Online Lending Company To Settle FTC Charges

Online Lending Company To Settle FTC Charges

Avant, LLC to Settle FTC Charges It Engaged in Deceptive and Unfair Loan Servicing Practices – Will Pay $3.85M For Harming Thousands of Consumers

On April 15, 2019, the FTC announced that Avant, LLC (“Avant”), an online lending company, has agreed to settle the Federal Trade Commission’s charges that it engaged in deceptive and unfair loan servicing practices, such as imposing unauthorized charges on consumers’ accounts and unlawfully requiring consumers to consent to automatic payments from their bank accounts.

According to the FTC’s complaint, Avant offers unsecured installment loans for consumers through its website. The FTC charged that in many cases, Avant falsely advertised that it would accept payments by credit or debit cards, when in fact it rejected these forms of payments. The FTC also alleged that Avant withdrew money from consumers’ accounts or charged their credit cards without authorization. In some instances, Avant charged consumers duplicate payments without authorization, improperly taking consumers’ monthly payments twice or more in one month. For example, one consumer’s monthly payment, according to the FTC, was debited from his account 11 times in a single day.

Allegedly, in many cases when consumers complained about the unauthorized charges, Avant insisted that the consumers authorized the charges and refused to provide a refund. Despite hundreds of consumer complaints about unauthorized charges and internal documents repeatedly acknowledging this problem, the company, according to the FTC, continued to charge consumers without authorization.

The FTC also charged the online lending company with the following law violations:

  • Failing to properly and timely credit payments made by check;
  • Providing inaccurate payoff quotes to consumers;
  • Collecting additional amounts even after consumers paid the quoted payoff amount; and
  • Violating the Telemarketing Sales Rule and the Electronic Fund Transfer Act by requiring borrowers to agree to recurring automatic debits of their bank account as a condition of obtaining a loan.

The stipulated final order imposes a judgment of $3.85 million, which will be returned to consumers who were harmed by Avant’s unlawful practices.  Further, under the settlement order, Avant will be prohibited from taking unauthorized payments and from collecting payment by means of remotely created check. Avant also is prohibited from misrepresenting: the methods of payment accepted for monthly payments, partial payments, payoffs, or any other purpose; the amount of payment that will be sufficient to pay off in its entirety the balance of an account; when payments will be applied or credited; or any material fact regarding payments, fees, or charges.

Source: FTC.gov

Kehoe Law Firm, P.C.