Consumer complaint received 2018-06-07
Company: MoneyLion Inc.
State: VA
Product: Payday loan, title loan, or personal loan
Sub-product: Payday loan
Issue: Charged fees or interest you didn't expect

Complaint:
On or after XX/XX/XXXX, I opened a new loan with Money Lion online and was approved for a {$600.00} loan. At the time of the agreement, the contract stated that in addition to the loan, I would be enrolled in their MoneyLion Plus membership, which was an additional charge of {$29.00} a month. With this membership I was to have access to their site which was supposed to help provide resources to help improve my credit including credit monitoring. They also stated that as a benefit of the membership, my APR on  the loan would be 5.99 % ; otherwise, it would be higher depending on my loan amount. My first payments were successfully taken out of my checking account on XX/XX/XXXX, in the amounts of {$46.00} for the loan, and {$63.00} for the membership, both taken out concurrently every 2 weeks. On XX/XX/XXXX I contacted their support team via online chat to discuss my membership because I had concerns about what I was paying, and asked if I could cancel the membership and just continue to pay off the loan itself. This was due to a financial hardship on my end, and was seeking alternatives to at least continue paying off the loan. I was told at that time that I could not cancel the membership because the APR was given as a condition of the membership until after I satisfied the loan. I acknowledged the information provided at that time, and continued to do some research on my end. As of my last payment on XX/XX/XXXX, I have paid {$560.00} towards my loan ( XXXX x 12 payments posted ), and {$760.00} towards my membership ( XXXX x 12 payments posted ). I contacted their support team again because the membership amount paid was still more than their advertised plan per month ( Standard plan according to them was {$79.00} per month ). I was in essence paying {$4.00} per day for the membership, which brings the monthly cost paid to {$130.00} per month. When I inquired about the membership plan today, I was told my membership was {$130.00} per month, which was the first time I had been told that, or saw that anywhere on their site or contract. The representative referred me to the verbiage on the contract which states You are required to pay the monthly Membership fee, the amount will be posted on our Site and App, and revised from time to time. When I followed the prompts on the site to view my profile, it showed that my plan should have been {$29.00} per month, and not the {$79.00} or the {$130.00} that both agents stated on the two different occasions that I contacted them. When I advised the agent XXXX today of this, and asked for an itemization of my payments for both the loan and the membership, she advised that they were unable to provide me anything other that was was already displayed on the online dashboard. At this point, I requested the contact information for their Registered Agent who handles their business licensing, and after a long hold, was offered to have my membership cancelled and only have to pay the remaining loan balance. I initially did not agree to the terms ; instead I tried to probe further regarding the misrepresentation of their membership plan and what I was overpaying on it, and they again advised that I was not overpaying, but they could cancel the membership without penalty on the loan. On my previous conversation I was emphatically told that wasnt possible. I asked for their Registered Agent contact info for a second time, and they provided me their Legal department info out of Utah, which is listed on the XXXX site, but shows their membership with the XXXX XXXX XXXX being revoked. When I advised of this, and again for a third time asked for their Registered Agent, she told me she was unable to provide that information, and again gave me the contact information out of Utah. At this point, I accepted their offer to cancel the membership without penalty, but I duly noted the fact that they would not provide me any additional information regarding the Registered Agent, or an itemization of my payments to date.

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 monetary relief