Acima Leasing = Debt. Need Help!

[LukeNaNa]

Hi everybody, I am new here but I figured this would be my best shot at getting some positive insight with this whole situation that I am currently dealing with.

I am not sure if anyone is familiar with ACIMA Leasing but essentially they offer "lease" payments on small ticket items (and in my case a set of wheels/tires) without the hassle of running your credit. It is quick and easy and this process can be completed in under 2 minutes. My only reason I did this was because I did not feel like going to the bank to grab $3700 and instead I did this Acima payment option. It was automatically processed and I received a credit limit of roughly $4000.

The agreement is over the span of three months and payment was almost 600/month and on the third month you could pay it in full. I paid the first two months and went ahead and wrote a check in March of this year to send off to their PO box. The interest free agreement ended on 4/05/21 and I never heard anything after that. The account that I had used to draft payments was a business account that I had no longer utilized so I never checked the statements for that account.

After some time, I received a call from an Acima Rep on 6/11/21 and tells me that if I want to pay off the remaining balance now, the payoff will be $6,000! If I were to continue through the whole payment plan, the total will come out to a little over $10,000. I asked to speak to another representative to settle this matter and she kindly told she would have someone call me. That of course never occurred and I never had any luck with them answering the phone.

Come 8/06/21, I received the check back in the mail that I had originally sent which at the time was roughly $2000. I proceeded to write a well thought out email to Acima to resolve this issue once more. Forwarded an automatic message and requested that I call them for assistance at which point I had no luck. Went to the chat bot where a rep was not in the least bit understanding and came to no agreement where she conveyed that I will either have to payoff or continue with the 12-month payment.

So to my point, can they legally enforce this on me in any way, shape, or form? I feel this practice should be highly illegal given the circumstances and Usury Law. At this point, the interest over the course of 12 months is over 200%. Currently, the total amount I have paid is $2681.55 + tax. Early Purchase amount is $4,880.89 + tax not including the amount I have already paid. Remaining total is $6,842.24 + tax(also not including the amount I have already paid) over 12 months. That is literally 255%. I just really want this to get solved and could really use some input with someone who is more familiar with this.

At this current point, I just want to send the remaining $1000 or so, close my bank account information and let a lawyer handle the rest if need be. This has become a huge headache as I sold the wheels/tires with the car and do not want to shell out $8000 on an item that cost me $3700 originally. I failed to look at the Better Business Bureau where I have learned this is a very common trend for other people like myself. Only argument that I could see is that "its a lease not financing" but the dealer that I bought my setup from failed to mention anything about this shady company screwing people out of hard earned money and said it was financing. So lesson learned, just pay cash or card!

I am in Louisiana and Usury Law, highest legal interest rate is 12% and I do not see how a company can ethically get away with this considering the circumstances.  

[WhoCares1000]

And this is why I never believe 90 Days same as cash deals. There are numerous things that can mess that up.

First off, the company is in Utah and they probably put in the contract that Utah law prevails. They probably put a provision in the contract about that. Utah does not have a per se usury limit but they do have a unconscionability provision. That probably will not help you hear because it looks like the company considers these payday type loans with interest rates to match.

In this case though, I would send a letter to the company (their address is with the BBB) stating the facts and offer $1500 to pay the account off in full. They have probably already ruined your credit report to if they don't accept, refuse to pay them and force them in court to justify this to a judge. Make sure to keep the check and payment stub that you sent in March and they sent 5 months later to show their bad dealing.

You can also make a complaint to the BBB. They seem to respond to those very fast from what I can see.