On 6/2/2020, the CFPB announced a settlement with Main Street Personal Finance, Inc. and its subsidiaries which are based in Cleveland, Tennessee and offer payday and auto-title loans. The Bureau found that Approved Cash provided deceptive finance charge disclosures by failing to refund overpayments on its loans, and violated laws by engaging in unfair debt collection practices.
Specifically, the Bureau found that Approved Cash violated the CFPA’s prohibition against engaging in deceptive acts or practices and TILA by concealing and understating the actual finance charges of its auto-title loans for over 4,000 consumers, who paid a total of over $3.5 million more than the finance charge listed in Approved Cash’s loan disclosures. The Bureau also found that Approved Cash violated UDAAP and TILA rules by retaining consumers’ overpayments on their loans for months and sometimes years instead of returning those funds to consumers. The Bureau also found that Approved Cash engaged in unfair debt collection practices when it made numerous calls to consumers’ workplaces, references, and other third parties after being asked to stop, and improperly disclosed consumers’ debts to third parties or used tactics that risked such disclosure.
The consent order imposes a judgment against Approved Cash of approximately $3.5 million in consumer redress, which amount is suspended upon its payment of $2 million of that judgment and $1 civil money penalty to the Bureau based on Approved Cash’s demonstrated inability to pay.
The CFPB consent order can be found here.