Consumer complaint received 2026-04-30 00:00:00
Product: Payday loan, title loan, personal loan, or advance loan — Installment loan
Issue: Charged fees or interest you didn't expect — 
Company: Stratus Financial LLC
State: UT

Complaint narrative:
CFPB COMPLAINT STRATUS FINANCIAL LLC Account : XXXX Borrower : XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX : Stratus Financial LLC, XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX ( XXXX XXXX License No. XXXX ) Loan Date : XX/XX/XXXX WHAT HAPPENED On XX/XX/XXXX, I signed a private student loan with Stratus Financial LLC for {$64000.00} to finance flight training at XXXX XXXX XXXX in XXXX, Utah. I am disputing this loan on the following grounds : 1. THE LOAN AMOUNT WAS GROSSLY INFLATED AND UNSUPPORTED BY ACTUAL COSTS XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX own invoice records which I have attached confirm that Stratus Financial wired exactly {$18000.00} to the school on XX/XX/XXXX. Of that {$18000.00}, I personally used {$10000.00} in actual flight training between XX/XX/XXXX and XX/XX/XXXX, at which point I ceased training. XXXX XXXX XXXX eventually returned {$7500.00} to Stratus in XX/XX/XXXX over one year after training stopped. The remaining {$46000.00} of the {$64000.00} loan was never sent to the school. It was held in a " trust balance '' inside Stratus Financial 's own accounts. This is confirmed by Stratus Financial 's own payoff statement dated XX/XX/XXXX, which shows a " Trust Balance '' of {$46000.00}. Despite holding this {$46000.00} in its own possession and never disbursing it, Stratus Financial charged interest on the full {$64000.00} from day one. This is justified in their promissory note ( Section G ), which states interest accrues when funds are " allocated in our books '' even before being sent anywhere. As a result, the loan principal grew from {$64000.00} to {$77000.00} in just 15 months, despite my making monthly payments. I borrowed and used {$10000.00}. Stratus Financial charged me interest on {$64000.00} including {$46000.00} that never left their possession. This is a core UDAP violation : it is unfair and deceptive to charge a borrower 19 % interest on funds the lender itself is holding in trust. 2. THE {$15000.00} UPFRONT FINANCE FEE WAS NOT DISCLOSED IN PLAIN LANGUAGE The loan documents include a " Loan Summary Sheet '' a two-page plain-language document explicitly designed to summarize my loan terms. This document, which Stratus Financial provided as the accessible summary of my obligations, makes no mention of the {$15000.00} upfront finance fee whatsoever. The fee appears only in Exhibit A and the Final Disclosure, which are dense legal documents spanning multiple pages. This fee was never verbally explained to me by Stratus Financial or XXXX XXXX XXXX. The {$15000.00} was added to my {$64000.00} principal on day one ( making my total loan {$79000.00} ), and interest immediately began accruing on it. A borrower relying on the plain-language summary document as a reasonable consumer would would have no knowledge this fee existed. Additionally, the entire loan package was sent to me electronically at XXXX XXXX UTC on XX/XX/XXXX. I viewed and signed it by XXXX XXXX UTC less than three hours later. The documents total over 18 pages of dense legal terms. Burying a {$15000.00} fee in fine print of a lengthy electronic document and providing less than three hours for review does not constitute adequate disclosure under the Truth in Lending Act ( TILA ). Further evidence that this fee was not treated as a legitimate fixed charge : after I submitted a negative review of Stratus Financial online, a Stratus representative contacted me and offered to reduce this fee by 50 %. A lender does not negotiate away half of a legitimately disclosed, contractually binding fee in response to a bad review. This offer demonstrates that the fee was arbitrary and subject to the lender 's discretion and that it should not have been assessed in full. 3. UPPER LIMIT AVIATION CERTIFIED A FRAUDULENTLY INFLATED COST OF ATTENDANCE The Private Education Loan Applicant Self-Certification form, required under Section 155 of the Higher Education Act and Section 128 ( e ) ( 3 ) of TILA, requires the school to certify the student 's cost of attendance. XXXX XXXX XXXX certified my cost of attendance as {$64000.00} the same as my loan amount. The actual cost of a private pilot license at that school was approximately {$10000.00} {$18000.00}, consistent with what was actually charged to my account. XXXX XXXX XXXX inflated my certified cost of attendance more than three times the actual amount. Stratus Financial accepted this certification without question and disbursed the loan accordingly. The relationship between XXXX XXXX XXXX and Stratus Financial is not independent : Stratus Financial 's own privacy notice states that its " joint marketing partners are flight schools and banks who purchase your loan from us. '' The school had a direct financial incentive to maximize the loan amount. 