Consumer complaint received 2024-06-26
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 (CA)

My wife and I used XXXX, a solar installation and roofing company out of XXXX, Ca, to replace our roof and install a solar system. They mentioned they worked with multiple loan companies, and provided a list of benefits and length or loans each offer. We chose GoodLeap as the salesman, XXXX XXXX, said was a top favorite of other customers as the off to re-amortize the loan each year if {$2500.00} extra is paid each year. XXXX ended up being the one to walk us through the entire transaction with GoodLeap, he showed us the terms of a loan amount of {$67000.00} on a 25 year loan with a 10.99 % APR with monthly payments of {$490.00} and allowed us to review the contract and then guided us through the document signing and stated that the company would sign after. 

We were told that after the loan started that Goodleap was giving us 90 days of no payment required. However we made payments anyhow. Then for the following 3 month we made our monthly payment plus an additional {$500.00} each month and wrote principal only payment on the check memo. Then the next month I had noticed on our statement that our loan amount balance had not changed from our original loan amount even though we made payment during the 90 days and paid extra above our payment amount. 

So we called the company to get clarification and request an amortized payment schedule. We were told that the reason that our extra principal payment were not being applied to our loan is because our interest rate changes daily and that to simply cover our monthly interest charges, that we needed to be paying {$630.00} a month. The representative also stated that they could not provide an amortized payment schedule because our interest amount changes daily. They also informed us that if we continue to make only our designated monthly payments that the remaining interest we continue to incur a balance that will need to be paid before any amount can be paid to our principal amount. 

Since with most companies, some representatives know more than others, we have called multiple times and get the same information each time.. We were also told that until the interest balance is paid the company will not work with us to provided a refinance. 

I have read through our loan documents multiple times and I do not see anything that states this is an interest only loan, or that mentions a variable interest rate. Upon reading the loan documents which show the interest that will be paid for the life of the loan ; {$130000.00} and figuring how many days are in 25 years ; XXXX dividing the interest into days. We should be charged {$14.00} per day, so in an average month of 30 days, our interest charge would be about {$440.00}. So with a monthly payment of {$490.00}, roughly {$50.00} a month should get paid towards principal. 

We have been searching for help for quite some time now, I have filed multiple disputes on my credit report as GoodLeap is reporting that I have not missed any payment however is also reporting that my loan balance ( {$68000.00} ) is greater than the original loan amount ( {$67000.00} ). 
After 3 disputes XXXX provided the information for this website to file a complaint. 

It has now been 1 year since our loan started and we have not missed a payment and have made additional payments however our loan amount has grown rather than get paid down.