Checksmart - Express PRA

Are these storefront loans or internet? Huge difference. If they are internet loans, and they are not licensed for your state, you legally do not have to pay them a dime.

These sound like store fronts. Please post and verify if they are indeed store front. I do believe that sassnlucy is in Ohio. Than again, I could be confused. However, they sound like store fronts. Especially with the threatening phone messages. We need an Ohio expert on store fronts regarding your laws. Again, please post as to if they are store front pdl's. We can help you here. No divorce necessary. :D

Any company yellng and screaming are most likely illegal companies. Legitimate companies just file court petitions for a judgement without having to scream.

Anthony, you know, that's an excellent point that never even entered my mind! If it's a legit business operating legally, they would just follow the law and file charges or court orders or whatever the case may be. Am I correct in assuming this? They wouldn't waste their time calling and threatening you? Unless of course, they just get a "charge" out of threatening people. These names just sound like store fronts to me.

A licensed company will train their employees to not dare violate the laws, and not risk losing their license. The illegal ones have no license to take.

Anyone reading this thread, I believe should take note of Anthony's post. Excellent point, Anthony. Did I tell you that I so love you? :D

Or also the can do as CACH did to me and just NOT call or write at ALL! lol And i still ended up with a default... duh me! SIGHS.

Amwelch, Sassnlucy is from Ohio also and very familiar with pdl's. U can either PM her or she may be around later today to help u out here. Plz post all of ur information here and someone will be glad to help u out!
Good Luck,
Ang

These are storefront in Ohio. At least in 8 days they can not scream and saying you can not make payments. They are a CFSA member and here is a few things from CFSA website (cfsa.net)

7. Appropriate Collection Practices. A member must collect past due accounts in a professional, fair and lawful manner. A member will not use unlawful threats, intimidation, or harassment to collect accounts. CFSA believes that the collection limitations contained in the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (fdcpa) should guide a member's practice in this area.

11. Extended Payment Plan (New). A member will comply with a separate code of Best Practices for Extended Payment Plans, which provides customers who are unable to repay a loan according to their original contract, the option of repaying the loan over a longer period of time at no additional charge. A customer shall be allowed to utilize an Extended Payment Plan at least once in a 12-month period. A member will adequately disclose the availability of the Extended Payment Plan to its customers. (Effective 7/31/ 2007

amwelch: I am in Ohio and also have 2 PDLs (1 each) with CheckSmart and Express PDA. I actually had 8 in all (now down to 7!!) and these 2 are legal in Ohio. But, I agree, they have been the worse by far to work with! They will only accept $400+ payments, which I cannot come up with. I have saved up $200 and I am going to attempt to go to 1 of these 2 and see if they will take it tomorrow. I will let you know how it goes.

You can also go another route, and file a complaint with the Attorney General's office about their collection phone tactics. It may cause a delay and even create some working out with these loans.

Ok, I called Express PRA and spoke to the branch manager and told her I had $200 saved up and will be giving it to the 1 PDL that will accept it. I then buttered her up by saying that since she was soo nice to me previously, I decided to give her the first shot. Well, she said she needed to get on the phone to corporate to see if they will accept it and call me back. Well, I get a call back and she says that "corporate says they won'T accept anything less than $350 - but she cleared it by her regional manager (who just happened to be in the store) and she is willing to take the $200". So, I went to the store, paid the $200 and walked out with a receipt. In the store she tried to nail me down for a date for the next payment and amount. I simply told her that I am waiting on my 401k loan and my next payday but I will give her what I can, and she left it at that. A little jumping through hoops, but all in all, painless.

Good for you volley! It's just sad that you have to fight with these pdl's to take your money! I find it amazing. You would think they would rather have something other than nothing. Now, are you able to deal with the other pdl??

