Consumer complaint received 2025-12-01 00:00:00
Product: Payday loan, title loan, personal loan, or advance loan — Installment loan
Issue: Getting the loan — 
Company: Marlette Funding, LLC
State: CA

Complaint narrative:
Regulatory Complaint Best Egg ( Marlette Funding , LLC ) Issue : Deceptive Approval, Unfair Lending Practices, and Unlawful Income Verification Requirements Consumer : XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX, CA XXXX Company : Best Egg ( Marlette Funding , LLC ) XXXX, DE 1. Summary of Complaint I am filing this regulatory complaint regarding unlawful, deceptive, and discriminatory lending practices by Best Egg in connection with my loan application for {$35000.00}, which was stated as Congratulations Youre Approved before the company reversed course and imposed unreasonable and arbitrary documentation requirements. 
The conduct described below constitutes potential violations of : Equal Credit Opportunity Act ( ECOA ), 15 U.S.C. 1691 Regulation B ( 12 CFR 1002 ) CFPB prohibitions against unfair, deceptive, or abusive acts or practices ( UDAAP ) Relevant state consumer-protection laws 2. Deceptive Approval Followed by a Bait-and-Switch Best Egg explicitly informed me that my loan was approved. Only after receiving this approval did the company impose additional, undisclosed conditions and requirements. 
This is deceptive because : The company represented the loan as approved when in fact approval was conditional. 
Best Egg induced reliance by stating approval before disclosing obstacles that would later be used to reverse the approval. 
This constitutes a bait-and-switch practice, prohibited under federal consumer-protection standards ( FTC Act 5, CFPB UDAP principles ).

3. Unlawful and Discriminatory Income Verification Practices I am a private-duty and travel nurse who works with private families. My income is legitimate, substantial, and fully verifiable. 
I provided : Bank statements Deposits and transaction history Care-provider contracts Trust income documentation Pay stubs and other supporting records Despite this, Best Egg refused all of these forms of income verification and insisted solely on a W-2 from last year, which does not reflect my current income.

This violates ECOA and Regulation B, which state : Lenders must consider any verifiable income, regardless of its source ( 12 CFR 1002.6 ( b ) ( 5 ) ).

Lenders may not impose documentation requirements that disproportionately exclude certain lawful forms of employment or income, absent a legitimate
business necessity.

Policies that result in a disparate impact on non-traditional workers violate Reg B even if facially neutral.

Best Eggs policy effectively excludes : Private-duty nurses Contract workers Gig workers Independent earners This constitutes unlawful discriminatory impact against applicants who do not receive standard W-2 wages, despite having
verifiable income.

4. Unfair, Arbitrary, and Non-Compliant Underwriting Best Eggs refusal to evaluate real current income while demanding outdated documents is inconsistent with : CFPB guidance requiring reasonable verification consistent with actual financial circumstances Industry-standard ability-to-repay practices Fair underwriting principles Demanding a last-year W-2 as the sole accepted documentation while rejecting all present evidence is arbitrary and unreasonable.

5. Harm to Consumer Because Best Egg represented the loan as approved, then imposed new barriers and reversed the approval, I experienced : Financial harm due to reliance on the stated approval Unnecessary delays in obtaining funding Emotional distress and a clear instance of discriminatory treatment based on my profession and income model 6. Requested Regulatory Action / Relief I respectfully request that the regulator : Investigate Best Eggs deceptive approval practices and determine whether they violate UDAAP prohibitions.

Review the income-verification policies that appear to unfairly and unlawfully discriminate against non-W-2 earners, in violation of ECOA and Reg B . 

Require Best Egg to : Accept reasonable forms of income verification permitted under Regulation B. 
Cease representing applications as approved before imposing additional conditions.

Facilitate a corrective resolution, including the companys reconsideration of my application using compliant underwriting standards.

7. Desired Outcome I am requesting : A regulatory review of Best Eggs lending practices Correction of discriminatory and deceptive policies Reinstatement and proper reassessment of my loan application based on accurate, current income documentation & final approval today. 

My goal is a fair, lawful resolution consistent with federal consumer-finance standards.

Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation