Consumer complaint received 2018-08-15
Company: Greenlink Financial, LLC
State: CA
Product: Payday loan, title loan, or personal loan
Sub-product: Installment loan
Issue: Getting the loan

Complaint:
Received a letter in the mail. Told me my effective credit card debt and effective interest rate ( relatively accurate ). I went to their website, put in the

Eligibility ID #, and filled out my info. The next date, one of their " agents '' called from an " Unknown Caller '' number to my cell phone. He asked me more questions, some of which were unusual -- how much did I owe on my mortgage ; what was the estimated value of my home ; who was my employer -- things I am not usually asked for a personal, unsecured loan. He said he needed " 30 minutes to speak with his underwriter '' and then get back to me. I told him I would be in meetings until noon or later.

We spoke that afternoon. He said because my " credit utilization ratio was 85 %, they could not approve my loan '' ( the mailer offered me $ XXXX at 5.49 %, with no disclaimer about being for highest credit ratings, etc ). I laughed because I knew this guy was lying ; I had just looked at my credit report ( my bank, XXXX, provides it for me ) and my utilization ratio is right at 50 %. I asked him how he was calculating it, he listed off ALL my debts ( minus the mortgage ), not just revolving debt. When I said, " that's not how you calculate credit utilizaiton ratio, '' he snarked back " well, we can argue all day about the definition of this but you don't qualify. '' He then said his company usually would want to help me instead and " restructure my debt. '' When I asked what that meant, he said that usually they would offer to get me out of debt but " first you have to stop paying all your bills. '' I told him no thanks.

Also, He said I would need to have ALL debt utilization under 35 % to qualify for that loan ... .. but question, WHY would I need a personal loan to restructure {$45000.00} of credit card debt ( which is what their initial offer was ) if my total debt utilization is under 35 %??? Literally their own " requirements '' make zero sense, especially since they ( at least claim to ) define credit utilization as [ current mortgage debt ] / [ maximum non-mortgage account values ]. That to me smells like a company funneling you into a different product, aka, " stop paying your bills. '' I am reporting this company to the CFPB due to the concern that this was actually just predatory lending and/or a false front to actually attempt to " restructure debt, '' aka con people into letting them present them in debt settlement ( and I don't even know if they are licensed to do so ). At the absolute, it was a heinous use of the " bait & switch. '' Offering someone an unsecured loan and then telling them then need to stop paying their bills is just reprehensible, in my opinion. People need to be protected from companies like this. 

I'm guessing when he heard I was XXXX XXXX, he backed off since he knew he would be in big XXXX trouble had he gone through with predatory lending with someone in the armed forces. 

I attached the actual letter I received from the company

Company response to consumer: Closed with non-monetary relief