Hi everyone. I wanted to know if anyone had advice on a problem i did not create. I took out a loan at checksmart and owed them (this was on monday)$115.00. I made a deposit into my account but it didnt post before the 115.00 posted causing my account to go negative. i took care of that. paid my bank. and told the checksmart rep i would be in on my lunchbreak to take care of it on a friday. So friday i went in and paid the $115 and thought i was done. then on that next week tuesday, i found out they sent my check back thru in corporate (i dont know why i never asked for it back that friday...) and it ended up overdrawing my account by 50 dollars are so. i called checksmart, spoke to the manager, she said she would get taken care of. filled out some papers at my bank and the checksmart. it took them the whole week + 2 days and i accquired over draft fees. They told me dont worry, they would take care of it. i went on and called corporate and the lady in the refunds department was extremely nasty to me. she said she did not want to discuss my case because it was pointless and she wasnt going to do anything about it until the next day. She even hung up on me! She told me wrong info about when i paid the advance off as well. Needless to say, my account is STILL in the negative and the corporate lady NEVER even called me back. I called the bank manager and she said the lady was rude to her too and told her theyre not paying the fees now. WHAT CAN I DO?!?! I feel like this is totally unfair to me. And theyre basic response was they turned the check in on friday too so I dont understand why they would take my payment in the store. (The corporate lady was even trying to say i didnt pay it in the store!) HELP! PLEASE

Wow! I would involve your state's regulatory authority. File complaints against them. Since they are a licensed business, your state can possibly fine them or yank their license.

nia, this is insane! I know you're kicking yourself for not walking out the door with your check from the store front. OMG. I wish to God you had taken it. But you do have your receipt from when you paid it? And then the corporate office turned it in to your bank for payment AGAIN? File complaints. Let the storefront know you are filing complaints. And, actually, if you have a receipt showing that you made payment in full, with the date on it, then the check went through at a different date, why is your bank putting fees on your account? You obviously have documentation that it was paid and then the storefront turned it in for payment again. I'd go back to the bank and have a cow. And I'd also go to the storefront (or call the corp office) and have a cow. Let them know you will be filing complaints. This is just WRONG.

Hi Volley
I hope that you are not really taking a loan on your 401k to pay these people
Please say it aint true!!!!!!!!

So sorry it took so long to reply. Yes, they are storefronts. I'm still in this mess, trying to make it better. So I talked to a gentleman Sunday about the Express account. Made arrangements to pay $300/ paycheck for next 2 paychecks to Express and $300/ paycheck to Checksmart for next 3 checks after that one. I verified several times with him that this arrangement was okay and agreed to call him directly after each payment was made. I get a call tonight from Ms. Gold who says she doesn't care. It's her account, he had no authority to make arrangements on it and that she was sending it through. She then proceeded to hang up, so I tried getting ahold of this guy I spoke with Sunday night. I got transferred back to her again and real nasty she said pay it all before end of August. No options, no nothing. How can the same collections company for the same business do that? I talked to her for about 15 minutes trying to work something out and she will not budge. I called back, spoke to someone else who was very empathic and said she'd get ahold of someone to figure it out and then Ms. Gold got back on the line and told ME to quit calling. That she said what had to be done and that was it. Any more information available about this new law out... does it apply to existing loans or only new ones?

amwelch, I am so sorry about all this they are putting you through. I swear, this is why I refuse to do any kind of communicating over the telephone. I wish to goodness you had gotten it in writing from the gentleman you spoke with.

Take this for how you want with these two companies but here is another idea. I am with a debt consolation company and Checksmart and Express both said they would not work with my company. I told them take me to court and we will let a judge decide. I had the collectors telling me to take my TV to a pawn shop to pay them to a couple more things. I am in Franklin County and these companies used mediation. I was able to talk them into monthly payments and that may be an idea if they will not work with you. I'm not sure what county you are in but it????????s a thought. It took about two months for them to turn me into mediation and maybe you can have it all saved up and give them a money order when you attend that hearing. If you are not in Franklin County I can not say for sure if your county offers mediation. When the collection also talks to you inform them of the CFSA rules I also posted. They should allow you to set up payment according to rule #11 unless you have to take out the loan after 7/31.

Hi Ryan... If you read through that information, the repayment plan rule only applies if you contact them before the payment is due and let them know that you cannot pay it. It doesn't apply if you've already defaulted on the loan. The store manager at Checksmart gets in at 3, so I'm going to try to call him and work it out with him directly since it's his store that's owed the money. It just doesn't make sense to me that they can go back on a repayment plan that they set up. I don't care if it was her account or his, they are both representatives of each company. I work for a bank and they will let me go for something like this. I've been here for almost 9 years and definitely cannot afford to loose my job. I tried over and over to talk to this lady last night. Asked her if I should pay part of each one... she wouldn't answer. It's just so frustrating. She kept trying to throw in that I was writing bad checks. I said I didn't purposely write her bad checks and I wasn't attempting to do anything fraudulent. I defaulted on a loan, that's not criminal action. She then proceeded to tell me she was embarassed for me... I told her there's no reason to try to insult me and that constitutes verbal harassment. That's when she refused to say anything else but pay it all or nothing. UGH!!!! I just want out of these things for good and get my life back together. I had nightmares last night about this and was up half the night worrying. I just want it to be done with. I've turned off everything I can, cut all of my bills as much as possible. I even went in today and changed my IRS withholdings to try to get a little extra this month to go towards paying these people off. I don't know what else I can do and I'm loosing hope fast to be honest with you.

It doesn't make since they would go back on their word, but this company is a horrible company to work with. I was told to pawn my tv, go donate plasma, and sell anything of value in order to pay them. All because I was going through debt consolation and they did not like it. I was a good customer for 3 or 4 years, there every other week to both of their stores. I been through what they are telling you and it may not help because of the what if's, but the worst thing that happened to me is they sent me to mediation in Franklin County. I was able to work out an agreeable payment at that meeting. They embarseed me by sending paper to my HR department but I'm getting through it and learned a hard lesson.

Oh, it gets better. Not only did that evil witch :evil: tell me that I had until the end of the month, yesterday I get a letter in the mail saying 10 days or legal action will get taken against me. It was not only addressed to me, it was addressed to my future mother in law who lives in AZ! What the?!?!?! So I finally was able to get in touch with the owner or manager - not sure what he is, but he's been there since day 1- of the Checksmart store that I had been trying to reach all weekend and told him everything that was going on. He told me to come to his store, not the other one on Wed. and that he'd contact the other store for me and we'd work it all out. I said promise - he said promise. Per him, he hates the corporate office, thinks they're horrible people and said he would take care of making all of the arrangements with Express for me because he knows the manager down there real well. He also apologized that this was all happening. I am going to go in there with my voice memo recorder on though in case he won't give me anything in writing just in case a suit comes of all this because this woman obviously is trying to ruin me. My mother in law, are you kidding. I'm going to call the state today during lunch and make a formal complaint against corporate and her in particular. After the way she spoke to me, after the upkept negotiations from them twice now and then trying to pull outsiders in on my personal business, it's well warranted. I'll keep you posted on what the situation is after I go there tomorrow and meet with him after work.

I am sure I am going to get attacked on here but I just wanted to let you know that I work for checksmart our corporate office and collections department are EVIL people. They treat us the same way when we try to help our customers that we know and see every two weeks. I hate working for this company but I have kids to take care of. As for how the have acted call 1-800-837-0381 and tell them you would like to file a complaint for your treatment. Just dont say on who or what department till you get them on the phone or you may be hung up on. Sometimes collectors answer the phones... Again I am sorry for your treatment and wish I could have helped.

sosorry, no one is going to attack you here! I thank you for posting! We welcome all posts and yours is so very helpful. Thank you for having compassion for people being treated unfairly and thank you for your words.

Thanks Guest!

Do you have any advice on how to work with them?

i would like some advice on them also..this woman calls me everyday and now it is sunday and she left a message telliing me what a loser i am..and doesn't know why i won't pay this back and she will call all my references every day...i talked to someone at csfa and they said they would contact them and i will able to make 4 payments . i am getting ready to call this woman but my stomach is in a knot..i don't know how to deal with her..Help?

I won't say who I am, just in case one of them is reading this.
But I have been reading these post and have had some of the same problems. Let me tell you what happened.

I got the loan. And, like it happens to everyone, fell on hard
times. Cutting to the point.... When Checksmart called me they also were rude, nasty, and made threats against me.
Saying they would take me to court. I offer to make a
payment in full on a particular date and they ALWAYS told
me that the could only accept it 3 or 4 days earlier than the
date that I offered to pay. They said that they would not
accept any payment made after x date. And then.... they
call me after that date had passed and threaten me again. It's
going to go to court! they would say. Again I gave then a date that I knew I could pay them. Again they said they would have to have the payment 3 or 4 days before that date.
(They wouldn't say "3 to 4", but the date they gave always
was 3 to 4 days before I got paid. Making it impossible for
me to pay. They call yelling, threatning, insulting, and hanging
up on me.

