ComplaintsforHappy Money, Inc.

• Initial Complaint

  12/02/2022

  Complaint Type:

  Product Issues

  Status:

  Answered

  More info

  I applied to skip a payment with my loan holder. I received a signed modification agreement saying there was no payment due in November and to resume payments December 17th 2022. However I kept getting late notices and so I reached out to the company by email. I was told my request was denied, however I have a signed agreement. I then contacted them by chat. They made me wait for over an hour giving me the run around. I was told it was an error and they wouldn't honor the agreement. They had told me in a previous conversation on chat that they lost documents and would have their engineers notified. I have the modification agreement signed by myself and their company. I have tried talking to several people there and I'm not getting anywhere with them. I just want our modification agreement upheld. I have attached the loan modification agreement. I also have screenshots from my last chat with them if needed.

  

  Business response

  12/16/2022

  Please see document attached.
  See Attachment/File: ************** BBB.docx.pdf

• Initial Complaint

  10/17/2022

  Complaint Type:

  Customer Service Issues

  Status:

  Answered

  More info

  I received a pre-approved offer from this company for the first time. INSIDE THE SAME ENVELOPE with my mailing was an offer that was intended for someone else in a neighboring town. I now have that persons name and address and their loan invitation code. This was such a careless mistake. I'm afraid that my information could have also gotten mailed to someone else.

  

  Business response

  11/17/2022

  Business Response /* (1000, 5, 2022/10/26) */ Please view document attached

• Initial Complaint

  10/13/2022

  Complaint Type:

  Customer Service Issues

  Status:

  Answered

  More info

  My loan was past due in August 2022 when a member advocate reached out to me to ask if i was able to set up 3 payments to be withdrawn each of the following 3 Fridays.Each payment was made via automatic withdrawal (which i had agreed to for only these 3 payments) on the Monday following the 4th Friday I saw that another withdrawal had gone through resulting in overdraft fees to my checking account. I contacted Happy Money and after a couple emails was issued a refund and told no more automatic withdrawals would occur. Yesterday 10/12 I. Noticed another withdrawal had occurred, i chatted with a member advocate via the website and after over a half hour of discussion was finally told i would be refunded (expedited). Just this evening i received an email from this member advocate incorrectly telling me that this amount was needed to bring my account current. I checked my account and my payment, that is not due until 10/17 was less than the normal amount by the exact amount of the unapproved withdrawal. I have replied explaining that the information given was inaccurate and that i still need this refund immediately.I do not believe that Happy Money has put a stop to these automatic withdrawals and need help in assuring this does not continue to happen as it has now put me into a financial hardship 2 times.

  

  Business response

  10/27/2022

  please see document attached.
  See Attachment/File: 530-******************-BBB.docx.pdf

  Customer response

  11/04/2022

  (The consumer indicated he/she DID NOT accept the response from the business.)
  The response fails to address the withdrawal on 10/11/2022. This withdrawal has since been refunded but did, once again cause me financial distress resulting in bounced checks and overdraft fees. The withdrawal on 10/11 is the one that caused me to file this complaint, and while I have since been refunded you can clearly see that Happy Money claims to have shut off this recurring payment on 10/7, this is clearly not true.

  

  Business response

  11/17/2022

  Please see document attached.
  See Attachment/File: 530-******************-BBB 11172022.docx.pdf

  Customer response

  11/28/2022

  (The consumer indicated he/she DID NOT accept the response from the business.)
  I have attached a screenshot of my bank account showing the $444 being withdrawn on 10/11 ALONG WITH THE $665.97 referenced in the response from the business. It is clear to see that both withdrawals took place. What is not clear is why the business is unable to admit/find record on their end of this happening.
  See Attachment/File: B0E26171-0B1A-44D1-B9EF-B9B076927E50.jpeg

  

  Business response

  12/16/2022

  Please see document attached
  See Attachment/File: ******************-BBB 12162022.docx 1.pdf

• Initial Complaint

  08/15/2022

  Complaint Type:

  Product Issues

  Status:

  Answered

  More info

  I had some fraud on my checking account and as soon as I noticed I let them know to change my payment account as my account was closing. They still charged the monthly payment to my account that was closing and it caused it to go negative while it was processing for closure the payment was bounced and now instead of allowing me to pay the 462.42 they want to charge me a late fee now the payment is 538.72. I paid 9630.85 and was told that my account was paid off but not any more. This is horrible. I have never dealt with a company that is so incompetent. I am wanting to pay my last 462.42 payment and that's all. I was told there would not be a late fee and that is what this is. I'm not an idiot. The interest on 462.42 is not $76

