Complaint Review: Red Rock - Internet

Tribal Lending does not mean they don't have to follow the law:

Please read to the end, you do have a legal option to resolve this with the help of the Federal Government.

This company is Red Rock Lending, It goes and has gone under multiple names, Castle Payday, and has now changed its name to Big Picture Loans.  Avoid at all costs

I made the mistake of taking a loan out with these scam artists, I was approved for a $600.00 loan, but only borrowed $350.00.  I was told by the Rep on the phone that there would be a $122.50 finance charge, steep, but I agreed.

What I did not know, and could not see at the time I accepted this agreement, was that the Truth in Lending disclosure not visible at the time I accepted this loan showed an APR of, and this is not a typo either, 849.0116% and that the total repayment amount for my $350.00 loan would be a whopping $1,872.50.

After realizing what I had gotten myself into, I started looking online and saw what kind of company this is, they are a predatory lender engaged in illegal business practices.

This is where it got interesting, I did digging online, and found that they are NOT immune to the reach of the Federal Government. On March 19th of 2014 U.S. District Judge Gloria M. Navarro ruled that the FTC Act “grants the FTC authority to regulate arms of Indian tribes, their employees, and their contractors.” specifically regarding deceptive payday lenders hiding behind a tribal affiliation.”

I filed a complaint with the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau on December 8th citing what exactly had transpired, noting that I had not been informed of the 850% interest rate on the loan, that I was told there would be a $122.50 finance charge, not $1,872.50 in total payments, and that I was unable to view the "Truth in Lending" disclosure until after the loan had been processed and funds delivered to my account.  This is illegal, and remember, their claim that they immune to the laws of the Federal Government….. is totally false. 

Within 10 days of me filing my complaint with the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, I got a response from Castle Payday stating that "By electronically signing the loan agreement, you agreed to abide by its terms, including the repayment schedule."

The very next paragraph however read... "To date, the Company has received payments from you in the amount of $490. While not obligated to do so, and in an effort to resolve this in a manner that is most favorable to you, the Company has “Charged Off” your account and updated its status to “Paid in Full,” thereby concluding your business with the Company."

I had no problem with paying the total of $472.50 I had agreed to for the $350.00 loan, which is only fair, I was not looking to get out of a legitimate debt.  I was fortunate, the $490.00 this cost me was only $17.50 more than I had expected to pay, and I will gladly write that off as a fee for learning this lesson.

If you have been scammed by these people, I urge you to please go to the "Consumer Financial Protection Bureau" website, it is http://www.consumerfinance.gov/ and file a proper complaint.  This doesn't cost anything.  Include specific details of the loan, the illegal interest rate that they are attempting to charge you, whether or not all of the details of the loan were made visible to you at the time of the loan submission, etc.  Be professional, and you will likely get the resolution that you are looking for.  These complaints are forwarded to the legal offices of this illegal loan sharking operation and they will likely do what they can to make you happy and keep the Federal Government out of their operation as long as possible.  Do not bother with the Better Business Bureau, they do not have legal authority over any company, go straight to the Feds.  

It took less than 10 days for me to get this resolved, this company does NOT want the feds coming after them, and the more people that file proper complaints, the more likely the FTC or CFPB is to take action against them to stop these illegal practices, These “Tribal Operations” have already been fined Millions by the feds.   Here is the company full name and mailing address that you will need when you file your complaint: Red Rock Tribal Lending, LLC d/b/a CastlePayday.com (or now bigpictureloans.com) P.O. Box 704, Watersmeet, MI 49969