify additional information on my account ''. 

The voicemail in question had only the sound of shuffling and a person laughing directly into the phone with no details or request of information. I immediately called back and received notification that they were closed and to try again during business hours. I called again the following day and was told by an agent ( obviously outsourced of course ) that nothing else was needed to complete my application. 

One day later on XX/XX/XXXX, I received email notice that my application was declined, with no specific reason. Per the Fair Credit reporting act, I requested information about my decline and the factors used to make that decision. 

Upon receiving the reason for adverse action from XXXX/Avant, the reason was listed as " Inability to Verify Identity ''. No mention of any other factors relating to income, credit score or other reasons were listed. 

Having been pre-qualified and having a personal credit score of 690+ with a strong debt to income ratio, a job in XXXX for over 4 years at the same employer and sufficient income I felt something was wrong with this decision. It was blatantly obvious that a few things occurred : 1 ) For whatever reason, the information in my " hard '' credit pull and the application was insufficient/inaccurate or additional information was needed in order for their underwriting and, or AML compliance team to move forward with the application, this is likely an effort by their application system and internal policies in place to attempt/achieve compliance with the Customer Identification Program ( CIP ) as detailed in the Patriot Act. 
2 ) My application was queued as a result of the above inability to properly Identify me and a call was placed to complete the information and verify my identity. ( An unprofessional call placed moments after the application was submitted with no details given and only a person laughing ) 3 ) An email was sent to my email address as entered into the application requesting a call to verify my identity, again in accordance with their internal policy in efforts to comply with the CIP program in the patriot act. ) 4 ) Upon making 2 calls to their provided number I was told twice that nothing was needed to complete my application. i specifically asked if ID, proof of income or any additional info was needed from me ( I was under the impression that the first agent was wrong and something was needed, otherwise they wouldn't have emailed requesting a call ) 5 ) The application " timed out '' per their internal policy or was eventually declined for the reason disclosed to me per my requested notice of adverse action. That reason was that they were simply unable to verify my identity. The aforementioned, presumably due to their inaccurate determination that I failed to reach out and verify my identity per their request and inquiry. 

That said, I was very frustrated. It became very obvious that my loan application was declined due to either willful or negligent failure to secure and reliably pass requested consumer applicant information to their underwriting team. It is my opinion that any entity using a hard credit pull for the determination of creditworthiness or account opening should not be able to deny a loan or perform adverse action for inability to verify the consumer 's identity directly due to their own operational shortcomings, lack of professionalism or other internal issues unrelated to the consumers documented and consistent good-faith efforts to provide the requested info on numerous occasions. 

After the ordeal in question I had numerous calls and emails with their escalations team and not a single person had the common sense to simply re-open my claim, revisit the recorded calls, view the account and underwriting notes and admit that the failure to verify my identity was their fault, due directly to me being told on numerous occasions that " nothing else was needed from me ''. 

If they do a hard pull on a consumer 's credit file ( s ), they ensure stand behind their reason for adverse action and not simply drop the ball and brush consumers off. The appropriate due diligence in verifying my identity was not completed. There is no reason they can stand behind the reason for adverse action the disclosed. These hard credit pulls have implications lasting years and I refuse to let them get away with such carefree mishandling of consumer info and credit reports. 

They asked me for additional info in writing/email, I called on numerous occasions to provide any info needed and they told me nothing was needed. They then proceeded to decline my application and document the reason as inability to verify identity. 

This is pure negligence or incompetence, perhaps a mix of the two.

Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation