I applied for a loan on OpenPayDay and was told that I would be connected to a lender. However, instead I was sent to a page on Financeify which says, "Hi XXXX, your Personal Loan is almost done!". Below that is a form to enter my credit card details along with the caption, "We use Debit or Credit card to verify your identity." It also shows a progress indicator 2/2 steps completed as well as a button at the bottom of the page "Get Approved Now" to submit the form.Between the headline, the caption, the status indicator, and the submit button, any reasonable person would conclude that this identity verification is the final step for a loan application.However, it turns out that Financeify has nothing to do with with the loan application process, despite what the checkout page suggests. Instead of getting approved for a loan (as the submit button suggests), customers are conned into signing up for Financeify's budget planning guides and money-saving tips. Such deceptive marketing tactics, including misrepresenting the services offered, is a violation of state and federal consumer protection laws.Financeify, of course, denies that they are misleading customers, asserting that the services offered, including any fees, are adequately described at the time of purchase. However, U.S. courts have held that payment terms for online services must be clearly and conspicuously disclosed during checkout. Using bold headlines to describe a service that contradicts the fine print agreement is illegal.A company cannot insinuate that identity verification is necessary for a loan application, only to describe the service in tiny print as instead being a monthly membership for financial planning guides. That constitutes consumer fraud.Reference the 2022 class action lawsuit "Quamina et al. v. JustAnswer LLC" for a similar example.Edit: Financeify responsds: "Our website clearly describes the service we offer, the initial one dollar trial period and subscription costs thereafter. All customers must positively agree to these through a series of tick boxes prior to their application being accepted and processed."If it were so clearly described on the website, there wouldn't be so many 1-star reviews on TrustPilot from people claiming they were misled and deceived about applying for a loan. This company feigns that they want to engage with customers while being completely oblivious to the concerns of customers.Add to the fact, I did not see a series of tickboxes on the payment page. So perhaps the company doesn't know how their own website works, which wouldn't be surprising at this point.
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