Complaint Review: Advance America - Seattle Washington

Really? This is for the person who's comment is directly above me. AA employee, Payday Loans are strategically placed in the poorest neighborhoods and towns to reel in the lower class. Yes I have a PDL out. Yes I pay it back. I only loan what I know I can pay back. Yes I have had to do PDLs in order to pay my rent. Everyone falls on hard times, that's why y'all are there. If you are so concerned about us regular folk understanding the astronomical COMPOUND INTEREST that you charge, why don't you explain it in greater detail? Oh that's right, cause you prefer to have us poor folk stupid that way you can just take the money. Starfox, honey, you at least ATTEMPTED to make the arrangements? I know I tried one time with AA and they flat out turned me down. What are you talking about once it hits your account we can make arrangements? So what your practices state, is that even if someone contacts you to make arrangements, tries to come in the day they are paid, with the money for a down payment, you STILL post the funds to the account therefore causing the customer to have overdraft fees that they now have to take ANOTHER loan out for because you have just wiped out their account. Am I following you correctly? Oh and by the way, you might want to go back to the 5th grade because it's ABUSE not OBUSE!! Did you ignore the little red squiggly line that was under the word you misspelled? Must have. I have NEVER had issues asking for payment arrangements with other PDL places, except for AA. Don't play the victim if you are the one taking the money hand over fist. 

Wow, people! The more I read the more I understand that knowledge is power - out of these complaints have just one question for you - DID YOU READ YOUR CONTRACT WHEN YOU SIGNED UP FOR A LOAN? Starfox, parasites praying on hardworking people? Seriously, I am sorry but I worked for this company long enough to realize that people obuse the financial options that they have! Loaning for 2 years, well who's fault is that?!! Advance America's, or how about in these two years have you READ YOUR CONTRACT, or asked for different payment plan options? or did you roll your eyes every time an employee read over the contract before signing! By the way, did you ever wondered what is APR stands for? and why it so extremely high? APR - Annual Percentage Rate, at Advance America the rate displayed on the charts based on 14days period - meaning if for example if customer would be taking out $100 for every two weeks for a whole year  - that high number (390% something)  is what cust will pay at the END of the year in interest. Consider that in year there is 26 - bi weekly periods (26 loans in a year!!!, don't tell me that there was not enough time to catch up!).  At the time when Advance America cleaned your account  how long has it been since you got behing from your due date on agreement? and when you talked to the employee and said that will try to make pmt did you follow thru meaning did you actually came in as you said you would and made pmts or did you even call them often enough to keep them informed of whats going on so it would not look like if you would totally forget about a loan? and I do apologise for sounding probably very rude and angry but when I see people positing these complaints it make me angry, because we have a really good rating overall - usually 90% of our customer satified with our services ( I do admit that there some bad customer service happen like at any other place where there money and people are involved) but overall payday loans should be only for emergencies - SHORT TERM cash solutions. It always amazes me that it is sooo easy to blame somebody else, while NOT UNDERSTANDING how the product works, people don't take time to educate them selves. It a good company to work for!

I really cannot believe employees of these companies have the nerve to get involved on Rip_off report. I am one of those honest but eternally in debt peoplewho paid the 400++ intrest. I was involved with three of these companies compounding the problem to about $5000+ in ntrest paid. Every week telling myself next week i can pay this off, it never ends.

These places are heatrtless and thier structure of repayment is rediculous. I asked to resolve the re-paymnet of one of these loans and was told "when the bank return the check we can offer you a more extended payment plan." The problem is they know how to change the ransaction to get it through your back no matter what, even ig your overdrawn. One of these is called an ACH transaction which allows them to electronically debit your accout. I learned this after putting a stop paymnent on the check only to find out they changed the transaction type. And my guess is they must invest with most of our Banks because Wells Fargo cleared the payment faster than i could say, What the ----. The only way to stop them is to close your account and work something out with them after they learned they cannot get thier money from your account.

Oh....and if i loan someone money yes i would expect it back, only after seeing that that person has paid me off 1000 times over i would offer them some kind of sensable repayment option. If i ever have the oppertunity to hire someone who has one of theses places on thier resume i will immediatly question thier judgement and character and tell them we are not hiring.

400% "APR"...you know who made them list the fees that way don't you?

Credit card companies and credit unions. They wanted to make the fees look scarier to drive away customers. The lobbied the republican congress and got the regulations passed.