4. {$46000.00} IN UNDISBURSED FUNDS WERE HELD BY STRATUS BUT NEVER RETURNED TO REDUCE THE LOAN BALANCE PROMPTLY When I ceased training in late XXXX, Stratus Financial continued holding {$46000.00} in trust without disbursing it to the school or promptly returning it to reduce my loan balance. Interest continued to accrue on this amount throughout XXXX. XXXX XXXX XXXX did not issue a return of funds ( {$7500.00} ) until XX/XX/XXXX. The remaining {$46000.00} trust balance is reflected in Stratus Financial 's XX/XX/XXXX payoff statement. Had XXXX XXXX XXXX promptly returned the undisbursed funds when I ceased training as it should have done the resulting interest accrual on my loan would have been dramatically reduced. 5. THE LOAN WAS MISREPRESENTED AS A PRE-APPROVAL LIMIT, NOT AN IMMEDIATE FULL DISBURSEMENT When this loan was presented to me by XXXX XXXX XXXX and Stratus Financial, I was led to believe that {$64000.00} represented the amount I was pre-approved for a maximum I could draw from as needed to cover training costs as they arose. I was not told, nor did I understand, that the full {$64000.00} would be treated as immediately disbursed on day one with interest accruing on the entire amount from that moment forward. This distinction is critical. Had I understood that interest at approximately 19 % APR was running on {$64000.00} the moment I signed regardless of how much training I actually completed I would never have signed this agreement. There is no reasonable basis for a private pilot license, which costs {$10000.00} {$18000.00}, to require a {$64000.00} loan. The loan amount made sense only if framed as a flexible pre-approval ceiling that I could draw against as needed, not a lump-sum obligation accruing interest in full from day one. Stratus Financial 's own promissory note ( Section G ) makes this confusion worse, not better. It states that funds are considered " fully disbursed when they have been allocated to you in our books '' meaning the {$64000.00} was treated as disbursed even though {$46000.00} never left Stratus 's possession. This contractual definition of " disbursement '' where the word means an internal accounting entry rather than actual transfer of funds is precisely the kind of deceptive practice that a reasonable borrower can not be expected to understand from a brief electronic review of dense legal documents. The confusion I experienced was not a failure of diligence on my part. It was the predictable result of a loan structure that was never clearly explained, presented through a school with a financial incentive to maximize loan amounts, and signed under time pressure with no independent guidance. 6. THE VARIABLE INTEREST RATE HAS NO MAXIMUM CAP Stratus Financial 's Final Disclosure form explicitly states : " there's no limit on the amount the rate could increase at one time. '' The loan began at 13.999 % base rate plus a XXXX margin, resulting in an APR of 21.145 %. On a XXXX loan for flight training, a variable rate loan with no rate ceiling is predatory in structure, particularly when applied to a loan amount that vastly exceeded the borrower 's actual educational costs. SUMMARY OF HARM I borrowed and used {$10000.00} in actual flight training. Stratus Financial charged interest on {$64000.00} ( later {$79000.00} with fees ), including {$46000.00} it never disbursed. My principal grew from {$64000.00} to {$77000.00} in 15 months despite making monthly payments. I was assessed a {$15000.00} fee never mentioned in the plain-language summary document. My credit has been negatively impacted despite the lender 's failure to account accurately for undisbursed funds. Stratus Financial offered to reduce a disputed {$15000.00} fee by 50 % after I left a negative review suggesting the fee itself was negotiable from the start and not a legitimate fixed charge. RESOLUTION REQUESTED 1. 1. An accurate accounting of this loan based solely on funds actually disbursed ( {$18000.00} ) and actually used ( {$10000.00} ), with interest calculated only on amounts received by the school. 2. 2. A credit or refund for all interest charged on the {$46000.00} held in Stratus 's own trust account that was never disbursed to the school. 3. 3. Removal or substantial reduction of the {$15000.00} upfront finance fee, which was not disclosed in the plain-language Loan Summary Sheet and was never verbally explained. 4. 4. Correction of any negative credit reporting resulting from this dispute. 5. 5. Regulatory investigation of Stratus Financial LLC 's practice of charging interest on funds held in trust and never disbursed, and their referral partnership arrangements with flight schools. SUPPORTING DOCUMENTS ( attached ) 6. 1. Stratus Financial Loan Summary Sheet ( XX/XX/XXXX ) shows NO mention of {$15000.00} fee 7. 2. Promissory Note and Agreement Section G ( interest accrues on funds " allocated in books '' ) 8. 3. Exhibit A / Final Disclosure shows {$15000.00} finance charge and 21.145 % APR 9. 4. Private Education Loan Applicant Self-Certification XXXX XXXX certified {$64000.00} cost of attendance 10. 5. Stratus Financial Payoff Statement ( XX/XX/XXXX ) shows {$46000.00} Trust Balance, principal of {$77000.00} 11. 6. XXXX XXXX XXXX Account Statement confirms {$18000.00} wire from Stratus ( Invoice # XXXX ), {$10000.00} in actual training charges, and {$7500.00} returned in XX/XX/XXXX ( Invoice # XXXX ) 12. 7. Stratus Financial Final Notice ( XX/XX/XXXX ) signed by General Counsel XXXX XXXX, XXXX. 13. 8. Stratus Financial Privacy Notice confirms joint marketing partnership with flight schools

Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation