Newsroom

September 26, 2016

TitleMax parent company to pay $9M over loan practices

The parent company of TitleMax, TMX Finance LLC, will pay a $9 million penalty assessed Monday by the CFPB for luring consumers into costly loan renewals with misinformation about the loan's terms and costs.

CFPB also alleges that the lender used unfair debt collection practices that illegally exposed debt information to borrowers' employees, friends and family.

TMX Finance, based in Savannah, Ga., has more than 1,300 storefronts in 18 states, making it one of the country's largest auto title lenders. The company has a host of subsidiaries under the names of TitleMax, TitleBucks and InstaLoan. To qualify for these kinds of loans, consumers must bring in a lien-free vehicle and its title as collateral. Most loans are usually due in 30 days with some carrying an annual percentage rate of up to 300 percent, the bureau noted.

CFPB said that employees of TMX Finance, as part of the sales pitch for 30-day loans, would offer consumers a "monthly option" for making loan payments and then offer them a "voluntary payback guide" that showed them how to repay the loan with small payments over a longer period of time. CFPB said the sales pitch and guide did not accurately explain the full cost of the loan if the consumer renewed it.

TMX employees also illegally exposed consumers' personal information when they visited their homes, references and places of employment when trying to collect debt, CFPB said.

The bureau actions against TMX Finance address the period from July 21, 2011, through present day.