Tennessee residents who have completed Chapter 13 bankruptcy should be aware that are lenders who are looking to take advantage of people who have previously filed for bankruptcy. One of the major signs that you may not be dealing with a reputable lender is that you are not asked in detail about your previous credit history. However, there are other ways to tell if a lender who does not have your best interests at heart is trying to entice you into signing a dishonest loan deal.
Many predatory lenders use confusion as a tactic. When you look at a contract from a dishonest lender, you might scratch your head at some of the provisions. According to U.S. News and World Report, malicious lenders tend to fudge contract details like the loan fees you have to pay, the length of the loan, the APR, any penalties you might incur, whether interest rates can be capped, and the possible changes the lender could make after you have signed the contract.
If your contract is too difficult to understand, someone at the lending outfit should be ready to answer your questions about the contract. However, a bad lender will intentionally make a contract vague so as to conceal important details that could harm the borrower. If no one is willing to talk to you or give you specifics, you might have a deceptive lender on your hands.
And then there are lenders who do not put their terms in writing at all, or they might make promises about putting terms in writing that never materialize. Dealing with lenders that try to promise things orally can be dangerous, since you have no written evidence of the terms they provide you. Once you have signed a deal, they could renege on whatever spoken promises they had previously given you.
If a prospective lender raises some red flags with you, Nerdwallet recommends that you check online to see if anyone has complained about the lender. People can investigate lenders at the Better Business Bureau to find out if parties have brought complaints against them. Additionally, the Federal Trade Commission puts out scam alerts that include notifying the public of disreputable financial lenders.