I received an offer for a personal loan today. I usually get at least one offer a month, but this was the first from this particular bank. The first thing that that struck me about the offer was the paper that it is written on. Very cheap, and thin, with little coloring, it feels "poor". Second, I have not heard of this bank and began to wonder if this was.... snail-mail phishing, a slower process than the internet but still a viable method. I could have printed out a much more official looking offer than this.
Then I begin to read the offer. It lists a fixed simple interest rate. Loans have an APR of 96%. 96%...is that even legal? If your credit is good, and you would like a 1,000 dollar loan you could expect to pay them back $94.98 per month for 24 months. That equals $2,280.00. WOW......If you needed a $3,000 dollar loan(the max) you would pay 284.93 a month for the 24 months.
Also, higher rates may apply if you choose their manual loan funding process. What ever the hell that is.
What are these people smoking??
Anyone could put this letter together, but if it is "real" who would accept such an offer? Is it even legal to charge rates such as this? MetaBank....so they say...is the host bank, written by Brookwood loans.
I say scam, or illegal.
What do you think?