How to Submit a Complaint Against Payday Lender
Submit a Complaint
1. File a complaint to CFPB
It is legal and fastest option. Lenders are obliged to submit responses in every complaint received via CFPB portal.
2. File a complaint to your local Regulator
Another popular option is to submit your complaint directly to you local regulator. Below you can find list of states and regulators as well as their phone numbers and link to their websites. Following the corresponding link you can find complaint form and guides from regulator how to full-fill and submit it. Before you go you can review your state’s payday loan law.
Consumer Complaint Database
We analyzed Consumer Complaint Database provided by ConsumerFinance.gov but only those part which is directly connects to payday loans. Totally we analyzed about 22,000 complaints since 2013.
Companies with most complaints
Simple list of companies (ordered by complaints count) with numbers of complaints (in brackets) consumers submitted.
- Speedy Cash ( 1459 )
- Ace Cash Express ( 1317 )
- Check 'n Go ( 1072 )
- Community Choice Financial ( 745 )
- Advance America ( 543 )
- Check into Cash ( 340 )
- LendNation ( 85 )
- Money Mart ( 77 )
- AmeriCash Loans ( 73 )
- Cash Express ( 54 )
- TitleMax ( 53 )
- CheckSmart ( 26 )
- Check City ( 23 )
- Easy Money ( 22 )
- Checkmate ( 19 )
- Allied Cash Advance ( 11 )
- 1 First Virginia ( 9 )
List of complaints issues / sub-issues
Here we got a list of issues (ordered by complaints count) with number of complaints (in brackets) consumers use when submit their complaints.
- Communication tactics ( 741 )
- Frequent or repeated calls ( 330 )
- Threatened to take legal action ( 176 )
- Called after sent written cease of comm ( 85 )
- Took or threatened to take negative or legal action ( 493 )
- Threatened to arrest you or take you to jail if you do not pay ( 193 )
- Threatened to sue you for very old debt ( 170 )
- Threatened or suggested your credit would be damaged ( 71 )
- Charged fees or interest I didn't expect ( 469 )
- Attempts to collect debt not owed ( 438 )
- Debt is not yours ( 160 )
- Debt was paid ( 128 )
- Debt was result of identity theft ( 114 )
- Taking/threatening an illegal action ( 390 )
- Threatened arrest/jail if do not pay ( 263 )
- Threatened to sue on too old debt ( 74 )
- Sued w/o proper notification of suit ( 27 )
- Struggling to pay your loan ( 351 )
- Can't contact lender ( 326 )
- False statements or representation ( 313 )
- Attempted to collect wrong amount ( 106 )
- Impersonated attorney, law enforcement, or government official ( 71 )
- Impersonated an attorney or official ( 45 )
- Cont'd attempts collect debt not owed ( 263 )
- Debt is not mine ( 106 )
- Debt was paid ( 100 )
- Debt resulted from identity theft ( 37 )
- Improper contact or sharing of info ( 222 )
- Contacted employer after asked not to ( 87 )
- Talked to a third party about my debt ( 85 )
- Contacted me after I asked not to ( 47 )
- Charged fees or interest you didn't expect ( 220 )
- Received a loan I didn't apply for ( 191 )
- Can't stop charges to bank account ( 184 )
- Written notification about debt ( 161 )
- Didn't receive enough information to verify debt ( 93 )
- Didn't receive notice of right to dispute ( 62 )
- Notification didn't disclose it was an attempt to collect a debt ( 6 )
- Payment to acct not credited ( 150 )
- Received a loan you didn't apply for ( 122 )
- Charged bank acct wrong day or amt ( 121 )
- Disclosure verification of debt ( 89 )
- Not given enough info to verify debt ( 54 )
- Right to dispute notice not received ( 25 )
- Not disclosed as an attempt to collect ( 10 )
- Problem with the payoff process at the end of the loan ( 89 )
- Money was taken from your bank account on the wrong day or for the wrong amount ( 86 )
Complaints over Years Chart
The chart below shows how complaints are distributed over years. You can notice there was a downtrend from 2014 to 2018 but the last four years’ count of complaints keeps on almost the same level.