  

  Business response

  09/14/2022

  Business Response /* (1000, 5, 2022/08/26) */ ***************** ******************************* ****************** August 26, 2022 Re: Better Business Bureau (BBB) Complaint ID# ******* Dear ************, We are writing to follow up on the complaint you submitted to the BBB on August 15, 2022. We appreciate the opportunity to respond to your concerns regarding your experience with the Payoff loan by Happy Money. After investigating the nature of your complaint, we reviewed your account ending in***** and applied your payment of $9,360.85 accordingly: Transaction ID Trans Date Trans Amount Principal Interest LPT-********* 8/10/2022 9,630.85 9,545.77 85.08 As of August 26, 2022, your payoff amount is $457.19, with a Good-Through Date of August 30, 2022. Please see the attached letter for more information. At Happy Money, we are committed to providing excellent customer service. We appreciate that you took the time to share your feedback with us. If you have any additional comments or questions, please don't hesitate to reach out to us. You can call us at ************** between 6 AM-6 PM Monday-Friday PT or Saturdays and Sundays from 6 AM-3 PM PT or email us directly at ************************* Regards, The Payoff Team at Happy Money

• Initial Complaint

  05/19/2022

  Complaint Type:

  Customer Service Issues

  Status:

  Resolved

  More info

  I paid off my loan, I owe them NOTHING, when I paid off my loan, they reported it to the credit bureaus as taking out a new loan- adversely affecting my credit score; they will not correct it for 1-2 months, even though it was entirely their error and I did NOTHING wrong ********************************

• Initial Complaint

  05/17/2022

  Complaint Type:

  Customer Service Issues

  Status:

  Resolved

  More info

  I have had a Happy Money loan for approximately 3 months. I just had the monthly payment clear approximately 3 days after the payment due date although it was made the day after. The payoff quote is adding $299 in interest on what is supposed to be a simple interest loan. There is no way even I should be paying that much interest one day after a payment cleared.

  

  Business response

  05/17/2022

  Please see the attached response.  Thank you. 

  Customer response

  05/17/2022

  5/17/2022
  
  Better Business Bureau:
  
  I have reviewed theresponse made by the business in reference to complaint ID ********, and find that this resolution would be satisfactory to me. I will wait for the business to perform this action and, if it does, will consider this complaint resolved.
  
  Regards,
  
  *********************************
  
  
  
  
  

• Initial Complaint

  05/05/2022

  Complaint Type:

  Customer Service Issues

  Status:

  Answered

  More info

  I received a notice from Payoff by Happy Money that clearly stated on the front of the envelope without fine print or asterisks of any kind stating, "You're Pre-Approved!" in another box it says, "rates as low as ****% APR.*" this section does have an asterisk symbol, yet does not pertain to the previously mentioned approval. After following the instructions to receive a rate for their debt consolidation program, I am told I do not meet any of their minimum criteria... This is false advertising and blatant lying to myself and other potential customers. They have said I am "Pre-Approved", not pre qualified or anything else. Approved: "to accept as satisfactory", "to give formal or official sanction". Payoff by Happy money Pre-Approval does not mean they can then deny a customer, as they have officially accepted them in their advertisement.

  

  Business response

  05/05/2022

  Please see attached.  Thank you.

• Initial Complaint

  04/14/2022

  Complaint Type:

  Customer Service Issues

  Status:

  Answered

  More info

  I started the payoff process to secure a loan to pay off my credit card debt on/about February 16, 2022. On February 22 Happy Money requested that I send a second form of ID and I sent my passport. They then sent a confirmation email saying that my payoff loan was approved. Less than a day later they said it was not approved because I didn't sign my passport. So I signed it and sent it back to them. Within a day or so I signed into my document portal to sign all documents needed to finalize the loan and set up payments for future payments. I then receive a phone call stating that there was a glitch in the system and engineering needed to correct some issues before my loan could be process. On one hand I have all electronic documents stating that my loan is approved through a 3rd party company called ***** ******************* I've set up ACH for my payment that begins in April 11th and then on the other hand I'm now being told that they can't see any of my information in the system and I would have to wait on engineering to fix the issue. This goes on for weeks. Then there was an IT issue for over a week then I got fed up. I finally get one representative to speak with instead of going between several agents and ******* assures me, like everyone else that she will fix my issue. She proceeds to tell me that the issue has been fixed and I should receive payment into my account within 3-6 business days. Of course those days pass and she now has a long story about how my application is not beyond **************************************************************************** if I'd received funds because she sees that it has been funded. We are now at more than 2 months going back and forth. I then get a $200 gift card for my trouble and today she says sorry there is no loan we have to start over. If I choose not to start over they can get the hard inquiry off of my report in 2-3 weeks.

