Complaint Review: 1-800-NewRate - Montgomery Alabama

I called 1-800-NewRate in hopes of turning my Title Pawn into a secured loan where I could make regular payments and eventually pay it off.  1-800-NewRate told me that the minimum I could borrow was $2100, and upon completion of the loan process cut me a check for the balance of the money borrowed.  I was not aware of this going into it, and they wouldn't allow me to put the extra money back towards the loan.  They told me it would be a minimum of 2-3 weeks befoe I could actually even make my first payment.  I didn't realize the contract was written in such a way that I was actually borrowing more than $4000!  It was to be 27 months at $150.  When I asked them about it, they said it was their policy not to show the pricipal amount on the contract, but just the total amount financed.  They also said there was no penalty for paying it off early.

It went fine for a while, but then I lost my job and was unable to make one payment on time.  I called them and told them, and they said I had to make the payment within the same month or they would "take action".  I tried to make a partial payment of $125, but they refused to take it.  They said they would only accept the full amount due.  Shortly thereafter, I was able to make the full payment that caught it back up to current.

Some time later, I called for a payoff to see how much it would take to clear the loan.  I had made 15 of the 27 payments to date.  The payoff was only $45 less than the total sum of ALL my remaining payments!  When I brought this to the attention of the person I spoke to, she informed me that I had borrowed more than $4000, and she thought it was more than reasonable.  I said no, I only borrowed $2100 and the rest was interest, and she very rudely informed me that that was indeed the payoff.  I asked how much of my payment went to principal each month, and she again was rude when she informed me that she didn't have any of that information, that she had given me the payoff and unless I was going to pay in full immediately, I didn't need to worry about it anyway and hung up.  I should have paid it off at the time, but didn't because I didn't see any sense in it if it wasn't going to cut me a break on the interest. 

After another year, I was unable to make my regular mothly payment.  The loan was at 33-days since the payment date.  I called to make a $275 payment (the past due payment at $150 and the majority of the current payment) and again they absolutely refused to take even last month's payment even though this month was only 3 days late.  I reminded the agent that I've already made 2 years worth of payments on this loan and it's almost paid off.  I asked if there was ANY way they could work with me since there's only a few payments left on it and I'm trying to pay them the majority of what's owed (which was only $310).  She said they will not take a partial payment under any circumstance, and that they could take action as soon as tomorrow if BOTH payments weren't made immediately in full.  She also said that if they decided to "take action tomorrow" there would be absolutely no way to stop the reposession of my car even if I came up with the full amount or foud a way to pay the entire loan off.  So here I am, a total of 4 payments left, and I'm still in danger of losing my car unless I can come up with the full amount in 24hours because they refuse to take my payment.

This type of "loan financing" should not be legal under any circumstance.  1-800-NewRate is nothing more than a loan-shark broker for MotorMax.  Don't do it.  The immediate money will cost you so much more in the long run, and it doesn't matter if you make double-payments.  You're going to keep paying until they get the full amount financed.  There is no penalty if it's paid off early, but there's no benefit, either.  It's absolutely not worth it.  Talk to ANYONE else if you need money and please learn from my mistake.  

It's just not worth it.