Online Lending Company Agrees to Settle FTC Charges It Engaged in Deceptive and Unfair Loan Servicing Practices

Avant, LLC, 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.

“We have alleged that Avant gave the run-around to consumers trying to repay their loans, because of systemic issues with the company’s loan servicing platform,” said Andrew Smith Director of the FTC’s Bureau of Consumer Protection. “Online lenders need to understand that loan servicing is just as important to consumers as loan marketing and origination, and we will not hesitate to hold lenders liable for unfair or deceptive servicing practices.”

According to the FTC’s complaint, Avant offers unsecured installment loans for consumers through its website. The FTC charged that in many cases, the company 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 the company 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 was debited from his account 11 times in a single day.

In many cases when consumers complained about the unauthorized charges, Avant allegedly 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 continued to charge consumers without authorization, according to the FTC.

The Commission has 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.

Under the settlement order, Avant, LLC will be prohibited from taking unauthorized payments and from collecting payment by means of remotely created check (RCC). The company 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.

The Commission vote approving the settlement order was 5-0. Commissioner Phillips dissented from Count VII of the complaint and issued a separate statement. Commissioner Wilson dissented from Counts VI and VII of the complaint and issued a separate statement. The settlement order was filed with U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois on April 15, 2019.

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