If you live in Nashville and listen to most radio stations especially 101.1 The Beat you have heard a commercial or two or three for Flex Loans. Flex Loans are the worst things for your pockets fam. They may say the interest rate is only 24% but that is total bull. These loans come with more than a standard interest rate. 

The interest rate is capped at 24% but the daily fees that these loan sharks are allowed to charge you will take that 24% and raise you a mean 255%. That puts your interest at TWO HUNDRED AND THE SEVENTY-NINE PERCENT (279%). Yes you heard me right, 279%. That can get ugly when you can borrow as much as you want essentially. 

Traditional payday loans are capped at $500 and you are only able to have 3 outstanding loans at one time and you may pay back about $50 to $80 or so on each. That’s not too terribly bad, but we will talk about escaping those loans in the future. Imaging paying on a loan you could never pay back.

News Channel 5 interviewed a few people with flex loans about their experience and it is disheartening. From their article:

Malia Andrews told News Channel 5, “I just about had a complete meltdown in the car,” Andrews recalled, describing the moment she realized it would take years to pay off her flex loan. She explained, “And only like $20 of my payment was going to the principal and the rest was, like $300, was going towards the interest rate.”

Fort Campbell veteran Joshua Hause. “Everybody was moved into a flex loan account — there was no choice,” Hause said. Hause had two existing loans for $925 that he said more than doubled after they were converted to a flex loan. “All of a sudden, our payment is over $2,000 for what we owe when that’s never what we took,” Hause recounted. And he said he just keeps getting farther behind. “If they’re going to continue to get higher payments each month, I’ll never get out of that hole,” he added.

But check the bs  Advance Financial CEO, Tina Hodges, said to the news “We’ve written a hundred thousand flex loans last year, and the majority of our customers love them.” Hodges explained, “It’s half the price of a payday loan. So I think it’s really good for these consumers — and that’s why they like it so much.”

Bih where? Who likes 279%? Show me who!!!

Hodges goes on to say that she does not think 279% is excessive. 

So, I wrote all of this to make you aware of these predatory loans and to say FxCK FLEX LOANS!!!

P.S. 101.1 The Beat has more commercials that harm the finances and health of minorities. Scams, McDonalds, Flex Loans, Buy Here Pay Here Car Lots and tons of other bs!!

Sources

Critics Call 279% Loan A ‘Debt Trap’ For Poor – http://www.newschannel5.com/news/newschannel-5-investigates/consumer-alert/critics-call-279-loan-a-debt-trap-for-poor

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