Money Mutual Scam

We have all seen the Money Mutual commercials by now, with Montel’s cheesy grin reassuring us that everything will be puppies and rainbows if we just apply for a loan, hopefully to obtain some quick cash for those budget emergencies we have all had at one time or another. Unfortunately, desperation can be the mother of bad judgment for many of us, and so we fail to see the Money Mutual scam machine in operation before it ensnares us. I am a firm believer that nothing causes people to lose their heads quicker than a celebrity endorsement, and I know that I’m telling the truth with this one. I mean, doesn’t Montel seem so inviting and convincing? We all know the dialogue—“That big medical bill? Paid. The car? Fixed.” On and on and on. Please hear me out, people—all that glitters is not gold, and that’s especially true in any kind of case where people are supposedly eager to give you quick cash. We all know that payday lending has absolutely exploded in the past 5 years, and even more so now that the economy is in the crapper to an unprecedented degree. Many people are finding out that they have WAY more month than money, so they’re in need of some quick cash just to tie them over until they can get to their next payday. This vicious paycheck-to-paycheck cycle is a very harsh reality for many people, and unfortunately, if they get caught up in the “money till payday” lending machine, they actually end up living from payday-loan-to-payday-loan. There’s really no excuse for the type of predatory lending practices that these people use, and in my mind it is nothing less than loan sharking, except I actually think that even the Mafia would be ashamed to charge some of the rates I see from these types of payday loan companies. Now Money Mutual is quick to tell you on their website that they are “not a lender, does not broker loans to lenders, and does not make short-term cash loans or credit decisions.” True indeed; they’re actually in the business of lead generation, and they’re basically brokering leads to different payday lenders so that they can inundate you with phone calls, emails, and other payday loan solicitations from now until kingdom come.

I have done some homework on Money Mutual, and I’ve read several message boards of people who have been sucked into this flimsy outfit, and the bottom line is, they basically take your personal information and spread it far and wide to every payday lender under the sun, with absolutely NO guarantee of approval from any lender. Yup, that’s right, they have a disclaimer that there is no guarantee that Money Mutual will be able to match you with ANY lender, and this is AFTER you’ve given them very personal information, such as your Social Security number and driver’s license number. One time when I was in a VERY tight financial spot, I had a similar experience (not with Money Mutual, but with another company just like it), where I applied online, filled out all the information, jumped through all the hoops, and at the end of the day, they said that they do not lend to anyone in my state. Gee, thanks…could’ve used that information BEFORE I gave you my Social Security number AND driver’s license number AND all of my personal contact information. So again, there’s no real mystery to what’s going on with Money Mutual—they used a well-known celebrity to generate trust in the viewer, and they’re basically taking your information and selling it as a “lead” or a “qualified prospect” to a huge list of payday lending companies, so that you can be eternally spammed to high heavens with offers for payday loans. So while calling it the “Money Mutual scam” may sound a little harsh, and while the actual process of what they’re doing is technically legal, it sure as heck ain’t very ethical.