Here's the funny thing. If they had accepted my offer, the loan would have been paid off. And they did this routine
several times. Each time saying that I broke my word because
I didn't pay it on the date I offered. I laugh, and tell them
they said they wouldn't accept it, and WHY would I pay them
if they say they won't accept it? They never had an answer.
But then we would repeat the same thing. Them telling me I had to pay by x date, and saying they won't accept it after that because they would just take me to court. Wash, Rinse,
Repeat !!!!

These people are IDIOTS!

I don't know if you know this, but because I still owe the money, and have went down this path with them for so long,
I can tell you that, atleast with CheckStupid (oops. Smart)
they have departments in departments and departments after departments. And some I likely don't know about. It takes these guys a LOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOng time to just get to
pre-legal department. They stall more than a clunker in the junk yard. So if you owe them, and you just got started, relax. You have plenty of time. It is now almost a year later
for me. ALOT!!!

I have changed my numbers. Don't respond by mail. My employer tells them what to go do with themselves, and my
sister, the only other number I gave them, changed her number. (Unrelated to this) But that shows you how long it takes.... everyone you know is likely going to have a new number, by the time they call !!!!

I'd like to know if anyone who is reading this has ever been
taken to court by CheckStupid? All this time I think the worst they're going to do is ruin my already bad credit. OH-NO !!
That means I won't be able to get a credit card that before
this, I couldn't get anyway !!!!

If they changed tactics, and accepted the date the customer
offered, they would likely get their stupid money alot sooner !!
I know they would have with me.

Good Luck to all of you dealing with these guys !
Sincerely,
MyNaMe

I really feel for all of you who have been scammed by your local payday loan companies. I want to let you know that these scenarios happen on a daily basis. The employees are as crooked as they come. I feel sorry for anyone who has to use these companies to make ends meet. I can tell you that the store reps initiate collections. Then they are turned over to the corporate office in Dublin, Ohio. (checksmart and express) This is when most are dealing with rude corporate collectors. Again, sorry. (Somebody has to say it) I always thought that these places helped people who didn't abuse it, but now I'm not so sure. They allow tellers to over extend loans and put the customer in a position where they are unable to repay. I would definitely contact your state and federal representative. This madness has to stop!

Another tidbit for those employed by checksmart or express stores, I just advised my store manager that I would not be in today to consider whether or not I would put in my 2 week notice because of the actions of another employee who cussed me out and made a mistake months ago that upper management felt all of us in the store should pay for now. Needless to say I was livid. The store manager doesn't even want to discuss it. She called the district manager then called me back and said I was fired.?!!????? So it goes to show you that if they don't treat their employees any better.

I feel for your situation and now is not the time to be looking for a job, but based on my year of management there has to be more to the story. Unfortunately, a terminated employee can only see one part of the situation and does not always see the big picture. I would be pretty confident that the DM did not say to terminate you with no cause.

My advice is to put it behind you and move on with your job search. Being bitter will get you nowhere fast and will certainly not get you hired back, which you probably do not want. Your posts on here will not damage the company, but based on the uniqueness of your situation, you could be easily identified by a member of management and ultimately possibly some reprecussions.

Be careful with what you say to who and where...

I had dealt with them a long time ago. I won't deal with them anymore! Checksmart said they were going to fax papers to my job to verify employment and I told them no you are not! They faxed them over which I intercepted them. I called the Police Dept. and filed a complaint for harassment never heard from them again! You can also contact the Better Business Bureau you would get more help there than the Federal Trade Commission. Also try to get the people higher up than the collections people. Maybe like the owner or CEO.They also did the same thing to me wouldn't accept a smaller payment this is just a way to get there money back quicker. MY ADVICE DON'T DEAL WITH CHECK SMART!

Another word of advice sent them a letter by fax and make sure you get the confirmation or send them a letter by certified mail stating that they cannot contact you anymore by home phone, work phone, mail, certified mail, fed ex, dhl, ups, email, fax everyway that you can think of! And they have to abide by this by law! That worked for me also!