Every time Cash advances are made legal in a state, bounced check fees paid to financial institutions drastically fall. People do use the service to bounce less checks. This costs banks and credit unions (who specifically make a ton of money on overdrafts, many times "bank fees" are over 60% of their income). Would you rather bounce a check for $75 and pay your bank the $35 fee, or borrow $100 from me and pay a fee of $15. This would give you some breathing room and a little money in your pocket in case something else comes up.

I worked for Advance America. The fees at my Location were $15 per every $100 borrowed, or 15% on a 2 week loan. My average customer would take 3-5 loans a year. To actually accrue an APR of 400%+ they would have to come in, pay off and re-borrow the same loan every other week for an entire year, which they would almost never do (I had only 3 customers out of over 600 ever make it an entire year like that, that's less than one half of 1%).

On the "Garnishment" note, they did not file anything, they just took the check you wrote to them and cashed it as soon as money was available.

I am so sorry you have been treated this way and hope you get on your feet soon.  My daughter works for this company and I can tell you it is no more easy for her except she gets a pay check.  My main concern is that before she finds another job she will be emotionaly damaged by her treatment. I think most people know what I mean.....when you have to work and you make decent money you try and try to satisfy but no matter what you do you are constantly harrassed. The same way you are treated when you need a loan if your credit is less than desirable. The district I am reffering to is in the West Point & Tappahannock, VA area.  I do know, that the loan regulations have changed and now there is a period to pay the money back before you have any interest or fees they are not suppose to tell you tell you, so if you need quick money make sure you can pay it back before the grace the anger not only from consumers but from the company.  The company continues to change their job requirments as they go...Now they want the employees to go out to peoples houses to collect money but they better make their phone calls that day....which at the place my daugher works is on average of 350 a day.  You are not allowed to have water or anything at the counter even if you are closed and you are told you are being watched by camera daily and God forbid you get a phone call.  They are constantly threating to fire you...who wants to work like that. I have seen my daugher cry because she wants to help, but she has to get the money if it is in the account.  This letter is to let people know and I wish someone in that company would come down from their high office and do something about the way the employees are being treated. For my daughter I will continue to pray she can find another job soon. 

Being an ex employee of this company, I must say that everything this person is complaining about has been heard over and over. Wether its over the phone or in person, we on a daily basis had to deal with an unhappy customer. The sad part about this story is that everyone is so quick to point the fingers at the managers or employees, when really its not up to them, they are just following orders. This whole thing about Advance ripping people off is just silly. Think about it for a bit, if you loaned someone 500.00 dollars wouldnt you want you money as soon as possible. THis company is taking chances on loaning people money (who by the way only about 70% return to actually pay there loans) and expect to get paid in return. You signed the contract that states the interest and its terms so if there is anyone to blame its yourself. Everything they do as far as taking their money from your bank account is legal and its all written in your loan contract. I will admit that i would never recommend a payday loan, even when new customers came in i would always suggest they find another alternative, because i know for a fact that once your in its hard to get out and thats when people get mad and frustrated with the system, but in the beginning when they needed money it seemed so easy to take it.

I went on short term disability and my check was late. I called the day before my "loan" was due to arrange working with them. They repeatedly tell you to communicate and work with them. I called them the day my loan was due. I only spoke with the manager. I called two more days in a row and the manager said she would hold my check for a week if needed and it was no problem. She confirmed this each time I spoke with her. On day TWO, they cashed my check with my bank. I did not have enough funds to cover it and incurred 8 $35 overdraft charges due to this complete lie. I know, I know... I was stupid and should have cancelled the check, but I didn't. I trusted. Silly me. I called the manager when I found out and she stated she called the bank and verified funds. Problem with that lie is that my bank does not give fund verification over the phone. In fact, just the payday previously, the workers were talking amongst each other and specifically stated my bank and one other did not do this. The manager lied. Boldly lied several times, then stated she never lied. Sadly, I take copious notes. Yes, it's my fault I ended up there in the first place. It's my fault I didn't put a stop payment on the check and it's my fault I had to have surgery and be out of work on short term disability for 2 months. Due their poor integrity (in addition to almost 400% APR) they lost me. Good for me, but bad for them. Seriously. They get you by the scruff once you go because their charges are so high. For a while, you can offset this by loaning a higher and higher amount, until you bottom out. Then they own you.