RALEIGH, N.C. (Legal Newsline) — North Carolina Attorney General Roy Cooper has announced a car title lender that does business as Autoloans, Car Loan, Sovereign Lending Solutions and Title Loan America has been banned from making loans in the state.
“Families who need a little extra money to deal with an illness or a layoff deserve a fair loan, not a ripoff,” Cooper said. “North Carolina has long made illegal these expensive loans with excessive interest rates, and my office is here to enforce the law for consumers.”
The defendants in the case allegedly charged consumers in the state with average interest rates on title loans of 257 percent on loans of $1,000 to $2,500. Title loans are small loans secured by using a car title. State law caps interest rates on loans like this at 30 percent for licensed lenders and 16 percent for unlicensed lenders like the defendants.
While the lawsuit is under way, the defendants cannot make or collect loans, repossess, sell or place liens on cars, destroy records, or spend or transfer money. Cooper seeks to gain refunds for state consumers to go along with a permanent ban on the business.