  

  Business response

  04/14/2022

  Please see the attached document.

  Customer response

  04/14/2022

  4/14/2022
  I do not accept that a back end system held me up for 45 days but during the same time they were telling me the issue was fixed. So even if it was a back end system how do they explain how they can have all of my closing docs, and have the promissory note signed which binds you to the lender - then act like they don't know where any of your docs are. Is it engineering or is it an IT issue' Are there no back up systems to prevent this in the future' They are playing around with PII and to just simply say sorry it was a backend issue is unsatisfactory.
  
  

  

  Business response

  04/21/2022

  4/21/2022
  Please see attached.  Thank you. 
  
  

• Initial Complaint

  04/11/2022

  Complaint Type:

  Customer Service Issues

  Status:

  Answered

  More info

  I applied for a consolidation loan from Happy Money in December 2020. I was approved and I began making my payments in January of 2021. I check my Happy Money account frequently to make sure the payment was received and the "extra" principal is being applied correctly. Approximately 3 weeks ago I checked my account and I noticed in the breakdown for each payment received the extra principal was not being reported in the breakdown. I called to address this issue and I was told they would look further into it, I have received emails informing me they are still working on my account. On April 3, 2022 I decided to go online to look at my account and there is no loan information. Yesterday I received a letter from Happy Money stating "We'd still love the opportunity to help you take back control of your financial life so you can focus on the things that matter most to you" Essentially this letter is indicating I have not paid my loan when that is completely false I pay it every month, and I have paid more than was was owed. I called again this morning and I was told the website has been down for over 2 weeks, however their website does not indicate this. This company does not know what they are doing and they should not be dealing in the loan business. I want to know how they are calculating the interest payments and how my extra principal payment are being applied. I can't seem to get a straight answer because it appears they have no idea what they are doing. I would like to receive a document showing how the interest is calculated and how my extra principal is being applied so I can confirm they are calculating my loan accurately. The pdf screenshot shows payments that were made received and the breakdown for March I paid $1000 and Feb $1100, however both payments show I paid $921.52 with no extra funds applied towards principal. That is not accurate.

  

  Business response

  04/11/2022

  Please see response attached.  Thank you. 

  

  Business response

  04/20/2022

  4/20/2022
  Please see attached.  Thank you. 
  
  

  Customer response

  04/28/2022

  4/11/2022
  Happy Money provided a response showing 2 payments that were not calculated accurately. What was reported for my loan in their system the last time I was able to review it was inaccurate for each payment since the inception of the loan. It has been over 3 weeks since I have been able to view my loan payment information in their system, due to system issues. It shouldn't take this long to fix a system glitch, I attempted to access my account this morning and I was still unsuccessful. I want a report showing my loan from the beginning with each payment I made and how that payment was allocated, providing 2 months is insufficient.
  
  4/28/2022
  My loan has been reported incorrectly on the Happy Money Website prior to the months indicated in the response provided. I do not want to close this complaint until the 2nd review is performed by Happy Money and I receive a letter in writing showing the payments I made which include extra principal and how those payments were allocated to principal and interest from the inception of the loan./
  
  

• Initial Complaint

  03/21/2022

  Complaint Type:

  Customer Service Issues

  Status:

  Resolved

  More info

  I sent in a check for the total payoff amount due on the loan. However, the payoff representative had me send the check to ********************* When they finally cashed the check I was charged additional interest and fees. I have tried to pay this amount off but they say I can't use a different checking account until it is approved. I'm the meantime I am being charged 4 cents a day. I would like to pay off the remainder and be done with this company ASAP.

  

  Business response

  03/21/2022

  Please see attached response to the submitted complaint. 

  Customer response

  03/21/2022

  3/21/2022
  
  Better Business Bureau:
  
  I have reviewed theresponse made by the business in reference to complaint ID ********, and find that this resolution would be satisfactory to me. I will wait for the business to perform this action and, if it does, will consider this complaint resolved.
  
  Regards,
  
  *************************
  
  
  
  
  

*Some consumers may elect to not publish the details of their complaints, some complaints may not meet BBB's standards for publication, or BBB may display a portion of complaints when a high volume is received for a particular business. ↩