Consumer complaint received 2026-03-30 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: Scratch Financial, Inc.
State: PA

Complaint narrative:
I am submitting this complaint regarding Scratchpays failure to clearly disclose material terms and consequences related to my loan and promotional interest waived offer, as well as confusing and inconsistent account documentation. In early XX/XX/year>, I was approved for a Scratchpay loan under XXXX XXXXXXXX XXXX XXXXXXXX. The loan documents dated XX/XX/year> show an amount financed of {$9900.00}, an APR of 32.90 %, and a 6 month interest waived promotional offer, under which the interest would effectively be waived if I made the required payments on time and paid the balance within the promotional period. In XX/XX/year>, I began experiencing financial hardship and needed a little extra time to make my XX/XX/XXXX payment. Before the situation got worse, I contacted Scratchpay on XX/XX/XXXX through their system and requested a short extension. I had been making my payments before this issue, and I was trying to be proactive and communicate my circumstances. Scratchpay responded to my request and advised that they could not change the due date unless the account was current. In that same communication, they stated they would waive the late fee as a one time courtesy. They also included several notes and warnings about the account, including that reminders would continue, that the account had a 2 day grace period before a late fee was generated, and that a due date change would remain as the new due date going forward. However, Scratchpay did not clearly tell me in that communication that failure to make the payment by the required deadline would cause me to lose eligibility for the 6 month interest waived promotional offer. This was the most important consequence, and it was never disclosed to me in response to my hardship inquiry, despite the fact that Scratchpay knew I was specifically asking for help because I needed more time. I later made the XXXX payment on XX/XX/year>. After doing so, I logged into my account and discovered that my monthly payment had increased substantially and that my balance had increased by more than {$2000.00}. This was the first time I realized that I had lost the promotional benefit and that interest had been applied in a way I was not expecting. On XX/XX/year>, I called Scratchpay to dispute what happened. During that call, I explained that I had proactively reached out, disclosed hardship, and requested help before things escalated, but was never told that I could lose the promotional offer if payment was not made by a certain date. During that call, a supervisor told me that my account had been dropped from the promotional offer on XX/XX/year> due to nonpayment. That specific deadline had never been clearly disclosed to me beforehand. Had Scratchpay simply told me that I needed to make the payment by XX/XX/year> in order to preserve the promotion, I would have done everything possible to make that happen. I understand that Scratchpay may point to language in the loan documents regarding the conditions of the promotional offer, which is still vague in terms of what is considered an on-time payment. My complaint is that when I directly contacted Scratchpay to explain hardship and ask for help, they gave me written account specific guidance, waived the late fee, and listed other warnings, but still failed to clearly disclose the single most material consequence, which was that I was about to lose the interest waived promotion entirely. That omission caused substantial financial harm. Separately, and only recently discovered by me, I also found that my Scratchpay account documents reflect a second plan ID, XXXX XXXXXXXX, along with an Adverse Action Notice dated XX/XX/year>. That notice states that records show I applied for a Scratchpay plan on XX/XX/year> and was not approved for the amount requested at that time. This is confusing because my funded loan appears to be the XX/XX/year> loan under XXXX XXXXXXXX XXXX XXXXXXXX. I did not discuss this separate adverse action notice with Scratchpay during my prior calls because I only realized this issue later when reviewing my account documents. Scratchpay has not clearly explained why there are two separate plan IDs, whether the XX/XX/XXXX notice related to a second application, a request for a different amount, or some other credit decision. This creates further confusion and reflects poor and inconsistent disclosure practices.

Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation