Money Mutual Scam

Well it looks like the folks over at Westernsky.com aren't the only predatory lenders around. (As if we thought there weren't other predatory lenders.) Today we turn our attention to money mutual. Many wonder if this is a scam. Money Mutual is being hocked quite heavily these days by Montel Williams. He encourages people to apply that most everyone will be approved, however I've seen people apply via the website (with social security number) and be told within 2 seconds that they are not approved. I personally think this is a bait and switch because it appears the information is passed along to "other lenders" to see if you qualify for THEIR loans. The front company Money Mutual probably gets a commission from the "other companies". That way they probably don't have to spend anything but advertising money and a website.... they don't have to loan a thing. (Partly why I think Money Mutual is a scam.)

Bad Credit - no problem is what they say... but here is another example of one persons experience...

One person has complained that they applied for a money mutual payday loan and then started receiving all sorts of loan offers in email (up to 50 a day....) Also the text messages and phone calls started coming.... more loan offers from all sorts of places. The text and voice calls put this person over their limit for their data plan and gave extra charges and then the story get's stranger. They received prepaid credit cards that apparently drew fees of between 49 and 99 from their bank account. (Which caused an overdraft and they were ultimately out over 300 dollars.) It's unclear how much of that money mutual was responsible and how much the other companies may have been responsible for. I think this helps show it as the money mutual scam!

Another person claimed that after applying through Money Mutual for a loan for the holidays they had just under $40 withdrawn from their bank account. I feel like this helps seal the case that it is a scam!

In reading about all of these horror stories with the Money Mutual scam I saw one person that had worked at a bank with the following story about a customer that had applied for a loan with one of these places and had $120 deducted from their bank account every month. They expected that the loan was paid off and then were surprised the next month when the same $120 was taken out of the account. Upon inquiring.... the $120 was a "fee for renewing the loan".... in order for it to count against the loan and actually pay it off, the person was required to call in advance each month to let them know it should be counted as a payment.

The bottom line with all of these stories is that you need to be very careful with who you deal with and the terms you have to deal with. Many of these charge high interest rates and truly are not worth it even if you are in dire financial situation.

Just because they advertise on tv with a well known spokesperson does not mean they are an up front and above board business. Does not mean they will avoid hiding information in the fine print that they'll sell ALL of your information to who knows who.... so they can try to sell you stuff/push a loan/rip you off....

You've got to be careful.

Here's another account of a scam like experience with money mutual...

This person suggests that they will loan 1000 and then the following week will withdraw a fee of $195 from your bank account as an interest charge. I suspect they're doing it weekly - so in four weeks that's close to $800. It is a trap.

There ought to be a law.... there are many laws that some of these companies may run afoul of, but in order to be stopped, the law has to be broken first. If they're working within grey areas of the law AND YOU AGREE TO A CONTRACT it is YOUR responsibility.

In reading the details on their site. They claim that you can get up to $1000 and you can repay when you're ready to. They will only take the minimum monthly payment/fees from your account, then when you're ready to pay you call your agent and tell them you're ready to pay in full and they take the full payment plus fees from your bank account. The real catch is their fees are not listed on the website (they VARY BASED on your QUALIFICATIONS...) Nice wiggle room there.

It's also funny to note that they have a warning about imposter sites that sell your information to other lenders and claim that they do not sell your information "outside of their network". (We don't sell information to any lender that we don't sell to....)

Here is the disclaimer at the footer of their pages...

THE OPERATOR OF THIS WEBSITE IS NOT A LENDER, does not broker loans to lenders and does not make short term cash loans or credit decisions. This Website does not constitute an offer or solicitation to lend. This site will submit the information you provide to a lender. Providing your information on this Website does not guarantee that you will be approved for a short term cash loan. The operator of this Website is not an agent, representative or broker of any lender and does not endorse or charge you for any service or product. Not all lenders can provide up to $1,000. Cash transfer times may vary between lenders and may depend on your individual financial institution. In some circumstances faxing may be required. This service is not available in all states, and the states serviced by this Website may change from time to time and without notice. For details, questions or concerns regarding your short term cash loan, please contact your lender directly. Short term cash loans are meant to provide you with short term financing to solve immediate cash needs and should not be considered a long term solution. Residents of some states may not be eligible for a short term cash loan based upon lender requirements.

Be careful out there and watch out for scams like these.... they are going to be more pain and agony than they're worth. Build up a cash reserve of your own for emergencies gradually and keep paying your way out of debt. "Deals" like this will only make your debt situation worse and take longer to clean up. Watch out for money mutual it looks like a scam!