Consumer complaint received 2024-09-23
Product: Payday loan, title loan, personal loan, or advance loan — Installment loan
Issue: Charged fees or interest you didn't expect — 
Company: PatientFi, LLC (CA)

I took out a {$30000.00} loan on XX/XX/XXXX for a medical procedure. There was a XXXX promotional offer for one year. I was able to easily enroll in autopay online for my monthly payments. However, I have been trying for months to pay off the full remainder of the loan balance online before the end of the promotional period. The website repeatedly displayed error messages ( see attached screenshot ) and would not allow this. I was using the same payment account I had been using for my monthly auto-payments, so I am not sure why it did not work for the remaining balance. I have not missed any monthly payments. 

I sent a secure message on XX/XX/XXXX through the online portal, plus a regular email from my XXXX account on XX/XX/XXXXXXXX  I never received a response other than an automated reply to my XXXX on XX/XX/XXXX advising me to send a secure message ( which I had already done ). Whenever I tried calling the company, I was put on hold for a long time. It has been very difficult to contact a representative for assistance. They even admitted in their auto-reply that they have been experiencing " higher than normal volume '' and have been unable to reply in a timely manner. 

Additionally, the PatientFi website has two separate login areas. The first account screen showed that I owed a different, smaller loan amount ( {$19000.00} ) reflecting only my initial remaining loan amount. I had to actively log into the second screen to see that I apparently actually owed a larger amount ( {$27000.00} ), because the accrued interest from the end of the promotional period had been added on. This was not reflected in the initial account login screen, leading me to believe that the post-promotional accrued interest had not yet been applied to my account. 

PatientFi 's process feels deceptive. Needing to login a second time to a different area of the website to see my " real '' loan balance amount is confusing and misleading. I have been unable to obtain assistance with their website 's technical problem. My secure message and email were completely ignored. All I am requesting is for PatientFi to reimburse the interest accrued after the end of the promotional period, since the website 's technical problems, lack of access to support, and misleading website display are the only reasons I was unable to repay the loan before the end of the promotional period. 

I was eventually able to submit a larger, one-time payment after entering a different payment type, which I was trying to avoid entering for security reasons. Once I was able to successfully link my second payment source to my PatientFi account, I did pay the remaining {$19000.00} I appeared to owe. 

When I tried to use the new live chat feature on XX/XX/XXXX for clarification, the online representative told me to call the Billing department. They were unable to give me any other assistance or explanation. When I then tried calling the Billing department on the same day, I was again put on hold for a while but was finally able to reach a Billing representative. They were also unable to help me. All they did was advise me to pay off the remainder of my balance and said they would enter a " complaint ticket '' for me, which they said may or may not resolve anything. They said I had to pay off the remainder of the balance, or else they couldn't fix my problem and would continue charging me more interest. No one addressed my concerns in a meaningful way.