A Predator Worse than Legalized Loan Shark Payday Lenders?

SoLo Funds Offers Loans at Rates in Excess of 1000%!

A new report offers alarming details about a new competitor in the payday predator market. It appears SoLo Funds is offering peer-to-peer or “community” lending with rates in excess of 1000%. This would make the loans more than double the cost of payday loans — which can carry interest rates of up to 460%.

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According to Fintech Business Weekly,

SoLo positions the loans it is brokering as the “most affordable loans in the market,” claiming they carry 0% interest and no finance charge — just a “lender appreciation tip” and optional donation to SoLo itself.

However, a careful analysis of loans available on the site indicates:

Loan requests visible on that platform, if calculated on an APR basis, would carry rates reaching as high as 2,555%, owing to the option to borrow for periods of time as short as 3 days — a loan term that is generally not permitted, even in states that allow payday loans.

The report also indicates there are a number of other reasons consumers should beware of SoLo Funds:

• SoLo claims it is not a lender, and does not hold state lending licenses; the individual people funding loans on SoLo’s platform also do not hold lending licenses…