Consumer complaint received 2024-09-05
Product: Payday loan, title loan, personal loan, or advance loan — Installment loan
Issue: Charged fees or interest you didn't expect — 
Company: Paramount GR Holdings, LLC (NC)

If the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau had any teeth they would seriously go after goodleap which is a loan business. There are many complaints listed here that describe the same practice I have encountered. I could understand if I missed a promotional part of a contract but I believe that this company is deliberately miscommunicating, being confusing and is a predatory lender. I am attaching a truth in lending statement and a regular billing statement as evidence to the fact that there is no clear indication that a large interest penalty will be required after the initial 18 month promotional period. This company was a company I would not use except that it was connected to an HVAC contractor and I am sure that there is some kind of quid pro quo between the two. I think goodleap deliberately connects with these types of businesses that are large purchase items when consumers are in desperate need of financing, and presents them with this type of loan that carries a large penalty after a promotional end date. They should very clearly mark on billing statements that the promotional end date is the date in which a payment is required and not show the start date as a month one month after that date which is shown right beside the end date. It is unclear to the consumer which date they have to follow. I truly believe that there will be a class action lawsuit against this company as there are many complaints in this forum and I could tell from talking to the customer service representative that they were providing a number of canned responses indicating that this is a common issue and common problem that they have to talk through with a customer. Like many companies this company is hiding behind ignorant customer service people who are simply going from boilerplate procedures and can not actually think. I am not some simple irate customer who is in dire straits and struggling to make these payments. I had the money for the balance and paid it two weeks after the supposed end date that goodleap now states was the date payment was required. I reviewed my statements often and continuously, and was under the impression that I had through XXXX to make payment and I did not think there would be interest on the entire balance going backwards. It should have only been interest on whatever amount of balance was left. i.e., the initial loan was {$10000.00}. It was at {$5000.00} at the supposed promotion end date. I think it is still unclear even if you had to pay interest on the rest of the balance but there is no way you should have to pay a penalty of interest on the entire loan going back to the beginning of the loan. That is very deceptive. I have now been told that I owe {$2000.00} in interest for an 18 month loan! I tried to call and discuss this and ask that a 14-day grace period could be considered reasonable and customary. I even offered some sort of compromise like paying interest on end balance, not beginning balance. But to no avail. Customer service person ignored my comment and when I asked to escalate they poo-pooed the idea and said they would do it later. I was completely stonewalled. Like any other dispute with credit, I have no choice but to pay this or else suffer a credit rating diminishment. The system makes consumers powerless to argue against unfair practices. My only recourse is to try to complain here and to go and post online at a number of places about this company and it's lending policy and those companies that partner with these types of organizations. Really predatory. I am fortunate that I can weather this storm, but for people who are in real struggle there is no way that they would be able to deal with a company like this. This is very much predatory lending.