Category finances

Remember my mentioning Advance America last month?

Well, here’s a little more direct about their usury: Advance America’s 10-K for FY2006

Highlights:

· Just over $4 billion in loans in 2006.
· Average payday cash advance was $353.
· Average loan length was 16.2 days.
· Average fees paid was $55. (Yes, that’s ~15% over the course of two weeks.)
· Average principle amount outstanding on loans during the period: $448
· Average principle amount of installment loan: $486
· Average charge to customer for originating and processing installment loan: $357
· 2853 locations across the US,
· “Our business is seasonal due to the impact of fluctuating demand for advances and fluctuating collection rates throughout the year. Demand has historically been highest in the third and fourth quarters of each year, corresponding to the back-to-school and holiday seasons, and lowest in the first quarter of each year, corresponding to our customers’ receipt of income tax refunds.”
· Net income: $70.15 million
· Total fees and interest charged to customers: $659.9 million

Advance America on Opdyke in Auburn Hills, MI

Today I had to go pick up a MoneyGram sent by a friend overseas. Near work I pretty much had three choices: Walmart, Advance America, or any number of gas stations and tobacco shops. Not wanting to walk out of a gas station or tobacco shop with a couple hundred dollars in my pocket, and not wanting to give Walmart any business (I presume they get a slight fee for MoneyGram transactions) I opted to go to the local loan shark, Advance America.

To start, if you don’t know about these places, take a look at Advance America’s Michigan Fee Schedule (PDF) for people who are taking out loans. It ranges from 332.19% APR on a $600 loan to 402.80% APR on a $100 loan. These places are just insane! Or, should I say that using such places is insane. Those fees are absolutely abusive. I’m really surprised it isn’t illegal. Thankfully I have no need to, and wasn’t getting, a loan from there.

Also, I really think (particularly being near Pontiac) that they regularly only see people getting loans, because the woman working behind the counter had no idea how to receive a MoneyGram. While coughing with what she said was a case of “walking pneumonia” she made a total of three calls asking people at other offices how to handle the transaction.

After about 20 minutes she had things sorted out, and I was to receive the money. I’m not sure if this is a special case for Advance America, but I was issued one money order for $100, and a second for the remaining balance. The first money order was then cashed in the office, while I had to take the other with me. As I was going to the bank to deposit everything immediately anyway this wasn’t much of a problem, but it still struck me as a bit odd.

Maybe I should have gone to Walmart instead, but at least now things are sorted out and the monies have been deposited into my account. Yay!

So, I think I’ve been an unwilling participant in some sort of fraudulent eBay activity, and I’ve strangely actually benefited. I think.

First I’ll just give you a timeline of things:

– Back on September 4th I listed my Sequentix P3 for auction on eBay under auction number 290157675079. This auction went well, eventually being sold for US1805.00
– Payment was received from the buyer via PayPal from a verified account and the address matched the one sent to me from eBay, so everything looked good. I withdrew the money from PayPal and everything seemed fine.
– The P3 was sent via UPS tracking number 1ZT915V20390002211.
– Package was received, seller let me know, mutual feedback was exchanged, everything seemed good.
– Suddenly, on 29-Sep-2007 I received a note from eBay stating that:

Dear c0nsumer (c0nsumer@nuxx.net),

The results of the following listing(s) have been cancelled due to bidding activity that took place without the account owner’s authorization:

290157675079 Sequentix P3 Analogue Sequencer w/ MemX (Analog)

We have cancelled the listing(s) to maintain the integrity of the eBay site, your account, and the bidder’s account that was accessed. We are working to restore the bidding account to its rightful owner, and we are working with the account owner to prevent any additional unauthorized activity. Since the account owner did not initiate these bids, all fees resulting from the listings in question will be credited to your account within 7 days. If you do not see the credits posted to your account after 7 days, please feel free to contact us through ?Contact Us? in our Help section.

At this point the fees for the Sequentix P3 auction were refunded to my eBay account, so I now have a balance of -$46.03. The auction itself is gone, and the buyer’s account seemed to be deleted. However, the positive feedback was still reflected on my account

– Suddenly on 02-Oct-2007 I see a new auction up on eBay, 270172361341, which is for a Sequentix P3, using a copy and paste of my auction description along with some of my photos. The seller was from California and the account was brand new. (Listing day creation, zero feedback.)

– A few days later I check again and the seemingly fraudulent new P3 auction has been pulled, and the account for the user who originally bought my P3 is activated again.

So, I’m not really sure what was going on. I’ve heard nothing about disputed payments or non-received items, so everything seems good from my end. At first I thought that maybe the person who bought the P3 from me was actually some sort of eBay scamming middleperson, and then it was being resold for a hopeful profit. She didn’t really fit the profile of someone who’d normally buy a high-end sequencer. (Fourty-something real estate salesperson from rural New York with no eBay history of buying other musical instruments.)

But, maybe she was just buying it for someone else.

I’m just not sure what’s going on here… I guess there’s also the chance that she legitimately bought the P3, her account was stolen, some previous auctions were canceled, including the one from me.

On the upside I’ve now got a $40-some credit with eBay. It’s too bad that I can’t actually recover that credit back to PayPal.